Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-24
Ford Now Working for
Lighter Locomotives
Continued From Page One.)

his trips of inspection over the 454
miles traversed by his railroad acros:
the state of Ohio to the coal fields
of West Virginia.
He was not riding over the line
in his private car sending for di'
vision superintendent and other of.
ficials at each division point. He was
actually hiking along half the time
making real inspection of the prop.
erty he was undertaking to operate
He found a train at Napoleon, where
crews were feverishly at work pack.
ing oil waste about the axles.
In three minutes he had acquired
all the history OF railroad methods
in fabrication of car axles. He said
nothing but the next day upon his
return to Dearborn he dropped into
the engineering department with all
the general details for application Of
an oiling system to freight car axles
which will call for oiling every three
....=-
"Not only will 1t save the expense
of men to oil them but it will reduce
the friction and consequently the
pulling power necessary to get a
train over the road" he explained.
"And what is more, it is nothing
more than application of the general
principle of fabrication of automobile
axles."
Then the first time Presiden!
Ford of the D., T. & I. got down on
his hands and knees for close in
spection of the axle on freight
car he threw up his hands in holy
horror. On the spot he made the
prediction that in 10 years time the
"axle as big around as your head
would be a relic of so-called ante
deluvian railroading.
"We could take any one of these
engines or cars and melt it down and
make three out of it," he laughed al
the time and already he has made
good on that promise.
ut took only lew weeks of man
agement of the D., T. & l. to con-
vince the automobile manufacturer
tina. the railroads unbusinesslike
system of accounting constituted as
heavy a stone about the railroads
neck as their backwardness in en-
1t was on the business
end that he made the big Cleanup"
in the D., T. & l. as he found it.
Fired" Freight Solicitor.
The freight solicitor who carried
good cigars but no information
about when one cf his trains would
move was the first to go. Then he
moved on the clerical force, spend
ing thousands of dollars month in
a vain effort to keep track of the
amount of money the line was losing.
Legal departments, dealing chiefly
in long drawn out controversies over
damage claims, suffered under the
Ford reorganization. ........
Keep the cars moving" was the
only specific order he issued to the
new president of the road.
IF you cannot get the train over
the road on scheduled time with
one locomotive, pat on two was
another bit of railroad heresy he in
troduced, but it has put the road on
a paying basis for the first time in
its history.
No Sunday Trains.
Aside from the order placing ali
D. T. & I. employees under the Sc
a day minimum wage rule. first ap-
piled in the Ford factories, the Ford
innovation most interesting to the
old-time railroaders was the observ-
ance of the Sabbath order. And
what he has done to date towards
shutting down his railroad on Sun.
day is nothing to what is con-
templated.
Operation of a railroad on Sunday
is all nonsense, according to the
Ford idea. At present he is moving
only perishable goods and in the near
future he expects to have the traffic
moving in such fashion that from
Saturday night until Monday morn
ing not one single wheel will turn
on the d T. Il l. system.