IRLF 375 REESE LIBRARY OF THK UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Received .. i^/^*^L, i8p./. Accessions THE ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. A SERIES OF SHORT ESSAYS REPRINTED FROM THE RAILROAD GAZETTE, BY CHARLES PAINE. PUBLISHED BY THE RAILROAD GAZETTE, No. 73 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 1885. COPYRIGHT, 1884, BY THE RAILROAD GAZETTE. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. SURVEYING AND CONSTRUCTION. PAGE The Selection of Men Final Location Tact Accurate Notes Specifications Overseeing Foundations Tracklaying ........ i CHAPTER il. REAL ESTATE AND RECORDS. Titles The Land Department Acquiring Titles Title Records Maps A Modern Instance Preservation of Records Retaining Possession Miscellaneous Reports ......... 14 CHAPTER III. DRAINAGE. Results of Bad Drainage Ditches at Top of Slope Tile Drains Pole Drains Draining Yards Ditching Provision against Floods 25 CHAPTER IV. MAIN TRACK. The Ideal Track Ballast Surfacing Joints Sleepers . 39 IV CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. TRACKMEN AND SIDINGS. PAGE The Treatment of Trackmen Tools and Equipment Shoveling Snow Locating Sidings Frogs and Switches 48 CHAPTER VI. STATIONS. Roomy Sites Location Offices and Waiting Rooms Water Closets Freight Houses Water Works . 58 CHAPTER VII. SHOPS AND ENGINE-HOUSES. Location Buildings Heating Foundry Interior Fit- tings Sanitary Arrangements Cranes Round- HousesTurn-Tables 71 CHAPTER VIII. TELEGRAPH LINES AND* FENCES. Poles, Wires, etc. Uses of the Telegraph Telegraphers Fences Barbed Wire Posts Gates . . . . 85 CHAPTER IX. LOCOMOTIVES. Runners should be Rotated Locomotives Continuously Worked Interchangeability of Parts Inspection during Construction Leading Freight Engines Premiums to Enginemen Firing Painting Pat- terns Weights, etc . 97 CHAPTER X. CARS. Quality of Axles Wheel Threads Round Wheels Trucks and Safety Attachments Interchangeability of Parts Interchange of Cars Lubrication Limit of Loads . 112 CONTENTS. V CHAPTER XI. THE MOVEMENT OF FREIGHT. PAGE To make all Cars Available Prompt Loading and Un- loading Reporting Foreign Car Mileage Scales and Cranes Charging Separate Items Avoid Switching Long Trains Freight Blockades .... 125 CHAPTER XII. THE MOVEMENT OF PASSENGERS. Treatment of Passengers Discipline of Trainmen Inspec- tion of Coaches Uniforms Refreshments Local Trains Porters Baggage . . . . . 137 CHAPTER XIII. EMPLOYES. Promotions Treatment of Derelicts Selection of Em ployes Rewards and Punishments Provisions for Comfort Associations 147 ELEMENTS OF RAI .ROADING. CHAPTER I. SURVEYING AND CONSTRUCTION. THE SELECTION OF MEN FINAL LOCATION TACT ACCURATE NOTES SPECIFICATIONS OVERSEEING FOUNDATIONS TRACKLAYING. The organization of the engineering party for the survey of a new railroad is usually intended to be a temporary one, yet its results are often enduring in their effect upon the road and upon the persons engaged in the surveys ; the men, who go as rod- men, chainmen, and axemen, naturally become attached to the road in one capacity or another, even if a long interval shall elapse between the first surveys and construction. When the ground is broken, they will surely be at hand, and persist in being identified with the fate of the enterprise. 2 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. It is, therefore, worth while, in the beginning, to select the men with care ; and if the men, of course, all the more the officers who are to com- mand them. The chief engineer in charge of the surveys should be chosen for well-known ability and ex- perience in construction, united to an acquaintance with the needs of a road in operation ; and not for any other kind of availability. An ignorant and unskillful location may cost not only unneces- sary sums in construction, but perpetual expendi- tures afterward in the cost of hauling trains, or large outlays to remedy the defects of the road as first built. We may imagine a piece of country in which the location or construction of a railroad would be a very simple matter ; but a region which is at all difficult will present problems requiring a high order of talent for their solution. These are truths which are perfectly familiar to engineers ; but are so often ignored by capitalists, or by their representatives, who undertake the direction in the building of railroads, that it seems advisable to reassert them whenever there is a favorable opportunity to do so. The best location can not be determined except upon the ground ; the most trained and expert imagination can not take in from contour maps all the details which are seized on a view of the prob- lem upon the natural scale. The maps may be of great value in its determination after a study of TACT. 3 the ground, or they may enable an experienced person to form an opinion as to whether a loca- tion is good or decidedly bad ; but a line drawn in the office by the chief engineer, when he has not had time to visit the spot, is not sure to be the best. On this account, the final surveys should not be too much hurried ; if a necessity for haste exists, then there is necessity also for more than one engineer to whom the decision of difficult problems maybe confided ; for, it is insisted upon, they ought to be decided in the field. It seems frequently to be supposed that it is the instru- ments which perform the location, and not the understanding and judgment which direct them. It is a mistaken economy which strives to accomplish cheap surveys, or a cheap supervision of the construction of a railroad. In setting out upon a railroad survey, it is not uncommon for a party to proceed like an army in the enemy's country, without the smallest regard to the rights of the proprietors over whose land they must pass ; trampling growing crops, throw- ing down fences, cutting valuable trees, appro- priating fence rails or fence boards to make stakes, and afterward expressing surprise at the unfriendly disposition of the owners of the soil. The dislike of the railroad company and of railroad men which this first impression engenders, frequently endures, in an agricultural community, for many years after the railway has gone into operation ; 4 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. nothing could be more impolitic than such a beginning, and nothing is more unnecessary. Of course, it is not possible to avoid crossing the fields, but straggling through them can be pre- vented ; when a fence is taken down it should be carefully restored ; a valuable tree should not be cut, except upon final location; and then it should be explained to the owner that he will be paid for it. As " a soft answer turneth away wrath," so an expression of regret to him at the invasion of his domain, which duty has compelled the party to make, and an assurance that it shall do as little injury as possible, will often convert him into a friend, especially if he finds it to be true that he is not damaged more than need be. For this reason, the material for stakes should be pur- chased ; the best way, where there is a saw-mill accessible, is to have them manufactured in bun- dles, and delivered at the most convenient points. They will be better stakes, and cost less than if the material for them is stolen, and they are made in the field by an axeman. After the line has been determined, it is very pru- dent, and will prove most convenient, to fix it at frequent intervals by references, recorded in the note-books, to permanent objects beyond the mar- gins of the works, such as trees, ledges, heavy bowlders, fence corners and buildings, where they can be availed of ; and by reference-plugs when they can not. No one can foresee at what moment A CCURA TE NO TES. 5 operations may be suspended, nor for how long, nor what may befall the stakes or