Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1911-04-08
ON THE RAILS.
Prospect of Good Business On the
Roads When Summer Comes.


Roads When Summer Comes.
Railroads the country over are dc
ing a good business as "a rule but in
spite of this it Is a favorite cry among
railroad men that things are slow and
the men are not making much time,
that they are cutting the force and
laying long at terminals.
This is hardly true as the men will
see themselves if they look into the
matter properly They forget that the
railroads are growing the same as
thedr children at home are growing
Slow but sure
There was a time when an engine
would only haul half the cars that
they now haul and naturally they had
to use two crews to take the same
amount OF cars that one crew takes
row
Every once in a while there comes
a boom in business en- the railroads
such as they had during last fall and
Part of the winter. At these times a
great number of extra men arc EN-
ployed to take care of business, the
reserve engines that have been laying
back with "a coat of lead and many en-
gipes that were not used because they
were hardly servicable were brought
forth into the every day traffic move
ment- When 1t goes back to the nor
NAL condition as 1t now is it should be
supposed that a great number of these
extra men will be pulled eff the lists
just as well as they should have been
hired when business doomed. 1t is
generally these men that give the i'm
gression that railroadi1g dull while
all of the regular men are getting in
good time
AS has been said above the rail
roads are growing with the times and
business and the natural growth keeps
up in such manner that they don't
necessarily need any more men to
handle the machinery than have al
ready been handling it. But these
men that we might call regular rail
readers get ia just as good time as
they always did
The cars that material is hauled in
have also grown with the times. For
instance we will take a train laying
in a siding and walk down its length
taking the regular steps always taken
when walking Passing the first car
which is an cid time wooden coke
rack you will find you took eight
uto vt iS- -tA
rack or battleship and it takes from
ten 10 twelve steps and the third is a
steel gcndola that takes from twelve
to fourteen steps TO pass.
They used TO haul forty of the
eight step variety in a train but now
one OF the big forty hundreds on the
Baltimore and Ohio tugs a train OF
the fourteen step kind mp and down
grades over the First, Second and
Third Divisions.
The growth of railroads reminds
one of the bursting of am overly ilfiat-
cd balloon it grows so big that it has
to have more room and more tracks
are being built to handle the traffic.
The extra list will swell again as
soon as things get to moving about
the lakas aad summer is on us and
this fall there win be plenty of work
on the railroads for men in every de
partment.
The excursion business will be here
soon and this win help to keep the
trains ON this single and double track
systems tied up in the sidings while
the officials scheme to put in another
track for the next time when the same
thing will happen again and men will
drop off after the boom and complain
Of hard times as they have done and
are doing now
All In all railroading IS very bright
and win continue that way with great
encouragement for another boom in
the near future.