THE COMING OF ELECTRICITY
ELECTRIC STREET CARS--SUBURBAN CARS--ELECTRIC THIRD-RAIL FROM UTICA TO
SYRACUSE--SOME RAILROADS PARTIALLY ADOPT ELECTRIC POWER--THE BENEFIT
OF ELECTRIC POWER IN TUNNELS--ALSO AT TERMINAL STATIONS--CONDITIONS
WHICH MAKE ELECTRIC TRACTION PRACTICAL AND ECONOMICAL--HOPEFUL OUTLOOK
FOR ELECTRIC TRACTION--THE MONORAIL AND THE GYROSCOPE CAR, INVENTED BY
LOUIS BRENNAN--A SIMILAR INVENTION BY AUGUST SCHERL.
It is barely more than a quarter of a century since electricity first
became practical for use as a motive power upon railroads. The early
experiments of Thomas A. Edison at Menlo Park, N. J., and upon the now
abandoned railroad up Mount McGregor, N. Y., soon gave way to real
electric street railroads in Montgomery, Ala., in Richmond, Va., and from
Brooklyn to Jamaica, N. Y. These, in turn, gave way to still better forms
of electric traction, until the trolley has not only all but entirely
driven the horse-car and the cable-car from city streets, but has
performed a notable new transportation function in giving quick
communication from one town to another in the well-settled portions of the
country. These enterprises are quite outside of the province of this book;
the cases where the electric locomotive and electric motor-car have
usurped the steam locomotive upon its own rails are pertinent.
As soon as the electric railroad had begun to reach out into the country
from the sharp confines of the towns, the steam railroad men began to take
interest. It would have been even better for them if some of them had
taken sharper interest at the beginning. But the few men who were
long-sighted enough a dozen years ago to see the development
possibilities of a form of traction that was comparatively inexpensive to
install and to operate have been repaid for their sagacity. These men
began a dozen years ago to wonder if electricity could not be brought to
the service of the long-established steam railroad.
In most cases the short suburban steam roads outside of large cities,
which were as apt to be operated by "dummy engines" as by standard
locomotives, were the first to be electrified, and in these cases they
usually became extensions of the then novel trolley lines. Folk no longer
had to come in upon a poky little "dummy train" of uncertain schedule and
decidedly uncertain habits, and then transfer at the edge of the crowded
portion of the city to horse-cars. They could go flying from outer country
to the heart of the town in half an hour, and upon frequent schedule, and
the business of building and booming suburbs was born. After these roads
had been developed, other steam lines began to study the situation. A
little steam road that had wandered off into the hills of Columbia County
from Hudson, N. Y., and had led a precarious existence, extended its rails
a few more miles and became the third-rail electric line from Albany to
Hudson, and a powerful competitor for passenger traffic of a large
trunk-line railroad. The New York, New Haven, & Hartford found the
electric third-rail of good service between two adjacent Connecticut
cities, Hartford and New Britain; the overhead trolley a good substitute
for the locomotive on a small branch that ran a few miles north from
Stamford, Conn.
But the problems of electric traction for regular railroads were somewhat
complicated, and the big steam roads rather avoided them until they were
forced upon their attention. The interurban roads had spread too rapidly
in many, many cases, where they were made the opportunities for such
precarious financing as once distinguished the history of steam roads--and
they had in most of these cases made havoc with thickly settled stretches
of branch lines and main lines. In a great many cases the steam roads
have had to dig deep into their pockets and buy at good stiff prices the
very roads the building of which they might have anticipated with just a
little forethought.
The New York Central & Hudson River took such forethought after some of
its profitable branches in western New York had been paralleled by
high-speed trolleys, and a very few years ago installed the electric
third-rail on its West Shore property from Utica to Syracuse, 44 miles.
The West Shore is one of the great tragedies in American railroading.
Built in the early eighties from Weehawken (opposite New York City) to
Buffalo, it had apparently no greater object than to parallel closely the
New York Central and to attempt to take away from the older road some of
the fine business it had held for many years. After bitter rate-war, the
New York Central, with all the resources and the ability of the
Vanderbilts behind it, won decisively, and bought its new rival for a
song. But a property so closely paralleling its own tracks has been
practically useless to it all the way from Albany to Buffalo, save as a
relief line for the overflow of through freight.
So the West Shore tracks for high-class high-speed through electric
service from Utica to Syracuse was a happy thought. Under steam conditions
only two passenger trains were run over that somewhat moribund property in
each direction daily, while the two trains of sleeping-cars passing over
the tracks at night were of practically no use to the residents of those
two cities. Under electric conditions, there is a fast limited service of
third-rail cars or trains, leaving each terminal hourly; making but two
stops and the run of over 44 miles in an hour and twenty minutes. There is
also high-speed local service, and the line has become immensely popular.
By laying stretches of third and fourth tracks at various points, the
movement of the New York Central's overflow through freight has not been
seriously incommoded. The electric passenger service is not operated by
the New York Central, but by the Oneida Railways Company, in which the
controlling interests of the steam road have large blocks of stock.
[Illustration: A HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE ON THE PENNSYLVANIA
BRINGING A THROUGH TRAIN OUT OF THE TUNNEL UNDERNEATH THE HUDSON RIVER AND
INTO THE NEW YORK CITY TERMINAL]
[Illustration: HIGH-SPEED DIRECT-CURRENT LOCOMOTIVE BUILT BY THE
WESTINGHOUSE COMPANY FOR THE TERMINAL SERVICE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA
RAILROAD, IN NEW YORK]
[Illustration: TWO TRIPLE-PHASE LOCOMOTIVES OF THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY
HELPING A DOUBLE-HEADER STEAM TRAIN UP THE GRADE INTO THE CASCADE TUNNEL]
[Illustration: THE OUTER SHELL OF THE NEW HAVEN'S FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE
REMOVED, SHOWING THE WORKING PARTS OF THE MACHINE]
Similarly, the Erie Railroad disposed of a decaying branch of its system,
running from North Tonawanda to Lockport, to the Buffalo street railroad
system, although reserving for itself the freight traffic in and out of
Lockport. The Buffalo road installed the overhead trolley system, and now
operates an efficient and profitable trolley service upon that branch.
Perhaps it was because the Erie saw the application of these ideas, and
decided that it was better to take its own profits from electric passenger
service than to rent its branches again to an outside company; and perhaps
because it also foresaw the coming electrification of its network of
suburban lines around New York, and wished to test electric traction to
its own satisfaction; but five years ago it changed the suburban service
of its lines from the south up into Rochester from steam to electric.
It is now preparing to continue this work further. The Pennsylvania, while
its great new station in New York was still a matter of engineer's blue
prints, began practical experiments with electric traction in the flat
southern portion of New Jersey. It owned a section of line ideally
situated in every respect for such experiments, its original and rather
indirect route from Canada to Atlantic City, which had since been more or
less superseded by a shorter "air line" route. The third-rail was
installed, and the new line became at once popular for suburban traffic in
and out of Philadelphia and for the great press of local traffic between
Philadelphia and Atlantic City. Of the success of that move on the part of
the Pennsylvania there has never been the slightest question. Regular
trains have been operated for several years over this route at 60 miles
an hour, and not the slightest difficulty has been found in maintaining
the schedules.
But nowhere has the substitution of electric locomotive for the steam
worked greater comfort for the railroad passenger--to say nothing, of the
raising of that somewhat intangible factor of safety--than in long
tunnels. The Baltimore & Ohio, which was a pioneer among the steam
railroads in the use of electric locomotives, began to use them in 1896 in
its great tunnel that pierces the very foundations of the city of
Baltimore. That system, once adopted, became permanent. What was at one
time a fearful summer experience between Camden Station and Mount Royal
Station in that city has become merely a pleasant novelty upon the trip.
What could be done at Baltimore has been done under the Detroit River,
twice. The Grand Trunk pierced underneath that stream in 1890, by a
single-track tunnel 6,000 feet in length, in which for seventeen years
both freight and passenger trains were hauled by special locomotives,
fitted for the burning of anthracite coal. Although these engines rendered
rather satisfactory service, it was found desirable to substitute electric
locomotives for them in order to remove the limitations of haulage
capacity in the tunnel; for it is a known fact that electric trains can be
operated much more rapidly and also more closely together than steam. The
change obviated the danger and inconvenience due to locomotive gases in
the tunnel. The electric locomotives first went into service in February,
1908. The tunnel is now clean, well-lighted, and safe to work in; and
trains of much greater length than before can be hauled, thus relieving
the congestion in the freight-yards on both sides of the river.
Similarly, electric locomotives have become the tractive power in the
great new tunnel which the Michigan Central has just completed across the
Detroit River at Detroit, and upon the Cascade Tunnel where the Great
Northern Railroad pierces one of the great ranges of the Western Divide.
The Cascade Tunnel is interesting from the fact that it is entirely built
upon a heavy grade of 1.7 per cent for its length of more than three
miles. The steam locomotives are cut out from the service, while on the
heavy up-grade of the tunnels an electric locomotive, of tremendous
pulling power, will carry even the heaviest freights through the bore at
an average speed of fifteen miles an hour. These Cascade Tunnel
locomotives are the only ones in the country taking alternating current at
triple phase and at the tremendous voltage of 6,600 directly from an
overhead trolley wire. And that will bring us in a moment to another
consideration of this question of the development and the delivery of
power.
The most recent of tunnel installations has just been completed in the
greatest of all American mountain bores--the Hoosac Tunnel. This famous
tube, four and three-quarters miles in length, gave itself very readily to
the skill of the electric engineer, with the result that the Boston &
Maine system, its present owner, finds the greatest impediment to the
operation of its main line from Boston to the west entirely removed.
