The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-08-28
Railroads Bore Brunt During Fuel Shortage
 1873 Per Cent Increase in Number of
 GoIIons of Oil Transported; New Haven Rood PIoyed Biz Role in N. E. States

ing" in New England during the war years is brought to mind by re- cent cancellation of "ODT Order No. q" which had placed severe re- strictions on the use of oil tank cars in order to extract from them maximum service in the transpor- tation of this precious fiuid. New England,s 'all-important war indus tries were kept functioning to keep the stream of munitions and sup plies flowing across to Europe, and homes were kept warm (within ra- tioning limits, to be sure) because the railroads were able to jump into the breech and haul oil by rail when Nazi U-boats drove ocean going oil tankers from the Atlantic seaboard.
 From nominal 10,1S6 cars uf oil received by the New Haven Rail- road in 1941, carrying 8l. .488,00O gall Ions, these oil car handlings sky rocketed to 17O,46O cars received in 1943, carrying approximately l,363.- 680, 900 gallons -an increase Of l57S per centl And it should be remern- bered that this huge job was super imposed upon an already stupend- ous job of handling swollen war traffic both freight and passenger.
 Principal Factor
 one of the principal factors in this astounding performance was something so unspectacular that 1t never would catch 8 newspaper headline. It was an ingenious su- pervisory and clearical job which was performed in the New Haven Railroads car service department at New Haven--a statistical car-by- car control by which the roads ofi- cials were able to know at any hour the position of every oil tank car shutting back and forth to New England. By use of this highly efh-
 cient control system, the slightest delay on the part of anybody, from the loading point, enroute on other
 railroads and on the New Haven, to the unloading point, was bounced upon immediately, and prompt steps taken to eliminate the cause.
 This system, backing up the oDT order which provided that oil tank cars must be moved in solid train loads from the originating points
 to key distribution points, resulted in the highballing of oil over the
 steel rails as no freight had ever
 been highballed before. And the
 job which in peace times had been
 performed by some three hundred
 ocean-g going tankers was taken over cold by the railroads, with just the
 equipment they already had on
 hand.
 How did they do it with no addi- tional equipment? First, by keeping that equipment continually on the
 move. Secondly, by insisting on im-
 mediate loading and unloading-in lother words, quick turn-around | And thirdly, by ODT Order No.
 which prohibited the use of oil tank
 cars for shipments less than 2Ot
 miles in distance. In pre-war days
 when the oil moved by water. tanl cars were used to move 1t from sea-
 board to points inland.
 if Important Task
 The New Haven Railroads par of the task was more important than that of most other roads par ticipating. Being at one end of the haul, the New Haven, as compared to roads which merely had the lns haul, had the much more compli'
 cated task of breaking these sohe
 trainloads down into smaller units distributing the cars to some 500 ol FOO different unloading points, a1t
 just as soon as they were unloaded . collecting them together immedi' ately so that they could be reas- . sembled into solid trains for hurry. . up movement back again to the o . fields and other shipping points. , It was here that the New Ha' yen's statistical control system , worked wonders. This remarkabl, . efficient centralized control, backet , by the hard and unremitting worl , of thousands of employees out ol 5 the line, kept the oil moving. Ans } regardless of weather-heat or cold
 snowstorms or floods, or hurricane and regardless of the Nazi sub B marines-the New England lar y senal" was saved from 8 wartim breakdown through lack of fue 3 Here, denitely. was an example Q
 solid home-front backing of tn
 men at the fighting front.
 : Now ODT Order No. 2 is can ? celled. Oil tankers now can pi t the Atlantic coast unhampered. O. 3 tank cars probably will again D l relegated to their previous mipo ;. role in the oil transportation pic ture. But the whole New Have Railroad organization can look bac
 with pride to the part they playe
 in keeping New England's hom p a~na t&.n~xA{H0