the center plugs, which are sometimes plowed up, often mali- ciously removed by persons who have a grudge to satisfy ; and always exterminated by the operations of the contractors. With frequent reference points in his notes, the constructing engineer can smile at the attempts to annoy him in this way: and if the completion of the work should be delayed, even for a generation, his successor will bless him for the ready means which he has pro- vided for restoring his line. Having in view the various possibilities which may devolve upon another the completion of the work which he has begun, the conscientious engi- neer will require that all note-books shall be dated and shall state by whom the notes were written ; and, so far as practicable, to what they refer. If the final location is arrived at, or what is presumed to be such, the note-books, plans and profiles hav- ing reference to it should be inscribed accordingly, and should be carefully annotated if any subsequent change is made. There is no minute detail which does not become precious to any one who follows a preceding engineer upon railroad work, and it is each one's duty to make his notes so full that they shall be easily understood by whomsoever he may be succeeded ; yet the characteristic of many note- books, as also of many office plans and profiles, is meagerness ; they contain nothing that could pos- 6 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. siblybe omitted, and rarely any thing by which the part of the world to which they have reference can be readily known. Of course those now referred to are the working plans. It is probable that their incompleteness is due to the haste with which nearly all office work must be done, and to the fact that no one is expected to use them except he who makes them or who has them made. Yet a title and a date, if only in pencil, will be a sure guarantee of future usefulness, and should be in- variably required by instructions to all assistants and draughtsmen from their superiors. The dis- covery of such a date upon a plan which bore the outlines of the then condition of an important work once proved the chief means by which a great lawsuit was decided, for it enabled the prin- cipal witness to recall the circumstances under which he had made the plan, which was then only to be used for an approximate estimate ; but, after ten or twelve years had elapsed, became valuable for a final one. There should always be more than one copy of all notes of information which is likely to be per- manently valuable. Immense damage and uncer- tainty may result from the loss of a note-book, if it contains, for instance, the only notes of the first cross-sections of borrow pits or other excavations ; a loss which is not only possible, but, according to experience, is a frequent one. Even if the infor- mation which is lost could be recovered, it is SORROW-PITS. 7 cheaper and more convenient to have recorded it in the office, than to be compelled to make another survey. Let no haste, or other consideration, tempt an engineer to permit any excavation to be attacked, before all the cross-sections of the sur- face have been taken which will be required for an accurate estimate; for he can not foresee the causes of delay which may intervene before he can per- form the leveling, after the digging has begun. Shrewd contractors are on the look-out for such instances of neglect, and will take advantage of them, when they claim, as they often do at the last, an underestimate. At such a time, when before the courts, the engineer's judgment or recol- lection as to the surface of the ground is no more valuable than that of the contractor's foreman ; but his instrumental determination of it is gener- ally conclusive. Specifications generally do, and always should provide that borrow-pits must be finished to regu- lar lines and surfaces, according to the direction of the engineer ; yet they are almost always left unfinished to any line and in a condition to be an eyesore to every traveler ; filled with scattered stumps, bowlders and pools of stagnant water, making the area over which they extend unfit for any use whatever. Even if some small economy were effected by leaving them in this disorderly state, it could not justify the conversion of a fair piece of hillside or 8 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. meadow into a hideous pit, to deface the railroad margin and the neighborhood ; but usually the con- tract price covers the cost of having the ground left in acceptable shape, and only the engineer in charge is to blame that it is not left so. He should remember that, although he may be build- ing through a wilderness, his work is likely to make it " blossom as the rose," for population surely follows the railroad. Even in the wilder- ness the roadway should be neat and orderly, first, as a matter of discipline, and second, because it is easier and cheaper to keep it so than neglect it. The twigs and weeds can be easily mowed, and burned while small ; if neglected, they will intrude beyond endurance, and when they have grown strong the task of clearing the roadway is a serious one. It is not alone as to borrow-pits that the specifications are not enforced, or purposely say more than they intend, leading to loose habits and bad work ; for the contractor seeks to avoid com- pliance in particulars of importance, because others of less consequence are not firmly insisted upon. The just way is carefully to prescribe in them exactly what will be required, and no more. In nothing is the mechanical law, that what is gained in speed is lost in power, more clearly exemplified than in the engineering department of a railway, both in surveys and in construction. If there is much important work, and it is to be pushed, the number of the engineers in charge VERSE KING. 9 must be increased in proportion to the vigor required. One engineer, however competent, is physically capable of only a- certain amount of oversight, and no satisfactory results can be relied upon except through supervision by persons of judgment and experience. The faults of construc- tion which have been lamented upon so many railroads, after they have gone into operation, have been due chiefly to the insufficiency of the engineering force employed. If a sufficient num- ber of assistants have been engaged, the low rate of pay allowed has not been enough to secure men of experience to decide wisely the innumerable problems which must be promptly settled, so that the work shall not be delayed. Left to himself, the chief engineer, if competent, will rarely fail to provide an efficient and capable staff; he is generally limited in this respect by the financial administration, and makes up by his own over- work so much of the deficiency as he can. The remedy for this must, perhaps, be left to time, showing by unfortunate experiences the bad results of a mistaken policy. Examples are plenty enough already, if they had their due effect. It would be better for the company that the chief engineer should err in having too many com- petent assistants, rather than by having employed too few ; for the loss in the first instance would be limited to a few salaries, and to the period of con- I O ELEMENTS OF RA ILROA DING. struction ; in the last instance the damage may be incalculable and perpetual. The most critical of all work upon a railway is the construction of foundations, whether for the more important bridges or for culverts which are comparatively insignificant in magnitude, but which may involve, by their failure, the most seri- ous destruction of life and interruption of traffic. The decision of the vital questions affecting these smaller structures, as the depth to which the excavation shall be carried, and the sufficiency of the bottom, is very often left to the sub-assistant, which is really a criminal neglect of duty on the part of the division engineer, if it comes from laziness or indifference on his part ; if from having too much else to attend to, he is certainly bound to protest to his superiors against being compelled to neglect the most important service upon which he can be employed. There are occasional failures of works of masonry due to their faulty workman- ship, or to an insufficient thickness of the walls, but they are rare in comparison with the numbers which fail from defective foundations, and it is to this part of his work that the engineer, the less experienced one particularly, should give his most earnest study. With all the information which he may derive from text-books and from the pub- lished examples of the works of others, he will find occasions for the use of his best common sense to apply his learning to the case in hand. FO UNDA TIONS. 