Evening journal., 1914-08-22
New News Of Yesterday
The Man Who Establish
ed the Standard Gauge
ny HOLLAND.

The late John NJ. Toucey gas es-
teemed in his day worthy 20 rank
with the ablest practical railroad
operators in the United States Mr..
Toucey began his railroad service
under Commodore Vanderbilt when
the latter was perfec,ing his con-
solidation which became known as
the New York Central system. Mr.
Toucey was rapidly promoted until
he became generaI supeuntendent
remaining in that Office until by rea-
son OF his years he was retired, some
eight or nine years ago, upon
pension which carried his full salary
Mr.. Toucoy was familiar with the
4 great achievements of those who built
railroads and he had personal ac-
quaintance with all OF the leading
! railroad operators of the United
States. He knew the special achieve
ments which distinguished this or
that civil engineer or bridge builder
and was abletto tell many interesting
anecdotes about them.
remember q chat / had with Mr..
]
from actual service. a retirement, /
may say. incidentally. which was very
irksome 10 him. He had worked so
hard and so steadily all his life that
he did not know how to adapt him
self to leisure.
II think book ought to be writ
ten said he, about some Of the
work that was done by Octave
] Ia In
West even better than we do IN the
eastern part of the country. They
will never forget out there the Won
derful skill which he displayed when
he was called upon TO provide plans
for the construction of the bridge
over the Missouri River at Kansas
City.
But. TO my thinking. the cleverest
thing Chanute ever did was at the
time he was employed by the Erie
railroad. ] ought TO make little
explanation 10 you Of the physical
condition of the Erie Railroad, so
that you can understand better what
Chanute accomplished
when the Erie Railroad was built
It was thought to be absolutely
- necessary that the gauge should be
the distance between the rails. That
was well enough for a road which
operated short trains. but after traf-
hc began 10 be heavy It was discover
ed that If the Erie was to hold It's
own II would be compelled to alter
its gauge.
"But the question was how thai
was to be done Somebody proposed
Graf fhaN fh, o,rr nar,r- low fbfrt
rail Just at the distance from tn,
outer rail TO furnish the STANDARD
Il gauge which had been found to bl
p the best for American railways Thel
n actually did put down the third raj
for some distance, so that the car
operated by an Erie train were fire
! quently Of two gauges. There woulI
T be one car of the broad gauge ant
u then another of the standard gauge
I" That did not work. and Chanute wa
T" asked If he could devise a plan b,
which the gauge could be establishe
"a according to the standard without IN
tcrfering with traffic. He insiste
'c that in order to do so the Erie roa
p must be double tracked. The ne'
'e track would be built by the stand
ard gauge. When that was com
pleted they could reduce the oil
q track from the broad TO the standar
'' gauge. They told him TO 90 ahcaC
y and in a remarkably short time II
had double-tracked the Erie estat
oi lished a standard gauge on bot
tracks, and demonstrated that
ei reason of these changes il was pos
y sible to operate trains twice tn
% length of those which are operate
q on the old broad gauge.
'e "It was as fine a piece Of railroa
'h constructive work as / ever knew an
Ns it attracted a good deal of attentio
g. at the time. Standardizing the gaua
''s of the Erie Railroad made IL POI
sible to standarize both freight an
ls' passenger cars. so that now a ca
'i which is run on tracks of any raj
en- road the United States can run {
u the tracks OF all"