The earlier installations were all what is known as direct current; that
is, the power is brought directly from the dynamos in the power-houses and
by means of third-rail or overhead trolley it is delivered to the motors
of the locomotives of the cars. But some years ago the larger of the
distinctively electric railroads found that for great current demands over
a large distributing district, this system was expensive and
impracticable; that, for the chief thing, it required copper cables for
carrying long-distance current so large as to be of very great cost. So
some of these, with the aid of the electrical manufacturers, experimented
and developed the alternating current of high voltage and low amperage,
which is capable of being carried to distant transforming or sub-stations
and there reduced to low voltage and high amperage. This alternating
current system, because of its great operating economies, is rapidly
becoming the standard for the city railroad systems of metropolitan
communities, as well as for the great trunk-line interurban electric roads
that are beginning to gridiron the country. The New Haven Railroad, when
it first began to electrify its extensive suburban service into New York
City, was the first to bring it to the service of a standard steam road,
and by a clever adaptation of its locomotives was able to bring a
single-phase alternating-current directly to them at the enormously high
voltage of 11,000, without the use of transforming stations or
direct-current transmission. After some fearfully disappointing
experiments at the outset, the New Haven system has finally proved the
worth of its alternating-current, and the road is now engaged in erecting
its overhead transmission construction all the way from Stamford (the
present terminal of the electrical service) to New Haven, 72 miles distant
from New York. Within ten years its heavy New York and Boston traffic will
probably be entirely handled by electricity, and the run of 232 miles will
be made without difficulty in four hours or even less.
At present the steam locomotives of these trains and the other trains that
serve almost all of New England are detached from the inbound movement at
Stamford, and the remaining 33 miles of the run into the Grand Central
Station is made behind a powerful electric locomotive. The process is, of
course, reversed on outbound trains. For the 12 miles from Woodlawn into
the Grand Central the run is made over the tracks of the Harlem division
of the New York Central Railroad which uses direct current at a voltage of
650, and third-rail instead of overhead transmission. The wonderful
adaptability of the alternating current is shown, not in the fact that a
change must be made from overhead trolley to third-rail alone, for that is
merely a slight mechanical problem, but in the fact that a locomotive
hauling a heavy train can, without a great slacking of speed, change from
receiving an alternating current of 11,000 volts to a direct current of
650 volts. Outbound, it reverses the process.
The necessity of clearing out the smoke-filled Park Avenue Tunnel approach
to the Grand Central Station brought both the New York Central, its owner,
and the New Haven, its tenant, to electric traction for terminal and
suburban service at New York. The New York Central's system, as has
already been stated, is direct-current and it is supplied from two great
power-houses in the suburban district. Through trains are hauled in and
out of the station by electric locomotives, while suburban trains, which
make their round-trip runs entirely within the 25 or 30 miles of electric
zone, are run without locomotives, the steel suburban coaches having
motors set within their trucks, after the ordinary fashion of electric
cars across the land. The change from steam to electricity at the Grand
Central Station did more, however, than merely clear the long-approach
tunnel of smoke and foul gases, so that nowadays a man can ride on the
observation-platform over its entire length. The traffic in that
wonderfully busy station has for many years had sharp limitations because
of the four tracks in that tunnel, two tracks being used for the train
movement in each direction. The limited station-yard capacity at the
terminal has necessitated many trains being stored at Mott Haven yards;
and the drilling of these empty trains in and out of the station, combined
with the normally heavy movement of regular and special trains, has only
added to the great congestion. The minimum three-minute headway between
trains operated by steam through the tunnel, and its four-tracked viaduct
approach, fixed the maximum traffic at 40 trains an hour in each
direction. The capacity of the terminal with this limitation of service
was taxed to its utmost, and some relief for the constantly increasing
traffic was imperative. Now, owing to the improved conditions of electric
operation, trains may be run on a two-minute headway, or less--this one
measure thus increasing the station capacity by 50 per cent at the least.
The New Haven road has also adopted the practice of running some of its
suburban trains without locomotives, but by means of motors underneath
each coach--the multiple-unit system, as electrical engineers have come to
know it. This is the system, with some slight variations, upon which the
elevated and subway lines of New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, and
Chicago are operated; and it is quickly applicable, as we have just seen,
to some phases of terminal operation for the standard steam railroads. But
the steam locomotive is to hold its own for many years, in many, many
phases of railroad operation; electric traction is practical and
economical only when there are fairly congested traffic conditions. The
coaches that are standard for it, and which it must haul for many miles
across the land, must be handled in the electrically equipped terminals by
electric locomotives of one type or another. These locomotives are
generally equipped with coal-heaters for maintaining the steam in the
heating-pipes of the through equipment; and in these days, when the
electric lighting of through trains is all but universal, they may supply
current for this purpose also.
Electric locomotives have been completely successful where they have been
used, both alone and in connection with multiple-unit suburban trains, in
the Grand Central Station and the Pennsylvania Station in New York City as
the first complete installations. But what has been so successfully done
in New York will soon be repeated in other big cities in the land; Boston
is already insisting that the network of suburban lines that spreads over
her environs be electrified; Philadelphia is preparing for the
electrification of the Pennsylvania's fan-work of lines into Broad Street
Station; Baltimore is demanding that what has been done in one great
tunnel underneath her foundation hills be repeated in two others. Chicago
will see great installations of this service within the next few years.
Nor is the use of electricity upon the standard steam railroad to stop
bluntly with these terminal changes and improvements; many and many a
decaying branch is yet to be fanned into new life, new strength, new
activity, through a skilful transformation of its tractive powers. What
has been done at the Detroit River and the Cascade tunnels is to be done
elsewhere across the land--through the dozens of points where railroads
pierce the mountains and go under the rivers by tunnels. Electric tunnels
are yet to bring the Pennsylvania at lower grade at Gallitzin and the
Southern Pacific through the high crest of the Sierras. Electric traction
for the big steam roads is still in its infancy. Only 1,000 miles out of a
total of 220,000 miles of steam railroad in the land are as yet operated
by electricity. The other day a big traffic-man sat in his Chicago office
and said:
"The first railroad that electrifies for the thousand or less miles
between this town and New York is going to get all the rich passenger
business. Not a big portion of it, mind you, but every single blessed bit
of it!"
* * * * *
Consider for a final moment, in passing, the mono-rail, the gyroscope. If
you are a practical railroader you may laugh and say: "A toy." Perhaps it
is a toy to-day. But just remember history and you will recall that the
toy of to-day becomes the tool of to-morrow, and then give the mono-rail a
moment of sober thought. Less than 2,000 feet of this construction formed
a most interesting exhibit at the Jamestown Exposition of 1907. A railroad
man who rode on that experimental track said:
"If you had built more than 300 feet of track you could have given a
better demonstration of your system." To this the inventor smilingly
replied:
"You have gone over 1,800 feet."
The investigator had ridden faster than 45 miles an hour and had not
realized the speed. You never do in the mono-rail car. It rides more
gently over the roughest bit of track than the finest Limited moves over
heavy rail and stone ballast, the best track that men can maintain.
An actual railroad of the mono-rail type has been built and is being
developed in the suburbs of New York City. It supersedes a railroad of the
oldest type--horse-cars--from Bartow to City Island, in the Bronx. Balance
is kept for its cars by means of a light overhead metal construction,
hardly more conspicuous than that of the overhead trolley-work used in
city streets. This overhead work, like the trolley-wire, supplies electric
power to the cars; only in emergencies will it come into play to hold the
one-legged car erect. On this stretch of line speed and balance tests will
be made when passenger traffic is at low-tide. Upon the result of these
tests will be drawn the construction plans for a four-track rapid transit
railroad from New York to Newark, ten miles. This last plan has already
been financed by New York men who have made transportation their chief
problem for many years. It may be developed upon the rails of a
double-track railroad, more than doubling its capacity, without increasing
the width of the right-of-way.
All of these mono-rail roads will become applicable to the gyroscope when
that wondrous man-toy becomes a man-tool. And the gyroscope demands no
overhead construction of any sort. It simply asks a single rail upon which
to find a path and offers no objections either to the steepest of grades
or to the sharpest of curves. The first model of gyroscope car showed its
ability to navigate easily the full length of a piece of crooked gas-pipe,
laid in rough semblance of a track.
For there is a gyroscope car already--in fact, several of them. On May 8,
1907, Louis Brennan, a brilliant Irish inventor, living in England,
exhibited the first model of the gyroscope car, and the news was flashed
in detail all the way around the world. The little car he then showed was
enough to interest the keenest of scientists. It traversed every sort of
mono-rail track that could be devised, at varying rates of speed, it stood
still at the inventor's command and retained its balance perfectly. When a
man's hand was pushed against it as if to throw the car off its seemingly
slight balance, it pushed back, stanchly held that balance, and Brennan
laughingly said that there was something that compared with the velocity
of the wind. When he spoiled the even trim of his ship (it did look like a
boat as it sped around the lawn upon its narrow, guiding thread) and
placed the weights upon one side of the car, that side rose up to receive
them. The car still held its balance perfectly, and Brennan said that his
act represented forty or fifty persons moving suddenly across a full-sized
passenger coach. Finally, he placed his little daughter in the car and
sent it out over a deep gully where a single stout steel cable served as a
suspension bridge. The inventor's assistant swung that bridge like a
hammock but the car laughed at the old-fashioned domineering laws of
gravity, and the little girl waved her hand at her daddy.
Well might she wave her hand at him. His achievement was a real triumph.
From a top revolving in a frame at any angle he had evolved the gyroscope
car, the one thing required for the successful development of the
mono-rail. From that car he has been steadily developing better ones. On
the tenth of November, 1909, he built a full-sized car upon which twenty
men and boys rode in glee. On that self-same day, by strange coincidence,
a German inventor, August Scherl, exhibited in a large hall in Dresden, a
mono-rail car, held at perfect equilibrium by a gyroscope which he had
quietly built and perfected. The car was 18 feet long and 4 feet wide, and
mounted on two trucks. The net weight was 2-1/2 tons, while the gyroscope
itself, turning in a vacuum at the fearful rate of 8,000 revolutions a
minute, weighed but 5-1/2 per cent of the total weight of the car. It
carried eight persons, and when first shown in Berlin it caused a
tremendous sensation, 60,000 persons witnessing the trial during a period
of five days. Even royalty took its turn at riding in the novel
conveyance.