1 1 The great value of concrete in foundations is slowly coming to be appreciated, yet is not availed of largely in railway works, except those of the most imposing character ; while the cheapness, convenience and superiority in all respects to any other sort of base, should recommend it for uni- versal use. It enables the engineer to build his superstructure on a monolith as long, as wide and as deep as he may think best to construct, which can not fail in parts, but must go all together, if of suitable proportions. We are favored in this country with cheap natural cements of excellent quality, seldom quite equal to the artificial cements in strength, but sufficient for all needs in walls and foundations, if properly chosen and carefully inspected ; but nothing is more likely to vary than one lot of cement from another of the same manufacture. It demands, therefore, great care in its use to obtain the best results ; but these are so valuable when attained, that no masonry should now be built without cement mortar. The common mortar of quicklime and sand is not fit for thick walls, be- cause it depends upon the slow action of the atmos- phere for hardening it, and, being excluded from the air by the surrounding masonry, the mortar in the interior of the mass hardens only after the lapse of years, or perhaps never ; the mortar of cement, if of good quality, sets immediately, and continues to harden without contact with the air, and, so far as is known, forever. 12 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. At the time when tracklaying begins, the en. gineering force is fully employed in hastening the completion of the grading, running lines and centers, and is probably harassed also by the de- mand for final estimates from impatient contract- ors. It will often be convenient, therefore, to place the inspection of lumber, sleepers, rails, spikes, bolts, angle-plates and similar supplies for the superstructure, in charge of a separate depart- ment organized to receive and forward these ma- terials to the places where they are to be used. The inspector can usually act as a tallyman and as a forwarding agent also; he should be governed in his inspection by the specifications from the engineers. However this may be arranged, it will be found advantageous to have all supplies inspected, and as near to the place of manufacture as possible ; for there will often be some materials offered which ought to be rejected, and there will be no loss suffered from transportation, and therefore less occasion for protests on the part of manufact- urers when they are thrown out before shipment. Steel rails need to be examined to insure that they are not brittle, that they are straight, of ex- act height, not depressed at the ends (a common and serious defect, and not to be remedied in the track, is this depression), and that they do not vary unreasonably in length. Of course they must be inspected for flaws; but the mills do that TRA CKLA YING. 1 3 usually quite thoroughly, since they have a good market for rails of second quality. The common defects in spikes are brittleness and imperfect points ; in joint-bolts, bad material, loose nuts, shallow threads ; in angle-plates, a variation from the true section which makes them fit badly a serious and not uncommon fault. It will require careful tallying and careful accounting to keep track of all the materials, to insure that none are stolen, and, more than all, that none are wasted. If track is laid by contractors, the proper allow- ance of them per mile should be determined and delivered to them upon receipts ; otherwise the spikes and joint-bolts will be scattered and buried, as if they were without value. CHAPTER II. REAL ESTATE AND RECORDS. TITLES THE LAND DEPARTMENT ACQUIRING TITLES TITLE RECORDS MAPS A MODERN INSTANCE PRESERVA- TION OF RECORDS RETAINING POSSESSION MISCELLA- NEOUS REPORTS. The titles by which real estate or landed prop- erty is held have always been the object of pecu- liar care among civilized nations, and one of the most important functions of our civil government is to provide for the accuracy and safety of the records by which they are perpetuated ; so that one could expect that the conveyances taken by a rail- road company would be cared for almost instinct- ively ; yet it has been the misfortune of many a railway president or manager to find that his predecessors had given no attention to the preser- vation or completion of the titles to the property belonging to the company over which he had been called to preside. LAND DEPARTMENT. 15 It will often be found that the original deeds, or the awards in condemnation proceedings, have never reached the office of the company ; they have perhaps been handed to some local attorney who acted temporarily for the company, and may be lost in one of his dustiest pigeon-holes ; indeed, conjecture can scarcely go astray in guessing what may have befallen a railroad company's title deeds, if they have not been carefully looked after by some person who has had exclusive charge of them. In the organization of a railroad company for the purpose of building a new railroad, after the engineering corps has been created, the very first necessity is the establishment of a land depart- ment with a capable officer at the head of it, who shall be responsible only to the president, or to the officer, by whatever name, who is charged with the chief responsibility in the construction of the road. The person selected for the head of the land department should have had some familiarity with land titles ; if he is an experienced convey- ancer, so much the better, and he must be an en- ergetic man, who will insist on having a perfect title to each piece of property paid for. A weak man will accept almost any title that is offered. A fair lawyer of the right character is likely to prove as serviceable as any person, if he is one of those who have been trained to be methodical in the care of papers, and if he can write a legible hand. 1 6 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. The papers concerning land titles should not be trusted to the care of the engineer's department, as they often are ; that department has too many other matters to attend to ; its personnel r is too apt to change frequently, while it is desirable that the person who has become familiar with the titles of the property shall remain in charge of them. The engineering department should prepare a small map of each property which is to be pur- chased or otherwise acquired, to be firmly and per- manently attached to the papers; this will render the description clear to all parties and will serve to correct any clerical error which may occur in the description. Generally it is best that the engineer's depart- ment shall prepare the description, to be revised by the conveyancer. The most thorough examina- tion should be made of the validity of the title to be acquired, for any plausible possession of a property will seem to most holders to justify them in giving a warranty deed to a railroad company, provided that company will pay for it. Such ex- aminations or searches are most readily conducted by a reputable attorney who has been long settled in the county where the property is situated, for he will be already familiar with the history of most of the older titles in his neighborhood ; yet his approval of a deed should always be accompanied by an abstract from the county records, to be carefully scrutinized by the conveyancer at head- TITLE RECORDS. 