The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-07

The American Railway Express
company claims that it handles APP
proximately 100000 shipments per
day.
The total number Of railroad en-
pared with 1,S04,S22 in January; l.
676,54S in February; 1,593,068 in
March; 1.542,716 in April; 1,575,599
in May. and 1856, 143 in June.
Just forty years ago, according to
the current number of THE Santa Fe
Magazine" the name of Strong City,
Kan, was changed from Cottonwood
Station because that name confHcted
with Cottonwood Falls. The new
w. B. Strong, then general manager
of the Santa Fe.
Clay Center guardsmen. returning
from the Kansas coal fields, passed
thru Topeka, wednesday night. Ar
irving here on the Santa Fe, they were
turned over to the Rock Island. The
company travelled in three special cars.
The company's equipment, consisting
of three carloads. passed thru Topeka
the following day.
The safety first movement has been
instrumental in bringing about de-
cided improvement in hand lanterns
for trainmen and shopmen, that is d
lantern lighted by electricity instead
of oil. This eliminates all danger of
fire and explosions. AS there are
many dangerous places where oil
lights are a menace, this improvement
fills a long felt want in railway serv-
ice.
Upon being notified one day re-
Gently by a passenger arriving at New
ton on Santa Fe train No. that a
dead man had been seen lying near
the track, the superintendent ordered
the next train crew going in that di-
rection to be on the lookout. The
members Of the crew naturally became
sympathetic but froze up when the
dead man turned out to be a scare
crow.
The California railroad commission
has reaffirmed the decision of several
weeks ago directing that the South
ern Pacific. the Santa Fe and the Los
Angeles & Salt Lake railway take
steps toward the development of a
union terminal on the Plaza site in
Los Angeles The new report is the
result of a rehearing. and directs the
carriers to submit plans and estimates
for the project.
Isaiah Hale, safety superintendent
of the Santa Fe, returned to Topeka
Wednesday night after an absence of
about six weeks, during which time
he attended the company's loss and
damage meet at Oakland, Calf, af-
forwards speaking at Los Angeles dur
| ing a no "accident campaign" and
stopping off on his return at Salt Lake
| City to spend the holidays with rela-
tives. He was accompanied on the
! trip by Mrs Hale.
The Missouri & North Arkansas has
asked the United States labor board
| for permission to reduces wages Is
| per cent with the understanding that
at the end of one year, If there was
any surplus over operating expenses,
taxes and interest, it would be divid-
| ed among employees up to a scale ex-
isting on other roads, and as an alter
native, requests permission to operate
on an open shop basis at estimated
| saving of one-half of the 1920 pay
rolls.
A. D. Gray, assistant treasurer of
the Santa Fe, celebrated the fortieth
anniversary of his service with the
company on December 80. Gray came
to Kansas from Nova Scotia, in 1881,
and the same year entered the employ
of the Santa Fe as clerk in the office
of car accountant. Two years later
he was transferred to the treasury de-
in 1887 and cashier in 1906. In 1916
he was elected assistant treasurer
which position he still holds.
Statistics compiled by the interstate
commerce commission from monthly
reports of railway accidents for the
| second quarter of the year 1921 show
a substantial decrease in the number
| of casualties resulting from railway
operations as compared with the same
period of the previous year. The total
number of persons killed during the
| second quarter of 1921 in train acct
dents and train service accidents was
1,26S, which is 1873 less than in the
same period Of 1920. The number of
injured was 9,511, as compared with
1887.
A railroad official says that an
ordinary locomotive consumes a pound
| of fuel for every SO feet it travels.
Each unnecessary stop made with
heavy freight or passenger train rep
resents fuel loss of from 500 to 700
pounds of coal, depending upon the
weight or the train, the length of the
stop and the grade conditions. A
brakel1ne air leak on a train of fifty
| freight cars has been known to cause
! a loss of as much as 2,540 pounds of
| coal in 1O-hour period. The loss of
! coal each time a modern locomotive
pops off for five minutes is about rs
pounds.
| Work has been commenced upon an
| "aeroplane railway" which is to con
meet Petra Cava, $500 feet above sea
level, with Nice and Monaco, says the
South African Railways and Harbors
magazine. As in the case with an
aerial ropeway, the aeropIane will be
attached to a fixed line, and will be
unable to deviate from it, The lines
will consist of four cables attached to
supports, the height of which will
vary from fifteen to one hundred feet.
current will be supplied to the aero
plane engine by three of the cables.
| the fourth reserved for teIephonic
purposes. Trials will be made over n
distance Of six ldlometers where the
! gradient is steepest. The completed
line between Nice and Petra Cava will
oe forty kilometers, or about twenty,
five miles long.
NEW COAL CHUTE AT M'FARLAND