The Dickinson press., 1916-10-07
LOSTFRE|CHT CARS
Tracing Them Is Often a Hard
Job For the Railroads.
HIDE AWAY LIKE CRIMINALS.

.
Ono Of These Runaways, That Holds
the Truancy Record, Was Visiting
Around For Two Years and Had Been
In Nearly All Of Our Big Cities.
At times when the scarcity of freight
cars causes the railroads to place an
embargo upon certain classes Of goods
the problem Of keeping track Of its
cars to see that they do not run away
and become wanderers upon the face
of the earth is q s%tupendous n for
each company.
Before the National Association Of
Car Accountants was formed and
there was no close traffic arrangement
between the various railroad systems
respecting the control Of freight cars
1t was a common thing for some err
ratio unit to travel ten OF fifteen thou.
sand miles before it returned to its
starting point. There is the record Of
n runaway car that was away from
home for nearly two years. and in that
time it Travelled a tri1e over 10000
miles, visiting nearly all the principal
cities Of the United States.
In all that time a car tracer from
the company which owned it was Oh
its track, but it eluded him constantly
until it was finally run down and sent
back home from a remote region III
Texas. When it left the home sheds
it was a bright new car; when it re-
turned it was battered and old-so
travel stained that its W maker
could hardly recognize it. 1t holds the
prize record for truancy among freight
cars.
Traffic conditions have been greatly
improved since those days, and rail-
way companies OBTAINING a a belong.
ing to another company are penalized
by q fine. The agreement is that when
a car is received from another railroad
it shall be Immediately unloaded and
returned to its owner. But in time Of
a general car famine not all Of the
railroads obey this rule. Because there
is more profit in using the car, even
though a daily fine is exacted for its
unlawful detention, some railways
keep it for weeks or even months for
its own traffic, returning it only after
the congestion has lessened. The
small connecting railroads are often
the greatest offenders in this respect
in times such as the present, when
traffic congestion is more than usually
abnormal.
When a freight car is built it is CIV
en- a number before it leaves the shop.
and thereafter it is always known by
that number until it Is worn out and
strapped. When a new car receives
it's number and starts out upon its
business career it is entered in the
record book. and q careful account OF
its ~wanderings and earning powers is
kept there. This record book is a his
tory Of the car. and by consulting it
one can learn how many trips it has
made. what cities it has visited. how
many times it has been to the repair
shop and also where it is supposed to
be at any given time.
But in spite of all this care in keep
ing a record Of each car, now and then.
for some unexplained reason. Il dis
appears from sight, literally running
away. Some of the big companies en-
ploy car tracers. but as a rule a print
ed tracer is first sent after the car to
bring it back home. This printed trac-
er, in a blue envelope. is sent to the
person in whose Jurisdiction the car
was last supposed to be. and if it has
passed out Of his district the tracer
is sent on to the next one to whom the
car was consigned. This little printed
tracer failing to bring the car home in
a reasonable length of time a man
known as a tracer is sent after it. The
tracer is really a railroad car detective.
And sometimes it is more difficult to
track a runaway freight car than a
criminal. There are tens Of thousands
of miles of railways and hundreds of
thousands of freight cars. and to find
one carrying a certain number Is often
like hunting for the needle in the hay
stack. The tracer may arrive in a
city where the runaway is supposed
to be at the very moment when the car
10 ACoNAAS III Luc OppOoAtS ullSSIAOu'
1t may cross his track on q parallel
line or dodge around him on a short
line. 1t may be headed south while he
Is travelling north or rolling merrily
toward the Pacific while he is going to-
ward the Atlantic.
A runaway a apparently is as de-
PRAYED as any criminal. It hides or a
lonely siding or gets lost in a short
swamp line. One such runaway rest
ed nearly a year on a siding in south.
ern Texas simply because it got lost.
and no n seemed to know just what
to do with it. In the course Of time it
was occupied by a family Of squatters,
who lived quite comfortably In it for
six months and were routed out only
when, quite by accident, the car tracer
discovered ~it.-Popular Mechanics.
HsIhon& >nl Ds,neh