17 quarters. The president, or whoever approves the vouchers for the purchase of real estate, should refuse to sign one until it has been first certified by the conveyancer that the title acquired by the company will be good and sufficient. The title deeds having been signed, sealed, and acknowledged before a magistrate, they must be sent to the appropriate recorder's office, and an entry of the date when they are sent should be made in some proper place. A convenient method of keeping in view all the proceedings relating to the procurement of rights of way and other prop- erties is to make a list, in a suitable book, of all such properties in regular order, beginning at one end of the line and following through to the other end, with columns ruled in which to insert under proper headings the date when condemnation proceedings, if any, were commenced ; when concluded ; when deed was taken ; amount paid as consideration ; kind of deed, as warranty, quit- claim, or award ; date of forwarding to recorder ; date when returned ; number and file in which the deed is to be kept; with a broad column for re- marks. The entries in this book should be, at first, several lines apart, to admit of interlineation which will be required, because of discoveries which will be made of several ownerships, in what is supposed to be one property, and because of borrow-pits, station grounds and other pieces of land which will be wanted later on. iS ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. It is well, for these reasons, to give the deeds, when filed, only a provisional number, at first in pencil, corresponding with the number in the list in the book, until the final number shall have been arrived at, when they should be carefully numbered in red ink and filed in the order of numbering. Stout paper boxes, of a size to contain fifty or one hundred deeds, should be provided for them, and lettered on the outside, showing the numbers con- tained in each ; it is sometimes convenient to note on the outside of the boxes the names of the county or townships in which the property cov- ered by the contents of the box is situated. The railroad company should have blank forms for its deeds prepared by its conveyancer and printed, so as to secure uniformity in style and shape, and as a convenient means of insuring against the omission of important clauses, also to save much writing, which would be necessary in using the ordinary blanks. The deeds and all other valuable papers of any well ordered railroad company should be kept in a vault, or at least in a safe, taking care that the safe is one which will carry them through a fire ; for it is incredible, almost, how often such docu- ments have been imperiled, and how often lost, by a neglect of this most evident precaution. As soon as the exigencies of the surveys will permit the engineer's department should be re- quired to prepare an atlas of the property of the MAPS. tg railway company on a scale of not less than one inch to 100 ft., preferably upon a larger scale, showing the right of way, every outlying corner or lot, every borrow-pit, carefully surveyed and figured in the clearest manner. It is best to tint the boundaries of the railroad company with some pale color, using always the same, upon the inside of the line, to make the area owned by the com- pany distinguishable at a glance. The atlas should be duplicate or triplicate, being traced easily on thin paper by a boy in the office, the sheets to be afterward bound into an atlas. The properties shown in these volumes should bear on the maps the names of the owners from whom they are bought, character of title, when paid for, consideration paid, so as to avoid a reference to any other list or document for such information, which is that most frequently required. It is very useful to have the names of adjoining owners in their proper places in the atlas, for it will often save a visit to the place or a special survey when additional width is required. The distances and courses to all corners should be carefully surveyed, and their relations to the railroad boundaries should be showii and figured on the atlas. Many railroad land m ^a and atlases would be found not to contain one ogure which would determine the exact relation of the railroad line to any other line or point whatever. It is also desirable to note in the atlas the relations of 20 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. the " center lines " to the boundaries, to the corners and to the first track laid, if only one track is laid ; for without such a notation, the coming generation may be totally in the dark about them. In the history of a certain railroad company, its board of directors and its policy were changed ; from having contemplated a single track as the extent of their undertaking, during which period the first track was laid in the center of the right of way, the possibility that a second track might at some future date be required entered the presi- dential mind, and it was decided to lay the first track thereafter six feet to one side of the center of the right of way; yet no minute of any change ap- peared in the land-maps, neither in the deeds nor elsewhere, so far as the successors to the builders of the road could find. The fences had been built so irregularly that they gave no certainty, scarcely a hint, of the change, and by no means indicated where the change had been made. Sus- pecting such a change, however, correspondence was had with the former chief engineer and with his principal assistant ; they both believed it had been made, did not recollect where, and both remarked that the land-maps ought to show it. Finally it was remembered that among the assist- ant engineers who had been stationed on many parts of the road was a painstaking man who kept a diary, and from that invaluable record he kindly sent an extract which gave all the information PRESER VA TION OF RECORDS. 2 1 required. Several law suits were necessary to main- tain the boundaries established by this memoran- dum; yet, as about one hundred and fifty miles of road were affected by it, they had to be carried through. The land atlas is a convenient place in which to note the position, character and elevation of bench- marks, referred to the base of levels adopted for the profiles of the line ; and a profile of the natural surface plotted upon the maps is sometimes of the greatest value and convenience. It is well enough to add the grade line ; but that is so much departed from, even during construction, as to be of little importance. The base adopted for its levels should be noted upon the title page of the atlas ; also the date when the atlas was made. Indeed, every plan or drawing which issues from an engineer's office should be very distinctly dated. In order that one copy of this valuable atlas, which we have taken so much pains to describe, shall be certainly preserved, the several copies should not be kept together, that is, in the same building : the distribution of them depends upon the final organization adopted. The most natural destination would be one copy to the superin- tendent's office, one to the chief engineer's, and one to the attorney's, provided