Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1913-08-14
Modern Railroad Methods.
Curtis Hidden Page.


to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad dur
ing the last three years in order to enable
the road to handle its growing traffic ef-
ficiently and economically, providing at
the same time the highest standard OF
service for the communities reached by
its lines. In reviewing the program OF
Improvements the publication analyzed
the betterments with respect to the econ
omy in the cost of handling tonnage
which has been effected by so large al
expenditure of capital.
The writer compared the science OF
railroading today with the transportation
problems OF past times and traced the
evolution OF the American railroads by
the changes which have come about on
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad during
the various epochs of its operation.
"When you see $4,000 worth OF live,
growing motive power pick up 1900
tons of West Virginia soft coal in $4,000
worth of modern steel equipment" says
The AnnaliSt, "wiggle it TO the summit
of the AllegheneS and roll il over the
top toward the Atlantic seaboard, you
begin TO perceive how largely mans
work consists in moving things from
where they are to where he needs them.
He needs his coal at Baltimore. Nature
left il in the mountains. Therefore, YOU
see the great Baltimore and Ohio locomo-
tives toiling with it up the western side
of the Alleghenies day and night, without
end or rest.
at is impressive. II gives you SEN
sation OF pride in the mechanical and en-
gineering skill of your country. Rail-
roading, you say, is wonderful busi-
ness. You feel, without thinking, that il
must have been going on like this for a
very long time, because it seems so well
established and that the means are now
highly perfected"
Continuing, The Annalist said in part
at is not so much question OF putting
coal down to seaboard at lower cost as
question OF putting il there at all in the
quantities required. When Daniel Will
lard became President of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad committee OF West
Virginia coal producers interviewed him.
| There was no limit to the amount OF coal
they could produce; neither was there
any limit to the ultimate demand for coal
in the East. But the limit Of the facill-
ties of the Baltimore and Ohio for lifting
il over the top of the Alleghenies and
rolling it down to seaboard have been
reached, and something would have to
be done. Mr.. Willard promised TO in
crease the coal hauling capacity OF the
railroad so per cent. He is doing it. In
three years, to increase the capacity OF
The B. & O., TO move things from where
they are to where they ought TO be, he
had spent SEC, 100000.
"When Thomas Swami, as President
of the Baltimore and Ohio that ran only
| from Baltimore to Cumberland, promised
his shareholders that he would carry their
road TO the Ohio River it seemed a tre-
mendous thing 10 promise. He did it.
That was heroic. Later John w. Gar
rett promised to take it to Chicago, and
did, and he is famous. Neither spent
one third as much as $50, 0,000, 900 in three
years. To say that one built the road
| from Cumberland to the Ohio River and
| that the other built it to Chicago is to
allocate to each an achievement in ply
scal proportions that everyone knows.
But to be able to say that between Little
Cacapon and Orleans Road Daniel Viii
lard eliminated per cent helper grade,
established a continuous eaStbound grade
OF only 0.l per cent and put four tracks
where there we're but two before-that
does not appeal irresistibly TO the imag-
inaton. Only an engineer can fully ap-
preciate it. That is now the biggest
piece OF improvement work doing on the
Baltimore and Ohio. II is known as the
Magnolia cutoff and will cost Sc, 900 900.
II extends over a distance OF II miles.
"In two years it will be finished, it will
have cost Sc, ,0O0,0 900 and the ruling grade
between Little Cacapon and Orleans
Road will average eastbound TO be 0.1
per cent, instead of 0.3 per cent. A
grade OF O.3 per cent is little less than
10 feet rise in mile; grade OF 0.1 is a
little over feet rise in the mile. The
difference is, say, l0-l-2 feet in a mile.
That is enough nearly TO double the load
a locomotive can pull, which means, OF
course, more cars in the coal train, and,
by reason OF four tracks where there
were two before, capacity OF more
trains, and that is matter then OF more
coal from West Virginia 10 the Atlantic
seaboard.
"You begin TO see the difference be-
tween the work OF a railroad man today
and thai OF the Swans and CARROTS.
They were intent upon pushing their
rails on TO new places the problem to-
day is to rebuild mileage on lower grades
and put down two, and three, and four
tracks where one was enough before.
They were for conquering distance; to-
day the work is intensive, and railroad
man dreams not of extending his line so
much as revising his grades, reducing
curvature and weighing his track with
good two-inch rock.
'It could not be otherwise. If the
men who built the railroads in the first
place had possessed the Imagination to
build them big enough for the future they
would not rave found the money; nor
could they have made it pay.
"Wherever a road has been built much