* * * * *
The first question that the average man asks when he sees a gyroscope is:
"Well, this thing may be all right when it is in motion, but how the deuce
is it going to support itself when it is standing still?"
But it does support itself. The gyroscope wheels continue to revolve at
something close to 8,000 revolutions a minute, and they hold the car, so
that the fluctuation in the weight it carries, due to loading or
unloading, does not affect it, even in slight degree. The average man
remains unconvinced.
"Suppose the electric power that spins the gyroscope goes back on you?" he
demands. The inventor tells him that that is easy enough. The gyroscope,
revolving in a vacuum, will keep on turning at sufficient speed to balance
the car for nearly an hour. Long before that the side-stays, that make the
car a three-pronged structure while out of service, can be dropped.
When To-morrow finally comes and the gyroscope car is in its own,
provision will be made on all through mono-rail routes against just such
an emergency. At various points sidings will be constructed with low
walls, just high enough to receive the cars when their gyroscope
equilibrium ceases. These will be just as much a part of the equipment of
the mono-rail trunk line as wharves are a part of steamship service. It
will be a part that will receive less and less attention as folk begin to
realize how little dependent the gyroscope car is upon the old laws of
gravity.
"We will have billiard cars in our fastest trains," says Brennan. "A man
will be able to play that delicate game on a railroad train all the way
from New York to San Francisco, if he chooses."
Contemplate that, you railroaders and travelled folk of to-day. Those cars
will make the cars of to-day seem like pygmies. Each will be 200 feet in
length and 30 feet in width. No wonder that people can talk of billiard
tables. A train of six of these cars will be longer than the longest of
our transcontinental expresses of to-day. They will be fastened together
with vestibule connections, and the forward end of the first car will have
a sharp beak. The blunt front of an ordinary train begins to be a speed
obstacle at more than 50 miles an hour.
Speed? Do you think that 50 miles an hour is speed? Our locomotives do far
better than that every day in the United States. A train on a standard
railroad and hauled by steam as a motive power has gone faster than the
rate of 135 miles an hour. With the mono-rail and the gyroscope, with the
countless mountain brooks and rivers harnessed and grinding out
electricity, the inventors say calmly that they will begin at 200 miles an
hour.
Do you realize what 200 miles an hour means? It means that your grandson
or your grandson's son can leave New York in the morning, do half a dozen
errands in Cincinnati, and be back in his home in West Four Hundred and
Thirty-eighth Street in time for a late supper. It means that he can lunch
in Chicago, span half a dozen mighty States, threading the mountains,
through the towns and over the cities, skimming the broad expanses of fat
farms, and dine in New York the same night. It means that he can go from
one ocean across the continent to the other in twenty-four hours.
But To-morrow is not yet here. Yesterday was just here. In Yesterday men
were boasting of their ability to go from New York to Philadelphia by
coach in two nights and two days and were asking:
"What next?"
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
EFFICIENCY THROUGH ORGANIZATION
In a local freight-house in an inland manufacturing city of thirty
thousand inhabitants between forty and fifty freight-handlers had been
employed for a term running from twelve to fifteen years. The
freight-house boss was of the old school. When he thought that he needed
more help, he made a fearful noise, scared headquarters, and more help was
given him. The strong-armed gang reported at seven o'clock in the morning
and then held a two-hour _conversazione_, while the book-keeping force in
the dingy office at the end of the freight-shed arranged the way-bills and
the bills-of-lading for the day's work. Before ten o'clock, if all went
well, the freight-house gang was generally at work pushing its way through
a seeming chaos of less-than-carload freight.
After a time the old freight-agent died and a new one came in his place.
The new man was on his job less then three months before he arranged a new
schedule in that freight-house--and dropped twenty-five men from its
pay-roll. First he summoned the bookkeeping force together, and announced
that it would report at five o'clock in the morning, instead of seven; of
course, leaving two hours earlier each afternoon. The bookkeeping force
demurred. It was not pleasant getting up before daybreak in the winter
darkness of a chill northern town, and such a scheme interfered with the
social plans of one or two of the bookkeepers. But the new boss only
smiled and said, "Try it."
And after they had tried it, the way-bills and the bills-of-lading were
ready at seven o'clock when the handlers reported for work, and the
freight-house got to work upon the shriek of the roundhouse whistle. After
that, the pay-list was cut--you may be sure that a house-boss who could
scheme out such a plan could weed out the shirkers and the idlers among
his staff--and, better still, the consignees began to get their freight
sooner than ever before in the history of that town.
Eventually--and a wonderfully short "eventually" it really was--the
freight-agent climbed the ladder to the superintendent of that division
and under his bailiwick came a railroad which had recently become attached
to the parent system through the process of benevolent assimilation. The
ordinary less-than-carload business was moved out of the freight-house of
the smaller road and it was given over entirely to carriage and automobile
shipments--the inland city makes a specialty of manufacturing vehicles of
every sort. The division superintendent went over to the carriage
freight-house and saw that it took a dozen men to man it, although it was
not more than a six-car stand. Carriage bodies and automobile bodies
crated are both heavy and awkward, and the boss of that house was asking
for more help.
The superintendent went straight from that freight-house to a local
foundry, sat there for fifteen minutes with its draughtsman and then and
there evolved an overhead trolley-arrangement, very much the same as the
big packing-houses use for handling heavy carcasses. A requisition for the
thing went through a-flying, and now the carriage-house in that city is
handled with two trained men. The scheme is fast becoming standard in the
newer freight-houses and in St. Louis, the M. K. & T. has just adopted it
for its splendid new terminal, whole fleets of platforms hung close to the
floor and suspended from an overhead "trolley arrangement" entirely
supersede the brigades of hand trucks formerly in use.
That is the point of it. There must be dozens of other cities of thirty
thousand population, of sixty thousand, of ninety, of one or two or three,
of five hundred thousand, where a little such method would produce similar
results. In that first house, a saving of about $350 a week was made, when
the young freight-agent brought some system into the dusty place. A dozen
such savings or even greater, would be quite a help on the railroad's
balance sheet. At least that is the gospel which Louis Brandeis, of
Boston, preached, and which attracted world-wide attention when he made
the exact statement that he could save the railroads of the country a
million dollars a day in the operation of their lines.
The railroads made a perfectly good legal case before the Interstate
Commerce Commission--or let us assume that, at any rate, in the present
instance. But one such clarifying statement as that of Brandeis' produced
more effect both upon the land and the Commissioners than all the legal
briefs that together were filed in advocacy of the raises in the freight
tariffs. At no time did the railroads successfully controvert Brandeis'
sweeping statement, and so they lost their fight.
And yet the railroads are accomplishing some remarkable improvements in
their internal affairs--for which they are being given not an iota of
credit. And one of the most interesting of these is the promotion of
efficiency through organization, or better yet, through reorganization.
* * * * *
Along in the fifties, Herman Haupt, who was afterwards a brigadier-general
of the United States army and brevetted major-general, devised the
wonderful organization scheme of the Pennsylvania system, which is still
in use to-day on that well-managed property. The scheme has been adopted
since then by practically all the large railroads in the country. Before
General Haupt evolved it, there was no real organization among the great
railroads. Like Topsy, they "just growed" from the little individual horse
and steam lines from which they were formed and they were even more like
Topsy in some other details. But Haupt's plan brought dignity to a great
business that needed dignity--and system. For fifty years it has been
accomplishing something more than merely serving its purpose. But railroad
terminals and railroad equipment of fifty years ago are long since
obsolete, and so within recent years the larger railroads have found their
organization schemes not up with the times. The growing complexity of
their work, the intricacy of their relations with the various city, state,
and national governing boards, the constant tendency to enlarge and to
consolidate these, have all proved fearful taxes upon the Haupt plan.
Great masses of correspondence have accumulated, the whole business of
conducting the railroad has been enmeshed in whole miles of red-tape--and
men like Brandeis, of Boston, have been permitted to make their challenges
and stand uncorrected.
Go back into the sixties for this last time, and pause for a moment at the
fighting of the American Rebellion. Men in the North were beginning to
hear that the Confederate army had something different, something better,
in its organization than the Union army. It was an intangible something,
but it seemed to make for efficiency, and, after all, that was the main
thing. So after the war was history, there were far-sighted Northerners
who said that it would be well to bring that intangible something into the
United States army. At such a time that thing was, however, tacitly
impossible, and it was dropped for more than thirty years.
But Von Moltke picked up the idea, and incorporated it in the intensely
modern army of modern Germany. It helped to win the great Franco-Prussian
War, and when the other nations of Europe began to examine it it had a
name; it was beginning to be a tangible something. Military men called it
the "staff idea," and when you asked them to explain it they told you
that officers who handled men were known as "line officers," and those who
handled things as "staff officers." In other words, men could be
lifted--as it were, in an aëroplane of scientific organization--away from
their commands and their narrow environments, up to a point where they
could have perspective, where they could handle men, regiments, small
arms, heavy ordnance on a large scale. The staff officers work in things
in the abstract, just as the line officers mould men in the concrete.
There then is the rough theory of staff organization which was picked up
and adapted to its use by the United States army at about the time of the
Spanish-American War. Of its value there can be no doubt; of its
efficiency no question.
* * * * *
A young man--Major Charles Hine--who had seen the operation of modern
staff in the regular army, decided that it was a good thing for the great
railroad systems of the country. Hine knew railroads. In order that he
might know them thoroughly, he one day packed his uniforms and his saddle
away in his trunk and went quietly out and got a job as brakeman on a
freight train. He did not stay on the car roofs very long; he has served
in about every conceivable post in railroad divisional organization, and
he has had a good chance to study the weaknesses of those very
organizations.
"We have got to eliminate government by chief clerks," said Major Hine at
the very beginning. "We are growing too rapidly for the men higher up. We
are forced to delegate official authority to clerks and foremen, and then
we build up an autocracy around some person of official rank. It is
pernicious feudalism, this permitting the chief clerk, and a good many
times some other clerks, to sign the name of the officer whom they attempt
to represent."