each of these had a fire-proof receptacle for his copy. Although great trouble, uncertainty and expense must attend the loss of the title deeds of a ra>\- 22 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. way company, yet such losses occur every little while even with companies which are believed to be quite perfectly organized. Mention is made of a great railroad corporation which stored these papers for fifteen years in a cupboard, in shameful disorder ; at last a fire destroyed every vestige of them and of its land-maps, so that its whole line required to be resurveyed, and it was years before the company's records could be restored. The cost to a corporation of a vault for the storage of its valuable papers would be small, in comparison with the expense which their loss entails ; so that it may be held to be obligatory upon the officers of a company to provide, from the first, for the positive safety of its valuable documents. A vault need not be burglar-proof, only dry and fire-proof ; it can be cheaply built inside or outside of almost any building ; it should be convenient of access from the offices, other- wise the papers will not be regularly returned to it. But, however carefully the records and titles may be preserved, the land acquired may be lost by neglect, as hinted in the preceding anecdote of the unrecorded change in the position of the first track. The boundaries of the railroad company's property should be remorselessly fenced, with per- fect exactness, from the beginning; heedless of the requests and suggestions which will be made by adjoining proprietors, who will wish to use the RETAIN POSSESSION. 23 margins of the railroad territory until they shall be required for the uses of the company. At first, such requests do not appear unreason- able ; but they should always be refused, for if the property is not included within the fences from the beginning, it is very likely to be for- gotten until too late ; the second fence will follow fhe line of the first, and so on. Twenty years, a short period in the life of a corporation, will give the adverse party, who has occupied it, permanent possession, of which advantage will surely be taken ; a less period gives a right of way across or over land which has been used for a lane, or for the public to travel over. It might be worth while, upon roads approaching the age of twenty years' existence, to have the position of their fences compared with their correct place, before it is forever too late to get possession of what land has not been fenced in. It is more than probable that many railway companies are the owners of houses occupied by their employes or by strangers, from which they ought to receive rent regularly, but do not ; it sometimes happens that only some old trackman or other ancient employe knows that the build- ings belong to the company. From this it will be seen how important it is to prepare for the treasurer and paymaster a rent-roll from the beginning, on which the location of every house, name of occupant, if any, and rent collectible monthly should duly appear. 24 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. Akin to the preservation of a company's title deeds, is that of the materials for its history, such as the reports made from time to time by its chief officers, and particularly the annual reports, whether printed or not ; but especially if printed, for such documents are mistakenly believed to take care of themselves. The secretary is naturally the proper officer upon whom to de"- volve this duty. We shall never know how few railroad corporations possess even one complete file of their annual reports ; yet it is known that many of the most important of them have not such a collection. They should be bound in volumes as fast as they accumulate enough to warrant it. There should be several copies of each report so pre- served, for the volumes will constantly be wanted for reference by the various departments ; quite as likely by the law department as by any. All contracts of importance should be printed, so that copies may be distributed to the officers whose duty it is to execute them, and as a security against loss. It is not uncommon tofind division superintend- ents, master mechanics and others acting under contracts of which they have no knowledge, hav- ing never even seen a copy of them. CHAPTER III. DRAINAGE. RESULTS OF BAD DRAINAGE DITCHES AT TOP OF SLOPE TILE DRAINS POLE DRAINS DRAINING YARDS DITCHING PROVISION AGAINST FLOODS. There is probably no written book treating of the construction of roads or of railroads in which the necessity of drainage is not more or less in- sisted upon ; yet in the building of our railways it really seems to be the last matter to be attended to. Examine any newly opened road, and you will see that the engineers have been careful to have the works completed with care, to conform to the standard sections. The assistant in charge of any division has possibly quarreled with the contractor a half-dozen times about each cutting, in order to get the slopes dressed to a true plane, instead of being left a warped surface. It would 26 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. be a marvel, nevertheless, if any measures had been taken to preserve the slopes, or the ditches at the bottom of them, which are relied upon to drain the ballast. Generally the first hard rains of spring, aided by the thawing of the frozen earth, suffice to break down the slopes, fill up the ditches, and reduce the force engaged upon maintenance of way to a condition of despair ; for the ballast must become saturated with water, the outer portion of it gets filled with mud, destroying its usefulness in great part ; it is not unusual for the track to be floated by the mud and water, before the ditching train can remove enough of the sloughing banks to enable the water to run away at the sides of the cut. Matters are the worst in clay cuttings, of course, although bad enough in any wet soil ; that is, in any soil which does not drain itself, as sand or gravel will do, if the clay substratum is not too near. If the sloughing is very bad, it is probable that a heavy stone wall will be decided upon as the proper thing to hold the slopes back ; or, where stone is scarce, the pile- driver will be called into requisition to drive a stout row or two of piles to resist the forces of Nature ; but the cause of the sloughing is un- affected, it continues to undermine the banks, frequently topples over the wall, and after a few years surmounts the piles or crowds them into the cut. Meanwhile, the mud-train has had to struggle DITCHES A T THE TOP. 27 each fall and spring with the mud which would get over, through or around the protection which had been erected. Now, in most cases, all this trouble could have been avoided, the perfect form of the slopes and ditches, as well as the integrity of the ballast, would have been preserved, and no one would ever have thought of building a slope wall or driving piles to hold back the mud, if the engineer who built the road had looked to the drainage. It may be broadly stated, as a general proposi- tion, that if the water is removed from any bank of earth, that bank will stand at a slope of one and a half to one, the usual earth slope, or at a steeper angle ; if the water is not removed from a wet bank, the slope will take a flatter angle, depending upon the degree of its saturation. The most effectual mode of removing the water from a wet cut is the cheapest one to adopt ; but remove the water you must, if you wish for peace and quiet. It is best -to begin at the top ; most railroad men begin at the bottom, because that is nearest to the track, it may be supposed. If the cutting is through sloping ground, as most cut- tings are, one side of the cut will be