Evening star., 1947-01-13

it?) freight trains nearly drove me
crazy.
To start with, have you ever seen
anything much uglier than a freight
train? They don't have graceful
line among a carload of 'em. They're
all painted the dingiest, dirtiest,
most dismal old colors, and good
half of them sway and sag and
threaten to fall apart.
Everything they ever carried is
spattered around the doors and on
the outside of them. If they once
carried lime, lime is chnging to 'em
somewhere. If they ever carried
chicken feed. the chicken feed Is
clinging to the lime If they ever
carried noboes, the hoboes are cling
ing to the chicken feed that is
clinging to the lime.
The names of the lines which
own freight cars are SO blotted out
by the years and weather that it Is
hard to figure out which line owns
the worst looking ones-Pere Mar
quette, Pennsy, B. & O., Santa Fe,
A. c. L., Burlington or New York
Central.
Freight Cars Are Eyesores.
Freight cars constitute national
eyesore. Haven't you and you and
you spent hours of your life pulled
up at a crossing with nothing to
look at but a string of box cars
creeping by? The men who make
up the freight train schedules know
in advance the plans of every auto
mobile driver in the country, and
they see to it that freight trains
are always at crossing when you
are in a hurry. The last freight
train T encountered. just before I
reached home, dog tired, is typical
of the cunning actions of freights
in frustrating automobiles.
This one blew the whistle for hall
a mile before she reached the cross
ing, red eyes blinked, bells rang,
and the gates came down. Finally,
she moseyed around the curve and
all the lined-up automobilists leaned
out and tried to figure how long she
was, and how long they'd have to
wait. AS her last car neared the
crossing, she began to wheeze and
buckle under the brakes. Every one
tensed his muscles and mentally
tried to shove her by. Wasted effort.
She was a freight train, and the
code of the sea is no sterner. Just
as the captain must not leave his
ship, that last car must not clear
the crossing. 1t stopped dead center.
There was silence for five minutes.
Train Goes Into Reverse.
Then the, shudderinga and buckling
began again. Every sauteinohilist
hoped ins his heart that the freight
would move forward, but he really
knew better. She began backing ZIP
slowly. and once again he had to
cut of his motor, while all the cars
passed In backward review.
I don't have to tell you what
happened after that. You know. In
the middle of that mile-long freight
train was a lime car that was not
wanted and was to be left on a
siding. So, up and down, back
and forth, men waving, whistles
footing, the unwelcome boxcar was
eventually bumped on a siding.
Finally the freight train took Oft
kety-split, at three miles per
hour.
Sportsmanship being something
we Americans pride ourselves on, I
ask the railroad companies to pro-
vide automobiles with freight train
schedules. The automobilists de-
serve an even break. The freight
trains know what time automo-
bilists are going to get to crossing.
So let the automobilists know
when the freights are due. After
that, may the better man win, be
he engineer or driver. After all, 1t
couldn't give a freight train engi-
neer much satisfaction to block a
crossing when he had the inside
dope and was playing the automo-
bilist for a sucker.
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