A railroad is really so spread out that its officers live a double
official life; a part of the time they are at their desks, and another
part out upon the line. Yet the average railroad officer, be he of high or
low degree, flatters himself that by some subtle method of personal
superiority, he is enabled to act intelligently in two places at the same
time.
Major Hine saw how that worked at the very beginning of a special service
with the Southern Pacific Railroad. He was down in the Yaqui River country
in Mexico, where heavy construction work was under way. In company with
the division engineer, he was riding the line mule-back. The division
engineer had several parties under him, each in charge of a resident
engineer, and all engaged in laying out and checking the contractor's
work. The headquarters of the division engineer were presided over by a
ninety-dollar-a-month chief clerk, who was dealing in the absence of his
superior with one hundred and twenty-five dollar resident engineers. The
division engineer assured his guest that the telephone permitted close
personal contact with headquarters, that every hour questions were
referred to him. The vice-president of the company, desiring to change the
assembling point for luncheon, sought for two hours from engineering
headquarters to locate the division engineer, who was on the grade all the
time.
The condition mentioned necessitates the chief clerk's signing the name of
his superior to heads of departments lower down, which heads are receiving
lower salaries, and are presumably of wider experience than the chief
clerk who essays to be their monitor. This is done in the name of routine
business. Unfortunately no two men often agree upon what constitutes
routine business. Almost every railroad officer will tell you that "my
chief clerk handles only routine business and never assumes too much
authority." When closely questioned, the same officer will reveal in the
utmost confidence the fact that the same condition does not obtain with
the chief clerk of the officer who is over the informant. Strangely
enough, if the complaining witness is promoted to his boss's job, the same
condition still exists, showing that the system is at fault, rather than
its individual members. Worst of all, the chief clerk has to break in all
the new bosses and thus has only limited promotion himself.
Major Hine has said that the bigness of things on the Harriman lines, the
breadth of the policies of Napoleon Harriman and Von Moltke Julius
Kruttschnitt, the vice-president in the change of the operation of that
far-reaching group of railroads, strengthened his nerve to advocate
radical departure from preconceived notions of railway organization. Hine,
at his home in Virginia, had once acted as receiver of a suburban trolley
system, where he had introduced a simplified organization. He found, at
that time, that the underlying principle of that organization would apply
to a thousand times as many men on the great Harriman lines. Incidentally,
after the receivership was lifted, the new owners of the property
discontinued the organization which Major Hine had created, for they took
the ground that no other electric road had such a system, and that
therefore there could be nothing in it.
Kruttschnitt decided to let Major Hine begin on the Harriman lines with
the reorganization of the divisions. He declined to order any changes, but
placed the burden of missionary work and conversions among his
subordinates on the shoulders of his special representative. There are not
a dozen letters bearing on this subject in Kruttschnitt's office. The work
was done by personal contact, which in two years involved over one hundred
thousand miles of travel by Hine. Major Hine states that, notwithstanding
the splendid spirit of the officers of the Harriman lines, little would
have been accomplished without the tactful support of Kruttschnitt, the
man whose supremacy and whose brilliant abilities are unquestioned in the
railway world. On the other hand, Kruttschnitt has been heard to say that
the credit lies with the enthusiastic younger man whom he attached to his
staff.
Most of the divisions of the Harriman lines had an assistant
superintendent, engaged mainly in outside duties, with an office near the
superintendent's, presided over by a chief clerk. Both the superintendent
and the assistant superintendent had his own chief clerk, who consumed
reams of paper annually in intercommunications over their respective
superior's signatures. The new system provides, as a first step, that if
the division has no assistant superintendent, one shall be appointed. The
next step is to order the assistant superintendent to remain at
headquarters in charge of the office, in effect, but not in name, the
chief-of-staff idea, so successfully applied by the Germans through Von
Moltke. When necessary, an additional trainmaster is appointed for the
previous outside duties of the assistant superintendent. The old chief
clerk is placed in line of promotion by appointing him, when possible, to
a position with outside duties on the road.
Next, the division shop is raided, the division master mechanic and the
travelling engineer (road foreman of engines) are moved bodily to the same
building with the division superintendent, where are usually already
located, the division engineer, the trainmaster, and the chief despatcher.
The old theory has been that the master mechanic should be at his shop to
supervise the shop force. The new conception is that the master mechanic
has passed the stage of a shop foreman; that, located at one shop, he
unconsciously comes to underestimate the importance of roundhouses and car
repair plants at outlying points on the division. He is brought to
division headquarters to get the atmosphere of transportation, to be in
touch with the train sheet, and to realize that motive power is one of the
component elements of transportation; that the shop is incident to the
railroad, not the railroad to the shop.
The official family, now being gathered under the parental roof of the
superintendent, are politely requested to deposit the official
shooting-iron, the typewriter, in one official arsenal, from which all
shooting will be done in the future. The office files are consolidated in
one office of record. This idea is borrowed from the courts of justice,
where one clerk of the court, with as many deputies as necessary, records
all transactions regardless of the number of judges and other officers.
You must have worked in a railroad office to appreciate the fearful
condition of official files in this year of grace, nineteen hundred
eleven. You ask for the file on that culvert at Jones' farm on the
Martinsburgh branch, and an anæmic office-boy staggers toward you with
enough manuscript to be the making of a novel. There are the contract
arrangements and the correspondence with the J. B. & G. concerning the
union station privileges that are enjoyed with it at Blissville; why,
there was a whole chapter given over to that episode of July, three
summers ago, when the leaders had to be renewed on that magnificent
structure, and its roof re-shingled. Here is the contract for handling
milk on a single side-line division--and the accompanying symposium of
thought from chief clerks and minor officers in the form of
miscellaneous--and entirely useless--correspondence. This is the agreement
with the bridge-builders' union--four inches thick. No wonder the shelves
of the record room sag, and that the clerks are hollow-eyed. Tons of
unprotected paper have been scrawled upon, perfect rivers of helpless
black ink have done the work--and all for that!
The heaviest file in the office of the Harriman system to-day is half an
inch in thickness, and there is no one to deny that the property is being
run at a high stage of efficiency--particularly in comparison with some
other railroad systems of the land. As the result of a single record
system at any division headquarters, the astounding saving has been to
that group of railroads, of five hundred thousand letters a year, and it
now goes without saying that they were unnecessary letters. In a year or
two, that figure will cross the million mark--and you must take second
breath to imagine the time and thought that goes into the making of a
million letters in a twelvemonth. The material saving in stationery is
considerable--although trifling in the operation of a system that spends
about $225,000,000 a year, but the logical claim is made that the five
hundred thousand letters eliminated retarded rather than helped
administration, that they produced more harm than good. Deeper than all
this is the dwarfing effect upon the individual initiative of the man
below, for whom the letter attempts to think.
Elimination of red tape is not the sole object of the new system. Mr.
Kruttschnitt regards this as incidental. What has appealed to him is the
final step in the organization which is to confer the uniform title of
"assistant superintendent" upon the former division engineer, master
mechanic, trainmaster, travelling engineer, roadmaster, and chief
despatcher. These officers retain their former duties and
responsibilities, but they broaden authority to meet emergencies on the
spot. This means increased supervision of employees, more scientific
management of men. The officials of the Harriman lines faced here a
ticklish problem. The attitude of organized labor was in doubt. Would the
men object to too many bosses? Would confusion result from several men
issuing orders that might possibly conflict? The results have been a
splendid vindication of the intelligence of the men who are close to
things. The men were often quicker to catch the idea than were the
officers. What appealed to them most of all was the dictum that no man
could sign another man's name or initials.
"We old men do our work, no matter how many bosses there are; we realize
that younger men need more instruction than supervision," said a veteran
conductor on the Union Pacific, when the matter was brought to his
attention. "We used to make one report to the master mechanic and another
to the superintendent. Now one report addressed simply 'assistant
superintendent' is enough. It means less red tape. But what we like best
of all is that some smart Aleck of a clerk can no longer jack us up."
That veteran ticket-puncher recalled that in older days conductors had
been dismissed for allowing operators to sign their names to telegraphic
train orders; perhaps the letter of dismissal was signed by the
superintendent's chief clerk. There was railroad system for you!
After a year and a half of what the local officers called trial--for Mr.
Kruttschnitt and Major Hine have always regarded that period as
demonstration rather than as experiment--the system was broadened. It was
applied to some of the higher units. For nearly a year, the U. P. general
officers at Omaha have had five assistant general managers. In other days
there were a general superintendent, a superintendent of motive power, a
chief engineer, a superintendent of transportation, and an assistant to
the general manager. The new million dollar general office building of the
U. P. at Omaha will have its office space arranged according to the new
conception. Until it is completed, the consolidation of office records
will not be practicable, because the various general offices are now
scattered over town. But a start has been made, and plans laid for full
development.
What is good at the east end of a railroad is generally as good at the
west end, and so the plan, working handily in general offices at Omaha,
has been transplanted to the general offices of another Harriman
road--the newly combined Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company
at Portland, Ore., and at Seattle, Wash. Other general headquarters of the
Harriman roads are only awaiting the construction of new and modern office
buildings, before they will be asked to fall in line with the plan.
Kruttschnitt does not order these things. He is far too wise a railroader
for that. He directs by suggestion and the family circle talks of Major
Hine. And yet twenty-three out of the thirty-three divisions of the
Harriman railroad group have fallen into the new groove within two short
years.
"Consider for an instant the overwhelming importance of a title to some
railroaders," says a high officer of one of that group as he sits at his
desk. He is one of the men to whom a title is as hollow as a brass
cylinder. "I have known a man to almost froth at the mouth because some
stupid underling wrote a letter and addressed him as 'assistant to the
general manager' instead of 'assistant general manager.' We have gone
title crazy on some of our railroads. Take that overworked word
'superintendent.' We have more superintendents on this system to-day than
there used to be track hands on a good sized road, and we have what is
even worse, a superintendent of motive power, and a superintendent of
transportation ranking the division superintendent who is the head of an
important subordinate unit, and entitled to respect among the rank and
file of our men as such. Under the new plan, the superintendent of
transportation together with the superintendent of motive power, as you
have already seen, become assistant general managers.