exposed to the flow of water from the ground above it, which should be intercepted by a ditch at the top of the slope ; a short distance back from the edge is the best. If the surface soil is porous, resting upon a clay subsoil, the ditch should be lined, if possible, 28 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING, with cement or bitumen, or with plank if neces- sary ; the object being to catch the water and carry it away, as an eave-trough does, not letting it soak down into the clay below, which is usually too wet already. The next place to give trouble is the foot of the slope ; the water which falls upon the slope, that which percolates through the bank, and that which comes from the ballast, unite to soak and thereby to soften the earth at the bottom of the slope, which has to sustain the entire load of the hill above, which it can do only so long as it is dry and consequently firm ; as soon as it becomes soft it must yield to the pressure from above. Get this water away as quickly as you can ; you can not be too quick about it. If your cut is upon a very steep grade, it is possible that you may be able to run the water off in the ditches, at the foot of the slopes ; if on any ordinary grades, the best way is to lay TILE DRAINS in the bottom of the ditches at a depth, say 5 ft., sufficient to have them secure from frost, and so ready to work con- tinuously day and night, summer and winter, which they will do if put below frost. If any springs are discovered in the slopes of the cutting, they should be piped into the main drains which you lay in the bottom of the ditches ; if the whole is wet, it can be perfectly drained by lines of small tiles laid diagonally down the slopes, at inter- vals of from 20 to 40 ft., according to the amount TILE DRAINS. 29 of water to be taken care of. A little experience, with a little good judgment, will enable any one to proportion the sizes of tiles used to the length and wetness of the cutting to be drained. Begin- ning at the mouth of a cutting with tiles of 5 in. in diameter, they may diminish in size to 3 in. at the summit of the grade to which the tiles are laid, or at the upper end of the cut. Two or three lines of tiles may be laid in the same trench if the quantity of water requires more room than is afforded by one line. The tiles for piping off the water in the slopes should not be of less than 2 in. bore. The drain tiles of round section are the best, as least likely to be removed out of line, as a little reflection will show. They are frequently made with flat bottoms ; these, if canted or rolled over by any cause, must get out of line, and so interrupt the continuity of the drain. They should be- one foot in length ; the frequency of the joints is an advantage, as it allows the water to get readily into the drain. Whoever begins the use of drain-tiles will suppose that he must pro- vide some porous material, like gravel, to cover them with, in order to afford a free passage for the water into the drain ; but he need have no anxiety about that, for the water is bound to get in if the drain is there. A good stiff clay is the best covering for the tiles, as it does not wash nor fall into them at the joints as fine gravel does. In some very soft quicksand cuts, in which the fine 30 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. sand filled the tiles rapidly, destroying their use- fulness, a thick sod was laid in the bed of the ditch, the grassy side up ; the tiles were laid in this and covered with another sod, grassy side, down ; the ditch was then filled up with earth. The result was a very successful drain. When round tiles are used, the .bottom prepared for them should be semi-circular and as nearly as pos- sible of the exact size of the tiles, which is easily accomplished by having tools of the proper form and dimensions. The men who are accustomed to laying these drains have acquired much skill, and in ordinary soils do not disturb or handle any more material than is necessary to allow the inser- tion of the tiles; they will often make an opening of less than one foot in width at the top of a ditch 5 ft. deep ; and they will contract for laying such drains at a price per rod which will astonish the inexperienced engineer or track-master. If an expert can be got to superintend the first opera- tions, he will be cheap at almost any price ; yet no one who will act upon these hints can go far wrong ; nor will the cost of his work be any thing like that of not draining his road bed, if it is wet. When the drain is completed, if he will notice the flow of water from it and calculate the quantity which flows out each day, and consider that it never entirely ceases ; he will begin to wonder where it all went to before the drain was built, and he will be entirely satisfied that the cost of POLE DRAIN'S. 31 the drain was small compared with the resulting benefit. In a double-track cut, perfection of drainage is secured by laying another line of tiles between the tracks. If, in summer, there should be little or no water passing through the drains, the moles, snakes and even muskrats will harbor in the ends of them, obstructing them with their nests. To guard against such intrusions requires some precautions, as building a small trap # or catch basin near the mouth of the drain ; a U trap has been used with success made of baked clay like the tiles. All such devices require to be cleaned out frequently, for the mud brought down in the water is deposited in them ; if not cleaned out, the drains would become obstructed, which would injure them seri- ously. In very wet cuts, where the quicksand flows in faster than it can be removed, a good drain can be laid of poles, roughly trimmed of their limbs, laid heads and points, so as to keep the drain of uni- form section. Such a drain from 12 in. to 1 8 in. square, will pass a great quantity of water, and one in each ditch will drain almost any cutting ; if there is plenty of water, it will last forever, and keep itself clear ; if there is not a large flow of water, it will soon become filled up. Let any person in charge of roadway select his wettest cutting for experiment, if he has any doubt as to the efficacy of the mode of drainage here 32 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. recommended ; and he will certainly find his track lie as still in the winter, in an excavation so drained, as if it were on a bank of gravel. But it is not important to use the methods here described ; it is of vital importance to get rid of the water, in one way or another. The drain tiles will be found of inestimable value for the drainage of large station yards where ditches would be inconvenient, and even in such places as will admit of ^surface ditches, because they can and should be placed deep under the sur- face ; for it is of great benefit to remove all water to a distance of 5 or 6 ft. from the ballast upon which the tracks lie. Capillary attraction will raise moisture from 5 ft. in depth in sand or loam ; and when freezing weather begins, the dryer the ballast and the soil upon which it rests may be, at the depth to which freezing extends, the less heaving of the ground there will be, and conse- quently the slighter will be the disturbance of the track. In bad soils, the grounds surrounding shops, engine houses and station buildings are wet and uncomfortable in autumn and spring, or in any wet weather. This may be completely pre- vented by tile drains, provided an outlet for them can be secured. Of course the more fall there is for any drain, within reasonable limits, the better for the drain ; yet even when carried level they will do a great deal of good. By their use, the thickness of the ballast or of gravel under tracks DRAINING YARDS. 