Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-08-07
-URHLINGABY cOlIPREsSED AIR,

Rock Island, the Great Western, the Santa
re. the Northeastern. the Illlhois Central
and the Erie With such customers as
these the company's only need is for more
manufacturing space.
The bulk of the vast number of employees
who are at work in the yards find employ
ment in the mechanical department. The
machine shop uses 299 of this number and
1t is in this shop that the giant locomotives
arc repaired. In the blacksmith shop where
locomotive and car repairing is done and
supplies used in bridge and building con-
struction are manufactured. the number
employed is 1856. The boiler room cHims
1866 and there are fifty locomotive carpen-
tiers. The twenty-uine employees in the
power plant and the 1874 who are scattered
among the smaller departments, from six
to fourteen 10 a department, bring the total
number in the motive power department up
to So a
Forty-five men are employed in milling
the lumber which goes into the construc-
ton Of the cars, while 3ls are busy in the
coach shops This is the place where dam
aged coaches are rebuilt and repaired and
where the few wooden coaches now in pro-
cess Of construction are being ,built. In the
department for the repair OF freight cars
222 are employed. This makes total OK
5S5 empioyesin the car department.
The stores department, where the stores
for the system and for the local yards ara
handled, requires $50 men to keep things in
operation and the construction gang, which
is at present. at work upon the new mill,
includes about W. men, These, with the
employees of the McKeen Motor Car com
pany, bring the total number we'll ab.ve
200.
on entering the ground occupied by the
shops Of these companies, the visitor re-.
ceives the impression that he is. upon
the grounds of some fine private pleasure
institution rather than upon those OF
great machine shop. The ground on which
the building sits is either sodded and well
kept or nicely graveled and within the
buildings the same cleanliness is apparent
There are now eleven principal buildings
on the Union Pacific ground, while the
McKeen company occupies one two-story
building and has another in process OF
construction. This is 70 measure, l25x4OO
feet. and is to be used as a lumber MILL
piles are now being driven for 1t. The
company also contemplates the erection OF
new foundry building in the near future
which, when completed will give employ
ment to 100 or 500 additional men.
Many persons who attended the recent
reception looked about. and TO no avail
for the new buildings, whose completion
the reception was intended to, commemo-
rate And thereby hangs a tale. This
reception was planned over two years
ago as a sort OF coming out party for
the car shop and paint and wheel shop,
which had then just been completed and
for the machine shop and blacksmith
shop which then acknowledged but one
sUmmer Plans had been we'll matured
when, for some reason, the officers Of
the company dropped the proposition. and
the idea was not revived until a few weeks
ago at the instigation o; the employees. VINO
were loath to see their newest shops be-
come prosac workday structures with
out a taste of society life.
There was a social as well as a more
serious side to Saturdays reception. The
society which was present however. was
a most thoroughly cosmopolitan one. Many
of the guests appeared in automobiles. but
by far the greater number used the street
cars. The railroad shops were closed at
II O'Clock on the morning OF the reception
and the afternoon was a gala ono for the
1900 employees who, Tor once approached
the neighborhood OF the shops in sunday
best and in many cases. with the sunday
best girl, wife or mother
Here could be seen an interested group Of
relatives standing admiringly by while the
family workman demonstrated the inner
workings OF some giant machine which he
was wont TO operate when on duty. In
other places children plentifully equipped
!, with ice cream cones and sticky candy
were lingering the tools and machinery
| which II was their "daddy's" lot to WELD
when he Is not dressed up. A touch OF
/, the pathetic was lent by few feeble
E mothers who. Drawing the hot summer sun.
had come TO the grounds with a sturdy
: son 10 have pointed out TO them the place