"Right there is an impersonality that is delightful--and efficient; it has
proved most efficient in division organization. Out on our ---- division
we had several washouts simultaneously last year. We sent at once an
assistant superintendent to each point of interruption and so we had at
each vital place, a man with sufficient brains and authority to use the
forces on the ground to the best advantage. Isn't that good railroading?"
* * * * *
It is good railroading all along the line. It is good railroading to
handle as big a question as the reorganization of a system employing a
quarter of a million men and women, without writing a whole library of
rules and regulations for its enforcement. Ask Major Hine, himself, how he
handles that problem.
"Easily enough," will be his reply to you. "We have a constitution--also
unwritten like that splendid old bulwark of English liberties--and any
superintendent, any general manager, can make his own rules for his
division or his stretch of railroad as long as they will stand the tests
of that constitution. And the railroad's bulwark consists of but three
very simple principles:
"The first of these is that no man may sign the name or the initial of
another. That is rank feudalism, and out of place in the twentieth century
sort of railroading. Our second clause is that there must be at all times
an assistant superintendent in charge of the office. Normally, this
assistant, in effect chief-of-staff, is the senior or No. 1 on the list.
Here again, elasticity is introduced. The unwritten law provides that
whatever assistant may be assigned to the office is the senior of the
others for the time being. The chief-of-staff reviews the incoming and
outgoing correspondence and reduces it to its lowest terms. Each assistant
superintendent signs his own communications, but they pass through the
focus of the administrative hour-glass on the desk of the watchful
chief-of-staff.
"In the third place, correspondence must be addressed impersonally; from
below, 'assistant superintendent,' from above, 'superintendent.' This
requirement is based upon the idea that authority, as in the courts, is
abstract and impersonal, that the exercise of authority is highly
concrete and personal. The court exists if the judge is dead; the court is
silent until the judge speaks."
Already there is noted a greater willingness to take responsibility. More
and more is heard about "this division" and "the company" and less and
less about "my department." The mathematical axiom that "the whole is
greater than any of its parts" is sometimes violated in corporate
administration, because there is no chief-of-staff to balance the
specialization of some department head.
This system of playing trumps in the new science of railroads
incidentally, but not essentially, provides for rotation in the position
of senior assistant or chief-of-staff. Some conservative divisions have
not availed themselves of this feature. On one division the superintendent
in the first year of the new organization had four of his five assistant
superintendents, each occupy the senior chair at headquarters for three
months each. Finally, it came the turn of the old master mechanic.
"I am sweating blood," he said, "but I never knew before how much there is
about a railroad."
When that master mechanic returned to his shop interests, his vision had
been broadened, and he was more alert to protect the company's interests
when riding over the road. The sponsors for the new system deny that this
may lead to the neglect of an official's own special responsibility. They
point to the superintendent as a balance wheel to maintain proper
equilibrium. Over two years' experience has led the high officials of the
Harriman lines to lay some stress upon urging the assistant
superintendents forward rather than holding them back. The tendency has
been to settle back in former grooves. As long as no harm is done, those
who avail themselves of their new opportunities are becoming more valuable
assets both for themselves and for the company.
When a division is reorganized, the persons concerned are assembled to
listen to a lecture by Major Hine. To their great astonishment, he usually
leaves town the same evening. He takes the position that the system which
depends for its success upon the presence of any individual is a system
which the company has no business to adopt. He says, "We have pushed you
off the bank. Now swim ashore." They all do. On the next visit of his
grand rounds, the instructor often finds his pupils beating him at his own
game. Dropping in one day at the headquarters of a large division on the
coast, he found the senior assistant superintendent and the old master
mechanic in frequent conference. The senior assistant tossed a letter over
the desk, and asked, "Did Jim here need to write this letter?" "It looks
good to me," said the instructor; "what is the matter with it?" "You told
us," said the interlocutor, "that one record in this office is enough. I
handled a letter this morning from the mechanical assistant telling the
foreman to repair this outfit car. Now I get another letter this afternoon
about the same thing." "You are dead right," said the major; "you fellows
will soon have me worked out of a job."
The old master mechanic caught the spirit of the occasion and said: "Yes,
Jack, you caught that one, but there were two just like it this morning
that you didn't catch. Next time I won't have to dictate them."
* * * * *
There then is efficiency through organization--the playing of trumps in
the developing science of railroading. Other railroads have been watching
the reorganization plan upon the Harriman system with critical eyes, and
can find nothing but success in its workings. It is paving its own way,
and shouldering itself abreast of a railroad generation that figures not
in lines of from five hundred to a thousand miles each, but giant systems
of grouped lines that may easily stretch their steel cobwebs for fifteen
thousand miles--over whole sovereign States, from ocean to
ocean--properties whose management calls for a degree of skill not yet
demanded in the very greatest of our industrial or manufacturing
corporations.
The old order changeth and giveth way to the new.
INDEX
Acworth, the English economist, 330, 331.
Adams, Alvin, 371, 372.
Adams, Maude, 293, 294.
Adams Express Company, 371-373.
Adams & Company, 372.
Ade, George, 303.
Advertising, railroad, 276;
bill for newspaper, 288;
open territory, 356.
Agricultural schools maintained by the railroads, 360, 361, 363.
Air-brake, 42, 125, 134, 249, 250.
Albany, bridge at, 14.
Albany & Syracuse Railroad, 371.
Algomah Central, 417.
_Algomah_, ferry, 415.
Alleghany Portage Railroad, 11, 12, 48, 149.
Allen, Horatio, 5, 6, 7, 8, 119.
Altoona shops of Pennsylvania Railroad, 12, 61, 154, 394, 395-398.
American bridge-builders do work of world, 74.
American Express Company, 372, 373.
American Locomotive Company, 126, 127.
"American Notes," Dickens, quoted, 11.
Anchor Line, the, _see_ Erie & Western Transportation Company.
Ann Arbor railway, 416.
_Arabian_, locomotive, 120.
Armstrong, Col. G. B., 377.
Ashtabula, Ohio, bridge disaster, 61.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, 2, 32, 126, 127, 358, 386, 429.
Atlantic City, 367, 368.
Atlantic City Railroad, 127.
Atlantic Coast Line, 127.
Atlantic type of locomotive, 127.
Baggage, handling of, 93;
duties of baggagemen, 251, 252;
use of baggage-car, 322, 323.
Baldwin, Matthias, 122, 123.
Baltimore, railroad connections of, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19;
tunnels in, 49;
stations in, 96, 436.
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 2, 9, 15-23, 41, 49, 58-60, 64, 65, 77, 96,
120, 126, 132, 139, 144, 376, 377, 394, 421, 427, 436.
Baltimore & Potomac R. R., 20.
Bangs, Col. George S., 377, 378.
"Bends," cause and treatment of, 68, 70.
Bergen Tunnel, 318.
Bessemer, Sir Henry, 61.
_Best Friend of Charleston_, locomotive, 8, 120.
Big Muddy River, Illinois Central's bridge over, 78.
Big Four, 27, 418.
Binghampton, N. Y., 81.
Black Diamond Express (Lehigh Valley Railroad), 286.
Black River Road, 217.
Blair, Postmaster General Montgomery, 377.
Blizzards, fighting of, 268-275.
Boards of directors of railroads, 156-158.
Bollman, --, designer of bridges, 61, 63.
Bonds, railroad, 36, 37.
Boston Elevated Railway, 428.
Boston, in 1831, 9;
railroad connections of, 10;
Josiah Perham's excursions to, 29;
stations in, 88, 95-99, 313, 319, 320, 384;
suburban traffic of, 98, 99, 319.
"Boston Special" (New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad), 384.
Boston & Albany Railroad, 60, 77, 98, 106, 136, 370.
Boston & Lowell Railroad, 9, 10, 96, 98.
Boston & Maine Railroad, 1, 98, 319, 320, 333, 384, 437.
Boston & Providence Railroad, 95, 370.
Boston & Worcester line, 10, 124, 370.
Brakeman, duties of, 248-250.
Brandeis, Louis, 451, 452.
Brandywine Viaduct, 77.
Brennan, Louis, 442, 443.
Bridge-builders, personality and nationality of, 72-74.
Bridges--
at Albany, across Hudson, 14.
first across Mississippi, 28.
building of, 42, 56-79.
at Trenton, across Delaware, 57, 77.
at Springfield, across Connecticut River, 57.
of timber, 57-60, 62-64.
at Waterford, across Hudson River, 57.
Permanent Bridge, across Schuylkill River, 58.
of stone, 58, 59, 76, 77.
Starucca Viaduct, 58.
Thomas Viaduct, 58, 59, 76.
of iron, 60, 61.
of Rider design, 60.
B. & O. Monongahela River, 60.
Ashtabula, 61.
of steel, 61, 62, 76, 77.
at Portage, over Genesee River, 62.
forms of, 62-64.
through span, 64.
deck span, 64.
over Susquehanna River, between Havre-de-Grace and Aiken, 64, 65.
at Cincinnati, over Ohio River, 65.
suspension, 65.
cantilever, 65, 66.
over Kentucky River, 66.
Minnehaha, at St. Paul, 66.
over Niagara River, 66.
over Frazer River, 66.
at Poughkeepsie, 66.
personality of builders of, 72-74.
over Pend Oreille River, 73.
on line of Rio Grande & Western, 74.
replacing of, 75, 76.
Roebling's, at Niagara Falls, 75.
at Steubenville, Ohio, 75, 76.
over Hackensack River, 76, 206, 207.
of concrete, 76-79.
Brandywine Viaduct, 77.
Pennsylvania, over Susquehanna River, 77.
New Brunswick, over Raritan River, 77.
over Florida Keys, 78.
at Slateford, Pa., 78.
over Big Muddy River, 78.
at Washington, D. C., 78.
Moodna Valley, steel trestle over, 143.
at Towanda, Pa., 144.
first steel bridge in America, 144.
across the Delaware, 367.
Brilliant cut-off (Pennsylvania Railroad), 148, 149.
Britton, H. M., 269.
Broad Street Station, Philadelphia, 88, 96, 97, 154, 320, 440.