33 and around stations may be reduced about one-half an economy which will pay well for laying the tiles, where ballasting materials are scarce. Among the most difficult places to maintain in busy yards are the crossings of tracks, particu- larly those that cross nearly at right angles. Knowing this, the person in charge of the track generally excavates deeply at such a point and fills in with broken stone or with the best mate- rial he can get, providing in this way an excellent drainage well for the adjacent road-beds. If he will supplement his labors by laying drain tiles in each direction through the bed of ballast which he has prepared for his crossing, taking care to give them a. free discharge, he will find that he will need do nothing more for that crossing until it is worn out. Some idea of the quantity of water discharged by these drains may be conveyed to the inexperienced if they will notice the flow from the eave-spouts of a small shed during a smart shower, and remember that an equal volume of water falls upon the same area of track or yard, soaking the ground permanently, if means are not provided for its removal. A perfectly dry cellar under a warehouse in a wet clay soil was secured by the use of these drain tiles ; and in another instance they maintained the bottom of the pit of a transfer table in an excellent dry state. A water section was secured near a very wet cut 34 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. by turning the drain into a cistern ; and it hap- pened in this case, as it might in many others, that the cistern afforded the most convenient outlet for the drains that could be had. There are thousands of miles of imperfectly ballasted or wholly unballasted road-bed in this country, lying near the natural surface of the ground, which would be rendered passably safe against the worst effects of wet and frost, if only a deep ditch were dug on each side of the road- bed to allow the water falling on the surface to flow quickly to a considerable depth below the surface on which the sleepers rest. The chief reason why broken stone and gravel make the best ballast is that they permit the water to pass through and to flow away from them so rapidly; if other materials can be so treated as to approxi- mate to their condition, they will approach just so nearly to them in value for supporting the track. On poor railways, where expenditures must be kept at a minimum, and where the track-master is allowed only men enough on each section to operate the hand-car, it often seems quite impos- sible to get any ditching done, however sore the need. The section foreman's idea of usefulness and duty is confined to " keeping up the joints and centers ;" he and his men are always tamping the ties and disturbing the road-bed, when they are not screwing up the joint bolts or riding over the section on the hand-car. These are important DITCHING. 35 matters, of course, but may be overdone, while ditching is left undone. Under this conviction, in the straitened circumstances which have been described, and determined that the necessary ditches should be cut before the autumnal rains, the section foremen, upon a hundred miles of new road in operation, were told that they must not touch a joint, neither surface nor tamp any part of the track, unless it became positively dangerous ; they must devote their time and energy to ditch- ing ; any foreman found doing any thing except ditching would be dismissed, unless he could offer an acceptable excuse. These orders were issued in August, with the result that by the first of November the entire line was well ditched, at all important places, and the track passed through the winter and spring very comfortably, notwith- standing a lamentable want of ballast. The neophyte placed in charge of a division of track should be warned that the section foreman of common mold always begins a ditch at the upper end, and, however well he may carry it on, he never opens the lower end of it, so that it may discharge freely, until the track-master finds the ditch full of water and orders the necessary out- let to be provided. It is best, therefore, to give special directions about this, in each case, to begin with. The earth thrown out of the ditches should be evenly spread over the surface outside of them, 36 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. making a gentle slope toward the ditch, when- ever possible. The sooner this is done the cheaper it will be done ; for freshly moved earth shovels much easier than that which has been con- solidated by rain. When the earth has been spread in this way, the roadway can be cultivated or easily kept clear of brush and weeds, and as nothing is more discreditable than a disor- derly roadway, this is a matter worthy of atten- tion. All this has no reference to what is considered the main drainage system of a railroad, which looks to provision for passing the streams and rivers safely through or under it ; only on rare occasions over it. There are many large and scientific treatises on these matters, which should be studied before the tyro undertakes to act as engineer in their construction ; yet there are a few hints not found in all the text-books, which may be useful. In this country, the habits of all streams are likely to be very much altered by the building of a railroad into any new part of it. Generally the marshes will be ditched, the woods will be felled and other changes made, which w T ill concentrate the water into fewer channels than it originally flowed through, and it will reach them much quicker than it formerly did ; consequently the water-way provided for them should be very much greater than that which they would require PROVISION FOR FLOODS. 37 if they could be expected to retain their original size. The very best judgment and the largest conceivable allowance may altogether fail (and often do fail) to anticipate to what dimensions any stream may attain ; but as a minimum the following has proved a tolerably safe rule : Ascer- tain the area occupied by the stream, at its high- est known flood ; double this to arrive at the area to be provided before the water shall rise above its previous flood level ; and allow at least a half more of room for extra floods, before your struct- ure can be considered full. But, however much room may have been pro- vided, the labors of the engineer may come to naught from the neglect to construct or maintain a clear channel for the water to enter in a direct manner or to flow freely away from the bridge, or arch or culvert. So often are these channels neglected, particularly under deep embankments, where it is somewhat difficult or fatiguing to visit them, that the track-master or superintendent who has some such structures under his charge, which he has not lately looked after, would do well to take a hand-car or special engine at once and see how they appear. They have been often found blocked with brush and flood wood, when they appeared clear and right from above ; or the channel has begun to wash out at the lower end of the paving to a depth which the next flood would render dangerous ; or the last flood started 38 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. an opening into the embankment behind one of the wings, etc.. for all which evils there is an easy remedy, if taken in time ; but after the next storm it may be too late. CHAPTER IV. MAIN TRACK. THE IDEAL TRACK BALLAST SURFACING JOINTS SLEEPERS. The foundation of all good railroading is a good track, without which, no matter how superior all other appliances and equipments may be, there can be no success. Speed, safety and economy in operating expenses, all depend upon the character of the track. Every other department of the administration may be pinched or slighted with less evil results than that of the maintenance of way. Doubtless the absolute minimum of expenses would exist upon a road where the con- dition of the track should be perfect, with nothing to be desired in the way of betterment. It might, indeed, cost too much, rendering the interest account too large in comparison with the traffic carried over it ; but the expenses of operation, as repairs of roadway, of engines, of cars, would be less than have ever been realized. 