Crossville chronicle. [volume] (Crossville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-05-21
SOME ODD THINGS IN FhAnO,SS.
HOW Trains Are Equipped, About the
Small Cars and Other Things,

Through the courtesy of ATTORNEY J.
w. Cooper We are able to give our
, readers brief statement about French
railroads that we feel will interest
Chronicle readers. Mr.. Cooper says:
"When you go thru the Pennsylvania
Station in New York and board the
Memphis Special to take the last lap
of the journey from gay Paree' to
Gods country. you feel like you will
get more for your money than you do
when you go to the Care d. l. Est and
head up the Marne and you do, even
tho the trip up The Marne is a de-
/! Iightful one.
However, on that trip you have
lots of time to study the scenery and
see the destruction 'Jere' wrought in
his drive on the French capital. for
some times the French trains will
stand for an hour without any apparent
reason.
THE roads are all double tracked
and equipped with electric block sig
mails. The road beds were evidently
very fine before the war-they are good
now despite the fact that they have
stood all the traffic which could roll
over them for four years. And some
of these long freight trains were pull.
led by our own locomotives. which
weigh at least twice as much as the
ordinary French engine.
1.-The French engines are all equip
ped with air brakes and SO are most of
the passenger cars, but there is no.
such thing on their freieht cars. An
American engineer told n,~ tnat Wheh
the Frouvn made up traint hey put
all the American cars on the rear SO
that they would not have to connect
the air. Just what their aversion to
the use of air on freight trains is,
l can't say, but it is an unknown thing
on French freight trains.
"The french freight cars are much
smaller than ours. | think the largest
one | saw had a capacity of about IL
tons. They are only about Is to 20
feet long and run on four wheels.
They all have brakes on them. Some
of them have brake on the side,
which can only be set by a man ON the
ground, while others have brakes like
the hand brakes on our own cars. On
those which have the brakes like ours
is built little cupola on the erd of
the car IN wnicn the brakeman rides.
| saw one train which had seven brake
men on it. Dur soldiers VINO went
over there will never forget the
French freight car with its legend 40
Hommes Cheveaux, meaning that
the car was for the transportation of
10 men or eight horses. Not 40 men
and horses at the same time, tho
many times the horses had not been
)ut Of the cars very long before it
was boarded by the doUghhoy.
"ThPy have first, second and third
lass passenger cars. The first class
cars are nicely upholstered, divided in
to compartments which seat six pas
3enRers; the second class are not so
lcely finished ana each compartment
seats eight passengers and the third
lass cars are not upholstered at all,
)ut have only wooden benches for the
passengers, and as many are crowded
n as the car will hold. A seat in the
irst class compartment can be reserved
or the additional price of one franc,
bout 20 cents, but no reservation can
a m ar oil of ha ~ oIo
The French railroads as a whole
we're huge joke to our railroad engin-
ers, tho | imagine in peace times
hey are very efficient.