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, its care for employees, 427, 428.
Brooks plant, Dunkirk, 127.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 423.
Brown, George, 16.
Brown, W. C., 167, 168, 362.
"Brown system," _see_ Demerit plan.
Bryant, Gridley, 6, 132.
Buffalo & Attica Railroad, 27.
Buffet sleepers, 307, 309.
Burlington, _see_ Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R.
Burr, Theodore, 57, 63.
Burwick, J. M., 420.
Cab, use of, 123.
Caissons, their use in tunnel-construction, 52.
in bridge-building, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 77.
Calvert Station, Baltimore, 96.
Camden Station, Baltimore, 96, 436.
Camden & Amboy Railroad, 10, 121.
Campbell, Henry R., 122.
Canadian Pacific Railway, 2, 32, 141, 142, 406, 414, 417.
Canals, 4, 5, 9, 13, 34, 35.
Car-ferries, 416, 417.
Car-inspectors, duties of, 402, 403.
Cars, storage of, 89;
cleaning of, 90;
construction of, 132;
platforms and vestibules of, 134, 135, 308;
use of steel for, 135;
"foreign cars," 389.
Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 17.
Carter, C. F., quoted, 24.
Cascade Tunnel, 436, 437, 441.
Cassatt, A. J., 160, 166.
Cathedral Mountain, the spiral tunnel under, 142.
Cattle, shipping of, on railroads, 328, 329.
Central Pacific Railroad, 30, 31, 32, 45, 357.
Central Railroad of New Jersey, 2, 313, 412.
Central Vermont, 333.
Charleston & Hamburg Railroad, 8, 123.
Cheney, Benjamin F., 372.
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, 2, 10, 16, 18.
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, 2, 127.
Chicago City Railway Company, 177.
Chicago Fast Mail, 189.
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, 3, 32, 300, 313, 356, 358.
Chicago-Montreal flyer, 414.
Chicago, railroad connections of, 27;
Northwestern station at, 88, 101, 106, 321;
La Salle Station at, 101.
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, 3, 28, 364, 386.
Chicago & Alton Railroad, 144, 300-304.
Chicago & Northwestern Railway, 3, 27, 28, 313, 356, 386.
Chicago & St. Louis Express (West Shore Railroad), 265-267.
Chief clerk, duties of, 220.
Civil War, railroad building during period of, 19, 20;
might have been averted by railroad development, 35.
Claim-agents, 174-179.
Cleveland stations in, 96, 418, 419.
Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad, 418.
Coal, handling of, 13;
as a freight business, 108, 109, 126, 339, 342;
substituted for wood as a fuel, 124;
mining of, 340.
Collinwood, Ohio, the Lake Shore's plant at, 394.
Columbia & Philadelphia Railroad, 12, 122, 401.
Commuter, the, 311;
his use of rapid transit, 313-324, 327, 384.
Competition among railroads, 355.
Complaints of public in regard to railroad service, 290, 291.
Conductor, duties of, 250, 251.
_Consolidation_, locomotive, 124, 125.
Construction work of railroads, 454.
Cooper, Peter, 17-19, 120.
Coöperation of railroads, 328.
Cornell University, agricultural school at, 360.
"Corridor trains," 134.
Cowan, John F., 22.
Crede, the English railroad town, 393.
_Crédit mobilier_, 31.
_Crescent City_, the, 299.
Crocker brothers, 30.
Crossings, railroad, 42.
Cumberland, on the National Highway, 16, 19, 394.
Cumberland Valley Railroad, 299.
Daly, C. F., 284.
Daniels, George H., 277.
Davis, Phineas, 120-122.
Davis, W. A., 377.
Davis & Gartner Co., 120.
_Decapod_, locomotive, 126.
Dee, River, bridge, 60.
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, 2, 44, 78, 88, 102, 145,
313, 315, 317, 385, 412.
Delaware & Hudson Railroad, 1, 5, 119, 126.
_Delmonico_, the, 304, 305.
Demerit plan, 211, 212.
Depew (New York), shops of the New York Central at, 394.
Detroit River tunnel, 54, 55, 413, 436, 441.
Devereux, John H., 418.
_De Witt Clinton_, locomotive, 13, 120.
Dexter, Judge, 29.
Dickens's "American Notes," quoted, 11.
Dining-cars, conveniences of, 134, 304-307.
Division superintendent, duties of, 187-189, 202-219, 272-275.
Dorsey, John M., 314.
Dresden, Germany, train-sheds in, 103.
Duluth & Iron Range Railroad, 420.
Eagle Pass, 40.
Edison, Thomas A., 432.
Efficiency in railroad service, 449-464.
Eighteen-hour trains, between New York and Chicago, 298.
Electricity, its use in tunnel-construction, 51, 52.
in bridge-building, 70.
substituted for steam, 104, 105, 137, 432-441.
used for lighting, 303, 315-321.
Elevated and subway lines, 440.
_El Gobernador_, locomotive, 126.
Elkhart, Indiana, railroad shops of the Lake Shore Railroad at, 394.
Embankment, construction of, 44;
largest, 45.
Emigration bureaus, 356, 358.
Empire State Express (New York Central), 285, 286.
Employees, protection of, 176-179, 422, 423.
"Engine sheds," 390.
Engine wheels, first turning of, in America, 7.
Engineer, duties of, 90, 247, 248.
Engines in yards and roundhouses, 89, 90.
English roundhouse principle, 89.
Enterprise line, the, 405.
Erie Canal, New York State, 4, 13, 14, 15.
Erie, Pa., transfer of passengers at, 14.
Erie Railroad, 22-25, 59, 60, 124, 126, 142, 143, 164, 299, 313-315,
317, 361, 392-394, 412, 417, 429, 430, 435.
Erie & Western Transportation Company, 417.
_Evening Star_, the, 299.
Excursions, use of, 358.
Express business, 369.
Express messenger, duties of, 251, 252.
Fargo, William G., 371, 372.
"Farmers' special," 360, 361, 363.
Felton, S. M., 124.
Ferry fleets, 412-415.
Fillmore, President, his trip on the Erie, 23.
Finances of railroad, 179-186.
Fireman, duties of, 90, 246, 391, 392.
Fish, shipping of, 345, 346.
Fisk, Jim, 299.
Fitchburg, Railroad, 96, 98.
Florida East Coast Railroad, 77, 78.
Florida Keys, 78.
Folders, bill for printing of, 288.
Food, shipping of, to the city, 343, 344.
Forbes, James M., 27.
Forney, M. N., 125.
Fort Wayne subsidiary, the, 147, 148.
France, railroad in, 35.
Frankfort, Germany, train-sheds in, 103.
Franklin, Benjamin, 375.
Frazer River bridge, 66.
Freehold & Jamesburg Agricultural Railroad (Pennsylvania Railroad), 359.
Freight claims, 183.
Freight, railroads once prohibited from carrying, 9;
Erie's profits from, 25;
handling of, 34, 88, 107-118, 194;
traffic, 318, 325-354;
rate system for, 329-331;
threefold classification of, 330-332;
"back haul," 334;
Australian system of, 334-336;
"demurrage," 338;
fast trains for, 343.
Freight terminals, 107-115, 408.
Freight traffic-manager, duties of, 326, 327.
Fruit, shipping of California, 344, 345.
Fullerton, H. B., 362.
Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, 27.
Gallitzin Tunnel, 12, 50, 149, 441.
Garrett, John W., 20, 21.
Garrett, Robert, 21, 22.
Gasolene engine, use of, 137.
Gauge, standard, 46.
General attorney of the railroad, duties of, 170-174.
General counsel of the railroad, duties of, 170-174.
General manager, duties of, 187-201.
General passenger agent, duties of, 276-291, 366.
General superintendent, duties of, 190.
Genesee Valley Road, 143.
Geneva, N. Y., agricultural experimental school, 360.
_George Washington_, locomotive, 122.
Gould roads, 2, 3, 32.
Government regulation of railroads, 329.
_Governor Paine_, locomotive, 123.
Grades, railroad, 40, 41, 48, 139-151.
Grand Central Railroad, 316, 317, 420.
Grand Canal (Erie), 4.
Grand Central Station, New York, 88, 95, 96, 104, 315, 321, 384, 419,
421, 438, 439, 440.
Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, 416.
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, 3, 32, 42, 304, 333, 414, 416, 417, 436.
"Grangers," 3.
Grant, General, 302, 303.
_Grasshopper_, locomotive, 120.
Great Lakes, highway up the, 414.
Great Northern Express Company, 373.
Great Northern Railroad, 2, 32, 126, 147, 300, 358, 417, 437.
Great Western Railway, _see_ Grand Trunk.
Greenville, freight station at, 109, 110.
Gyroscope, _see_ Mono-rail.
Hackensack River Bridge, 76, 206, 207.
Hadley, President, of Yale, 17.
Hand-brakes, use of, 250.
Hanson, Inga, 177.
Harbor fleet, a, 406, 407, 408.
Harlem River Branch (New Haven), 316, 317, 438.
Harnden, William F., 370, 371, 372.
Harriman, E. H., 139-141, 159, 166, 167, 358.
Harriman lines, 2, 297, 358, 406, 455-458, 460-463.
Harsemus Cove, 109, 110.
_Harvard_, the, 405, 406.
Haupt, Herman, 451, 452.
Hazard, Ebenezer, 374.
Headlight, first use of, 124.
"Head-room," 42.
Hill, J. J., his roads, 2, 147, 159, 166, 167, 358, 373, 406.
Hinckley, --, a locomotive builder, 122.
Hine, Charles, 453-455, 459-461, 463.
Hoboken, Lackawanna Terminal at, 88, 102, 109.
Honesdale, Pa., switchback at, 41.
Hoosac Tunnel, 49, 437.
Hopkins, Mark, 30.
Hornellsville, Erie shops at, 392-394.
Horse Shoe Curve, 12.
Hotel-cars, _see_ Dining-cars.
Howe, --, designer of bridges, 63.
Hudson, Commodore, bronze statue of, 354.
Hudson River Tunnel, 102, 412.
