The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-01-01

rebuild ruined ones, know the Seven
teen Mile Grade. Their allotment of
new and repaired wooden cars used to
be 10 week. Now it is 10. Assistant
Master Mechanic Hodges and the men
who rebuild the steel coal cars know
the grade. Mountains of stuff that
looks like scrapiron, but really coal
cars that must go back in service are
piled high up in the yards. They are
relics of wrecks on the hill, but the
Railroad Administration refuses to
admit that their usefulness is ended.
Heavy wooden beams, new rivets, a
bit of electric welding and few coats
of paint will bring them back.
Engine $685." the shop engine at
Keyser and the pet of the west end of
the Cumberland Division, knows the
Seventeen Mile Grade. Every day it
drags in from the track battered
trains of cars that lost their poise on
the steep hillside.
New Coal Records Made.
Yet somehow the coal and freight
and the passengers get over the noun
tain and down the hill Under the urg-
ings of the Railroad Administration
ant the caution of the Interstate Com
merce Commission the railroad men
have so buckled down to work that
they have recently beaten all records.
They have taken over the farsome job
of moving the nations coal down
there and have made game of it.
They are beating the game.
All the coal from those $50 Allie
gany coal mines must come through
Keyser by way of the Seventeen Mile
Grade. Keyser's records never showed
an average of more than 800 carloads
a day before June, 1919, but now they
show an average of 1000 carloads a
day, including Sunday and holidays. On
July Is the highest record was at
tanned when 1,409 carloads were taken
out of Grafton to Keyser. There were
more than 55 tons of coal to each car
and between go and 70 cars to train.
Getting the coal to the top of Seven
teen Mile Grade is problem in itself,
for toward the west between Grafton
and Altamont the tracks run up and
down over mountainlike roller-coaster
tracks in pleasure park. There is
the Cheat River Grade to conquer and
| the Cranberry Grade; again and again
there faces the railroader the job of
showing 1000 tons of coal or freight
up hill and then holding it in check
while it goes down the other side. But
the Seventeen-Mile Grade is the king
of them ALL
Six Control 7O-Car Train.
Having secured a pass to ride on
locomotives by dint of having formally
and legally released the Director
General of Railroads from all respon-
sibility for my death, rode down the
grade recently. The train was extra
east 1907. 1t consisted of a string of
70 loads, and the engine was a big
Mallett weighing in the neigborhood
Of $40, 900 pounds. The whole thing,
engine, train and all, weighed eight or
nine thousand tons-an avalanche of
steel, iron, wood and coal.
Seven atoms of humanity-seven
men-rode this monster down the hill
side. There were brakesmen-"hill
riders" the railroaders call them;
there were engineer, conductor and
fireman, respectively, and the seventh
was myself.
Extra east 1907 happened to be a
train braked by both hand and air.
That is to say, although it was equip
ped with airbrakes, the cld-fashioned
hand brakes We're used too, for air.
brakes are delicate things and some
times get out of order. They are re-
liable enough for most uses-they can
stop train going at 60 miles an hour
within 1,400 feet of depot-but the
Seventeen-Mile Grade is another mat
ter.
Trying to Conquer Grade.
In the morning and at night two
trains come down the grade held back
by airbrake power alone. They are