The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-06-28

more than the average Montgomerian
thinks 1t stretches on either side,
hedging In the railroads as they run
in and out, so that the traveller, as he
is aroused by the living throb. looks
out of realize that This is a city"
The city lays but little claim to dis
tinction as an Industrial center, and
yet there are Industrial plants here
which will stand credit to any city
of 10000 in the country; the products
Of these plants, in use throughout the
United States, bespeak Montgomery's
modesty in lack of self-praise along
manufacturing lines.
Its boilers drive engines along the
Great Lakes, and in Mexico; its rail-
road coaches scurry from New York to
California: it's iron and brass castings
are In use in every Southern State.
Surely there is predicate a-plenty for
Industrial glory.
One branch Of this industrial field is
that embodied In the machine shops,
boiler shops, foundries and structural
woodwork of all sorts in iron. There
are none of the great rolling mills such
as the Birmingham district claims. but
500 men and more find employment in
other iron work of Montgomery
plants-one family In every fifteen in
Montgomery secures a livelihood thus
in it's iron working plants, and Its rail-
road shops.
There is a variety of work done.
should the handle of your hat-iron
come awry, Montgomery workmen will
nix IT.; II the great fy-wheel. fifty feet
and more around, Is smashed, the en-
pioyes Of Montgomery's plants can re-
place It with another. And, like as
not, the original is the output of To-
cal industry.
Do you want a stand-pipe or
chimney, of rivieted plates and two
hundred feet high? No need to go
from Montgomery. Is there sky
scraper to be erected about an iron
skeleton The skeleton can be made
and erected in Montgomery.
The most extensive of the iron work
10 done in the railroad shops of the
city. Three railroads maintain round
houses and shops here, the Western,
the Atlantic Coast Line and the Louis
vile and Nashville Other railroads
patronize one or the other of the three
for running repairs.
The Western shops, situated at the
foot of North Perry Street, are the
most extensive in the city, and while
smaller than the main shops of some
other railroads, are probably among the
most complete as to outfit. in the
South.
And there is another claim to recog-
milton and distinction. 1t Is the neat
ness the tastefulness of the arrange
ment of the grounds and buildings. In
the front OF the shops, where there is
little smoke or cinders, where the car
shops. saw mill, machine shop, and
Blacksmith shop are placed in row,
with the office building facing them.
there IS none Of the uncleanliness
which almost invariably surrounds such
work.
There is a neat fence bordering in
the shops, and quantities of garden
neutrality-suspicious., banana plants, flow
ers and carefully kept trees. If your
hearing were suddenly dulled as you
faced the Western shops. ana you
heard none of the roar and the ham
7 inering OF machinery and men. you
/ would wonder II these were not the
buildings of some school or perhaps,
the exterior of garden.
Undoubtedly, the Western shops, in
handsome appearance. is without a ri
val among the Industrial plants of
Montgomery.
The Montgomery shops of the Wes-
tern are the main shops of the line,
comprising the Western of Alabama
and the Atlanta and West Point Rail-
roads. Three hundred and fifty to 400
men are employed in the shops. and
with the force, the railroad Is enabled /
TO accomplish practically every parti- /
Gle of its work. with the exception of
the initial construction of the engines, |
and OF the passenger coaches.
But when the locomotives and |
coaches are once purchased then they
are altogether In the hands of the |
workmen. They are repaired, the To- |
cOmotives in the round house and the |
coaches in the car department; built /.
over, some OF them, practically entire |
at times. An uph ols.ery department at |
tbs Western shops, where the plush |
seat cushions are made over, cleaned /
or rosaired, is evidence that not the |