The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-18
State Utilities Commission Re-
ceiVes Unique Complaint.
Charge Santa Fe Is Using En-
gineS Without COWcatchers.
CAN'T CLIMB SNOW DRIFTS
And All Because Locomotives
Lack This Equipment.
No Trains Since March Be-
cause of Oversight.

The Santa Fe may run de luxe
train from Chicago to the coast that Is
the acme of modern perfection from
engine pilot to tail lights, and it may
use Mallet engines weighing million
pounds OF less on its mountain dIyis-
branch that runs through Hodgenan
county, Kan, it uses engines without
''cowcatchers.'' Anyway, a. Slook, "a
citizen of Hanston, Hodgeman county,
affirms that to be the case in his let
ter OF complaint to the state utilities
commission.
The Hon. SIook is sore. He is also
indignant. He gives the big railroad
company little free advice that might
be of benefit to it's branch line through
Hodgeman county.
According to the Slook letter the
Santa Fe has had no trains through
Hanston since March 8. land all be-
cause of a few little snowdrifts of
light snow" Slook claims that these
snoWdriftS would offer no impeachment
at all to train service if the railroad
company would send an engine up there
with a kowketcher on it," He goes
into some detail to gives a descrip-
ton of the cross between a traction en-
CINE and a sewing machine that the
Santa Fe uses to pull the Hodgeman
limited through the snow This engine
has a boiler and smokestack and L
relationship to an engine ceases and is
forever void. 1t is chopped off in front
like a biscuit box and moves through
the snow about like piano on bob
tailed truck.
After emptying the cup of his lam
entationS about the engine without
the cowca tcher, Hon. Slook goes on
to tell with enthusiasm how easy II
would be for an engine with "kow-
ketcher' to get through the snow and
fTai fn mr. hafWaRn
terminals. AS Slook tells it one can
see that old sausage mill rejuvenated
and rehabilitated, adorned and made
whole again go through the drifts like
an x-ray through a cheese.
According to the Slook narrative
the Santa Fee need not expect to get
train moving in Hodgeman county be-
fore May unless they put a cowcatcher
the Santa Fe should make such
blunder AS we'll have a car without
wheels a telegraph instrument without
wire, a roundhouse without a pit.
track without ties. a train without
couplings as to have an engine with
out an appendage in front to clear
away the snow and brush the tramps
and cattle from the right of way
Will Be Investigated.
The utilities commission will at once
investigate this matter. The members
may go to Hanston to find this shorn
and degraded engine and have it
Frank FARRELL, the Santa Fe pub
licity agent, is a wizard with words
and explanations and balm of Gilead,
but he may have to spend a week at
Hanston to convince the Santa Fe
clientele there that his road was ever
any relation to a respectable standard
gauge trunk line. Slook intimates
that he and his neighbors are under
the impression that the Hodgeman
flyer with the cook stove front is the
best engine on the system. farrell
has a work to do. And the Santa Fe
had better get busy if it wants its
Hodgeman line to ever pay any divi-
dendS