Huntington, Collis P., 30, 32.
Ice-floes, obstructions to the railroad marine, 416.
Idaho & Washington Northern Railroad, 73.
Illinois Central Railroad, 1, 28, 78, 313, 320, 321, 385, 429.
Imperial Limited (Canadian Pacific Railway), 141.
Inland Water Ways, 404-417.
Insurance, for railroad employees, 423.
Interstate Commerce Commission, 13, 329, 333, 335, 355, 374, 451.
Interstate Commerce Law, 210.
Interurban electric service, 432-434.
Ithaca, N. Y., switchback at, 41.
Jamaica, station at (Long Island), 318, 319.
Jamestown Exposition of 1907, 441.
_Jay Gould_, the, 299.
Jersey City, 109.
Jersey Heights Tunnel, 102.
Jervis, John B., 121.
Jewell, Postmaster General, 378.
_John Bull_, locomotive, 121.
Joy line, the, 405.
Judah, Theodore D., 29, 30, 31.
Kansas, boom in, 357.
Kentucky River bridge, 66.
Kicking Horse River, tunnel near, 142.
Kingwood Tunnel, 41, 49, 122.
Kirkwood, James P., 59, 77.
Kruttschnitt, Julius, 298, 455, 456, 458-460.
Lackawanna cut-off, 145.
Lackawanna Railroad, _see_ Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad.
Lake Michigan, an obstruction to land traffic, 415.
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, 14, 27, 205, 378, 385, 394,
418, 419, 421.
Lane cut-off (Union Pacific), 44, 140.
Lard, shipping of, 342.
La Salle Street Station, Chicago, 101.
Latrobe, B. H., 19, 41, 49, 58, 60, 63, 122.
Lehigh Valley Railroad, 2, 144, 286, 361, 385.
Leiper, Thomas, 6.
Lewis, Isaac, Erie engineer, 25.
Lickey plane, 122.
Lights, code of, 86.
Lincoln, Abraham, 300, 302.
Link device, use of, 124.
Liquor, prohibition of use of, 421.
Livingston & Company, 372.
Locomotives, 5, 7, 8, 18, 26, 119-131.
Long Island commuters, 102, 103.
Long Island Express Company, 373.
Long Island Railroad, 1, 109, 313, 318, 320, 362, 412.
Long Key Viaduct, 78.
Loree, L. F., 22.
Lowell, Mass., in 1831, 9.
Lucin cut-off, The (Southern Pacific), 139, 140.
M. K. & T., 450.
McAdoo Tunnel, 317.
McCrea, James, 167, 194, 195.
McCrea, the engineer, 420, 421.
McGraham, James, 331.
McPherson, Logan G., quoted, 20.
Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad, 26, 124.
Magazines, railroad employees', 429.
Mail clerks, duties of, 251, 252, 377-383.
Mail-service, railway, 369-387.
Maintenance Way Department, 388.
Mallet articulated compound, 126, 127.
Manchester & Liverpool line, 9.
Mann, Col. W. D., 135.
Manunka Chunk, tunnel at, 145.
Marine, the railroad, 404-417.
Market Street Station, Philadelphia, 88, 97.
Martin, T. E., 363.
_Maryland_, the, 413.
Mason, a locomotive builder, 122.
Master Car Builders, organization of, 136, 137, 390, 401.
Master mechanic, duties of, 389, 400, 401.
_Mastodon_, locomotive, 125, 126.
Mauch Chunk, colliery railroad at, 9, 41, 136.
Metropolitan Line, the, 405.
Metropolitan Street Railway Company, New York City, 172.
Meyers, George, 418, 419.
Michigan Central Railroad, 27, 28, 54, 302, 385, 413, 414, 436.
Michigan Southern Railroad, 27, 28.
_Michigan_, the transport, 414.
Middlesex Canal, traffic on, in 1829, 9.
Milholland, James, 124.
Military Academy at West Point, parade-ground of, 265.
Milk, carrying of, to city, 347-351.
Mills, James C., quoted, 415, 416.
Minnehaha Bridge, at St. Paul, 66.
Minot, Charles, 25.
Missouri Pacific Railroad, 29.
Missouri, steel bridge across the, 144.
Moguls, locomotives, 124.
Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, 13, 41, 121.
Mono-rail, 441-445.
Monon Railroad, 385.
Monongahela River Bridge, 60.
Moodna Valley, steel trestle over, 143.
Morgan, J. P., 296, 328.
_Morning Star_, the, 299.
Morris Run, the, 133.
Morse, William, 265-267.
Mott Haven yards, 439.
Mount Clare yards, Baltimore, 120, 132.
Mount Royal station, Buffalo, 436.
Murray, Oscar G., 22.
National Express Company, 373.
Naugatuck Railroad, 135.
New Brunswick bridge, over Raritan River, 77.
New England Navigation Company, 405.
New Haven Railroad, 1, 109, 147, 300, 313, 315, 316, 413, 419, 438-440.
New York Central, 2, 14, 22, 27, 41, 104, 126, 147, 151, 154, 155, 167,
205, 268, 284, 285, 297, 298, 313, 315-317, 320, 361-363, 370,
384, 394, 407-410, 419-421, 435, 438.
New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, 14, 104, 353, 378, 417, 434.
New York Connecting Railroad, 109.
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, 98, 104, 315, 320, 404-406,
412, 433.
New York, railroad connections of, 10, 21;
tunnels in, 49;
stations at, 88, 95, 96, 102-104, 159-162, 315, 318, 319, 321, 412,
419, 421, 438-440;
harbor and commerce of, 409-412;
ferries in, 413-415.
New York & Harlem Railroad, 14, 60.
New York & New England Railroad, 98.
Newspapers, rapid delivery of, 382.
Niagara River bridge, 66.
Norfolk & Western Railroad, 144, 421.
Norris, William, 122.
North Station, Boston, 88, 97, 98, 313, 319, 320, 324, 384.
Northern Central Railroad, 11, 96.
Northern Cross Railroad, 26.
Northern Pacific Railroad, 2, 29, 32, 50, 51.
Northern Steamship Company, 417.
Northwestern station, Chicago, 88, 101, 106, 321.
Norwich, Conn., 10.
Observation cars, 308, 309.
Officials of railroads, 170-219.
Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, 19.
Old Colony Railroad, 98, 405.
_Olympic_, the, 407.
Oneida Railways Company, 435.
Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company, 460.
Organization, as a means to secure efficiency, 449-464.
Osgood, Samuel, 375.
"Our Inland Seas," quotation from, 416.
Oxford Furnace, tunnel at, 145.
Pacific coast, railroad connections of, 28-32.
Pacific type of locomotive, 127.
Paderewski at Vassar, 294, 295.
Palmer, Timothy, 58.
Panhandle subsidiary, The, 147, 148.
Panic, of '37, 13;
of '07, 162, 359, 360.
Pape, Edward, 176, 177.
Park Avenue Tunnel, 439.
Park Square Station, Boston, 95, 96, 98.
Parkersburg, W. Va., railroad connections of, 19;
grade at, 41.
Parsons, Superintendent, 430.
Passenger coaches, 132-134, 398-400.
Passenger service, first road to have regular, 8.
Paterson works, 121, 122, 124.
Pay-car, gradual disappearance of the, 180.
Pend Oreille River bridge, 73.
Pennsylvania Railroad, 2, 12, 49, 50, 61, 76, 77, 96, 109, 110, 123,
135, 145, 146, 154, 159, 167, 170, 194, 297, 298, 300, 313, 317,
320, 359, 379, 385, 386, 394, 401, 406, 412, 413, 417, 421,
423-427, 435, 441, 451.
Pennsylvania Station, New York, 88, 102-104, 159-162, 318, 319, 412,
440.
Pensions, granted to employees, 425, 426.
People's line, 12.
People's Pacific Railroad, 29.
Pere Marquette Railway, 416, 429.
Perham, Josiah, 29, 30.
Permanent Bridge, across Schuylkill River at Philadelphia, 58.
Philadelphia, Germantown, and Norristown Railroad, 123.
Philadelphia, railroad connections of, 10, 11, 15, 21;
stations at, 88, 96, 97, 154, 320, 440.
Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, 20.
Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad, 12.
Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, 2, 97, 124.
"Piano-box" system of switches, 84, 85, 86.
Pig iron, handling of, 341, 342.
_Pioneer_, locomotive, 27.
_Pioneer_, sleeping-car, 301, 302, 303.
Pittsburgh, railroad connections of, 11, 12, 15, 18, 19;
suburban traffic of, 147, 148;
Union Station at, 148.
Planes, inclined, disuse of, 11, 12.
Plumbe, John, 29.
Pomeroy, George, 371.
Pooling, objections to, 328, 331.
Portage, N. Y., bridge at, 62.
Portage Railroad, _see_ Alleghany Portage Railroad.
Post-office Department, United States, 372-387.
Poughkeepsie Bridge, 66.
Prairie, type of locomotive, 127.
Pratt, --, designer of bridges, 61.
_President_, the, 304.
President of the railroad, the, 152-169.
Prince Rupert, on Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad, 32.
Private car lines, 13, 293-298.
Promotion in railroad service, 245, 255.
Providence, R. I., railroad connections of, 10.
"Public service stations," 287.
Pullman, George M., 134, 299, 393.
Pullman and its railroad shops, 393, 394.
Pullman cars, construction of, 303.
Pullman Palace Car Company, 303.
_Queen City_, the, 299.
Quincy Granite Railroad, 132.
Railroad, The.
history of, in United States, 3-33.
English, 5, 7.
first American, 6.
horse-power, 6, 12, 17.
communal nature of early, 12.
paper of, 23.
treatment of bankrupt, 23.
telegraph first used by, 23.
development and building of, 34-48.
grants for, 35, 36.
cost of, 36.
financing of, 36, 37, 179-186.
keeping open for winter traffic, 38, 268-275.
water for use of, 41.
crossings on, 42.
tunnels, 48-55, 145-150, 436, 437.
bridges, 42, 56-79.
stations, 80-106.
suburban service, 80, 81, 90, 311-324.
roundhouses, 88-90.
yards, 83-91, 115-118.
freight terminals, 107-115, 408.
locomotives and cars, 119-137, 388-404.
building of the locomotive, 128-132.
building of cars, 132-137.
reconstruction of, 138.
grades, 139-151.
officials, 152-169, 187-219, 276-287.
legal department, 170-179.
financial department, 179-186.
tickets, 181-183, 288-290.
operating, 220-242.
time table, 221-223.
signals, 225-227, 236-238.
use of telephone, 235.
employees, 243-255, 418-431.
wrecking trains, 256.
rates, 282-287.
special trains and private cars, 292-310.
commuters' trains, 311-324.
freight traffic, 325-355.
freight rates, 327-337.
scientific farming, 359-366.
express service, 369-374.
mail service, 374-387.
marine, 404-418.
ferries, 407-418.
electricity, 432-445.
mono-rail, 441-445.
organization, 449-464.
Rails laid on stone sleepers, 11.
Reading Railroad, 123, 313, 320.
Rebating, prohibition of, 328, 329.
Reconstruction of railroads, 138-151.
Red Line, All-British, 141.
Red Spot, Order of the, 430, 431.
Repair shops, locomotive and car, 400.
"Residences," in railroad construction, 43.
Richardson, the architect, 106.
Rider, Nathaniel, 60.
Rio Grande & Western Railroad, 74.
Roadmaster, duties of, 239, 240.
Roads as compared with canals, 5.
Rochester, railroad connections of, 13, 14;
depot, 96.
Rock Island, _see_ Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R.
Rockaway section, Long Island, home of Lillian Russell, 294.
Rockefeller, Mr., 296.
Roebling's suspension at Niagara Falls, 75.
Rogers, Grosvenor, and Ketchum, locomotive builders, of Paterson, N. J.,
26;
locomotive works, 121, 122, 124.
Ronkonkoma, Long Island, home of Maude Adams, 293, 294.
Roosevelt, Governor, 217, 218.
Rotary plough, 271.
Roundhouses, 88-90, 270, 388-402.
Rural free delivery, development of, 376.
Russell, Lillian, 294.
Rutland Railroad, 417.
Sacramento Valley Railroad, 30.
Sails on cars, experiments with, 17.
St. Albans, Vt., 333, 335.
St. John's Church, New York, 354.
St. John's Park, New York, 353, 354.
St. Louis, railroad connections of, 19, 29;
Union Station at, 88, 97, 99, 100, 106.
St. Paul, _see_ Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul R. R.
Salaries, paid to railroad presidents, 168, 169;
to the general attorney, 171.
"Sand-hogs," 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73.
_Sandusky_, first locomotive with whistle, 26, 124.
Santa Fe, _see_ Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R.
Schedules, Train, _see_ Time Tables.
Scherl, August, 443.
Secret service, the railroad's, 177-179.
Section-boss, duties of, 239, 240, 431.
Seibert, Leonard, 301.
Signal, bell-rope, 124, 225, 226, 227;
along line of railroad, 236;
interlocking, 236;
block system of, 237;
operation of, 236-239;
maintenance of, 239.
Signal towers, 82, 84-87.
_Situation_, The, the official daily report, 196, 197.
Slateford, Pa., bridge, 78.
Sleeping-cars, introduction and use of, 299, 301, 302.
Smith, A. H., 205.
Smith, C. Shaler, 66.
Smith, Reuben F., 418.
Snow-belt of Great Lakes, 268.
Snow ploughs, 38.
Snow-sheds, 268.
South Carolina Railroad, 8.
South Station, Boston, 88, 97-99, 313, 319, 320, 384.
Southern California, interurban electric line in, 297.
Southern Express company, 373.
Southern Pacific Railroad, 2, 32, 126, 139, 144, 159, 441, 454.
Spearman, Frank H., 144.
Spiral tunnels, 141, 142.
Spokane case, the, 334, 335.
Springfield, Mass., bridge, 57.
Springfield, station at, 106.
Springstead, Harvey, 431.
Stage, Henry W., 418.
Stampede Tunnel, 50, 51.
Stanford, Leland, 30, 31.
Starucca Viaduct, 58, 59, 77.
Station-agent, multifarious duties of, 253-255.
Stations, _see under_ Railroad.
Statistics, making of railroad, 184-186.
Steam brake, 125.
Steamships, 352, 353, 404, 405.
Steel, use of, 56, 61, 72, 125, 386, 397-400.
Stephenson, George, inventor, 5, 121.
Stephenson, George & Robert & Company, 121.
Stephenson, Robert, 125.
Steubenville, Ohio, bridge, 75, 76.
Stonington, Conn., railroad connections of, 10.
_Stourbridge Lion_, locomotive, 7, 8, 119.
Street railroad systems, 427, 428.
Stubbs, of the Union Pacific, 298.
Suburban service, 80, 81, 90, 98, 99, 147, 148, 315-319, 440.
Superintendent of bridges, 239, 240.
Superintendents, 153-155, 187, 220, 221-242.
Susquehanna Railroad, _see_ Northern Central Railroad.
Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania R. R. bridge over, 77.
Susquehanna River bridge, between Havre-de-Grace and Aiken, 64, 65.
Susquehanna shop, 393, 394.
Swindon, the English railroad town, 393.
Switchback principle, 41.
Switches and switchmen, 84-86, 111-118, 252, 253, 320.
Tacony, Philadelphia trains stopped at, 10.
Taylor, President Zachary, 123.
Telegraph, Erie first railroad to use, 24;
development of, in 1851, 24;
introduction of, 25, 224;
substitution of telephone for, 235, 236;
crippling of service of, 267, 268.
Telephone, use of, 235, 236.
Terminal, keeper of the, 82;
map of tracks and station of, 83, 84;
guarded by interlocking switches, 84, 85.
Terminals, _see_ Railroad stations;
_also_ Freight terminals.
Thomas, Philip E., 16, 19.
Thomas Viaduct, 58, 59, 76.
Thompson, A. W., 65.
Thomson, J. Edgar, 6.
Thomson, John, 6.
"Throat" of station yard, 87, 88.
Tickets and mileage-books, 182, 276-278, 286;
bill for printing, 288;
rate-sheet for, 289;
redemption of, 289, 290.
Time Tables, 221.
Tioga Railroad, 133.
_Tom Thumb_, locomotive, 18, 120.
Towanda, Pa., bridge at, 144.
Towermen, 82, 83, 85, 274.
Townsend, Oscar, 418.
Track-laying, world's record of, 45;
profession of, 45, 46;
machine for, 46.
Track, on which _Stourbridge Lion_ locomotive ran, 7.
Track-walker, responsibility of, 253.
Traffic, making of freight and passenger, 355-368.
Trailer, the, 128, 129.
Train-despatcher, 221, 223, 224, 228-231, 233-235, 261.
Trainman, _see_ Brakeman, duties of.
Train-master, duties of, 221.
Transcontinental railroads, 357, 358.
Transfer-house, 111-116.
Travelling passenger agents, duties of, 278.
Trenton, bridge at, 57, 77.
"Trolley arrangement" in freight-houses, 450.
Trumbull, --, bridge-builder, 60.
Tug, use of, 407, 409, 412.
Tunnels, 41, 48-55, 102, 104, 122, 141, 142, 145, 160, 161, 317-319,
412-414, 436, 437, 439, 441.
Turner, John B., 28.
Turn-tables, 89.
Underwood, F. D., 23, 142, 143, 164.
Union line, 13.
Union Pacific Railroad, 2, 28, 31, 32, 44, 137, 139-141, 298, 357, 459.
Union Station, Cleveland, 96, 418, 419.
Union Station, Pittsburgh, 148.
Union Station, St. Louis, 88, 97, 99, 100, 106.
Union Station, Washington, 88, 100, 101, 106.
United States Express Company, 372, 373.
Utica, railroad connections of, 13, 14.
Vanderbilt, Commodore, 14, 22, 378, 379.
Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 419.
Vanderbilt, William H., 378, 379.
Vanderbilt family, the, 354, 419, 434.
Vermont Central Railroad, 123.
Vice-presidents of railroads, 156.
Voluntary Relief Department, 423-425.
Von Moltke, his reconstruction of the German army, 452.
Wabash Railroad, 26, 51, 414.
Wagner Palace Car Company, 300.
Walcott, --, builder of Springfield, Mass., bridge, 57.
Walsheart gears, 128.
Washington, George, 375.
"Washington cars," 132, 133.
Washington, Connecticut Avenue Bridge at, 78;
Union Station at, 88, 100, 101, 106.
Water for use of railroad, 41.
Water transportation, _see_ Inland Water Ways.
Waterford bridge, over Hudson River, 57.
Watertown, blizzard at, 268.
Waverley, the interchange yard, 110.
Webster, Daniel, and his trip on the Erie, 23, 25.
Weehawken "bridge," 411.
Wells, Henry, 371, 372.
Wells, Fargo & Co., 372, 373.
West Penn Road, 149.
_West Point_, locomotive, 9.
West Shore Railroad, 75, 151, 265, 412, 434, 435.
Western Pacific Railroad, 29, 32.
Western Railroad, 10.
Westinghouse, George, 125.
Wheeling, railroad connections of, 18, 19.
Whipple, Squire, 61, 63.
Whistle on locomotive, first use of, 26, 124.
Whitney, Asa, 29, 30.
Whitney, Silas, 6.
Whyte's classification, 127, 128.
Wiley, Dr., 397.
Willard, Daniel, 22.
Winans, Ross, 19, 122, 124, 132, 133.
Winnipeg shops, 393.
Women, conveniences for travelling, 309.
Woodruff Company, 299, 300.
Worcester, station at, 106.
World's Fair of 1904, St. Louis, 99.
Wrecks, railroad, 189, 194-196;
wrecking-trains for, 257-265.
_Yale_, the, 405, 406.
Yardmaster, duties of, 189, 190, 193, 227-229.
_York_, _see_ _Arabian_, locomotive.
Young Men's Christian Association, 418, 419.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Modern Railroad, by Edward Hungerford