40 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. An ideal track, such as this, may not be altogether attainable, yet it should be continually approached, with the knowledge that every de- parture from the ideal condition is a certain cause of expense. This perfect condition demands, first, that the surfaces of the rails shall be exactly true to the plane of the grade, so that no vertical shock shall be given to the wheels as they roll over the track ; and second, that the line of the rails shall be so true that the flanges of the wheels will seldom touch them, and then without a jar. If the speed of all trains were uniform, the elevation of the outer rails^could be so exactly ad- justed as to fulfill this second demand upon curves, as well as upon straight lines; since, however, the speed of trains varies widely, it is necessary to " split the difference " and to accept an elevation too great for low speeds and really less than is desirable for high speeds. It is safer, with our tendency to higher speeds, to adopt a higher elevation than the average rate would require. This second demand will also compel an addition of width to the gauge, in proportion to the rate of curvature. A neglect to " spread the gauge " in this way, in the turn-outs for sidings, is a fre- quent cause for derailment in switching. This widening of the gauge may be larger in amount than is necessary to conform to the rule, rather than too little. Every one should know where to find the rules and tables for the super-elevation of THE IDEAL TRACK. 41 rails and for the widening of gauge, for they are advertised in the Railroad Gazette. Too little care is taken, in general, to secure perfection of line. After curves have once been laid according to centers from the engineers, they are left for years, perhaps forever, subject to the eccentricities of vision of each succeeding section foreman. No human eye can be relied upon to run a true curve unaided. So, after track has been raised to final grade, each curve should be carefully run with a transit, and centers, not more that 50 ft. apart, should be permanently fixed as a constant guide for the trackmen. Perfection can not be arrived at upon straight lines without the use of the transit, and it would be profitable upon the larger roads to furnish for each section a cheap, plain transit, without graduated circle or compass, to secure better alignment and to save the time of men when lining track. Upon small roads, where there is no permanent corps of engineers, it would pay well to employ a force temporarily, to fix the lines by permanent stakes. It is not very difficult to put a piece of road into a condition nearly approaching the ideal perfect state just described; the important problem for practical men is, how to keep it so. In a perfectly dry climate this problem would resolve itself into a question of the proper num ber of suitable sleepers, and of any material under them, which should have sufficient stability to 42 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. prevent their being pressed into it by the passing loads ; but in our climate, the rain or snow will saturate and render semi-fluid all materials which will absorb much moisture; as soon as wet, these materials, such as loam or clay, yield to the pres- sure, and the labor which may have been expended in adjusting the track is lost. Following this comes the frost, which heaves the wet soil up, carrying the track along with it, until the spring, when the particles of ice which have distended the earth are melted, and it slumps down, affording .no support whatever to the track. Evidently those materials which will hold the least moisture are the best to use for maintaining a track, and the best among such is broken stone, whether in the form of gravel or broken artificially ; of which, it has been found by experience, that about two feet in depth, upon well settled embankments or in thoroughly drained cuttings, will maintain a severely worked track in fair condition through- out the year. By so much as this thickness of ballast is reduced, by so much will the labor be increased which will be necessary to keep the track in an equally good state ; yet even six inches in depth under the sleepers will be of great value. Broken stone is superior to gravel in general for ballast, because there is usually some admixture of loam or clay, or of too fine sand, in gravel in its natural state. If these objectionable materials were to be screened out, or, still better, BALLAST. 43 washed out, a very excellent ballast might be in many places procured, at a less cost than by breaking up stone. Where a good supply of water can be had the cost of washing gravel need not be excessive. In hydraulic mining the ordi- nary cost of washing gravel for gold is stated at from two to four cents per cubic yard ; for the hardest material, cemented gravel, it sometimes amounts to 12 cents. Of natural materials the next in value for bal- last is very coarse sand, because it will retain less moisture than any other except stone in a coarse form ; yet it has not stability enough to support a track permanently, which, when ballasted with sand, requires a constant and large expenditure of labor in raising and retamping it. Sand is objec- tionable also as always more or less dusty. Fur- nace slags, and even hard-burned brickbats, have been used with much advantage where stone and gravel could not be got. They are friable, and, like soft stones, do not endure well the tamping necessary to consolidate the ballast under the sleepers. The harder the stone the better, if it can be broken into cubes of from one to two inches on the side, by hammers or in the crusher. It is not worth while to put expensive ballast upon new, unsettled embankments, for it will be lost ; where track must be laid upon them before they have become consolidated, it should be sur- faced with the best cheap material at hand. 44 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. A track laid upon good ballast of sufficient thickness, if once well surfaced and tamped, should require very little labor upon it afterward, except as renewals are needed ; but when laid upon a material containing loam or clay, it will need to be constantly readjusted ; yet it may be raised and tamped too often. The only hope with bad materials is that they may become consolidated, and shed the rain instead of absorbing it. This can be promoted by giving the surface as steep a slope from the center of the track each way, to the edge of the embankment or ditch, as the proper bedding of the sleepers will allow. If the earth has been freshly stirred, it will soak in all the water that falls upon it and becomes mud ; of course, all the labor which has been expended in raising such a track is lost during the first heavy storm. Bad materials should never be tamped after the approach of the rainy season ; the only way then to raise the low places is by wooden shims between the sleepers and the rails until the dry season comes round again. The poorer the ballast the more grass will grow in it ; when allowed to vegetate undisturbed it will soon work much harm to the ballast, and ought therefore to be promptly removed. Special tools are made for cutting up the grass in gravelly road-beds, with- out disturbing the surface too deeply, and more rapidly than it can be done with a shovel. Next in importance to good drainage and good RAILJOINTS. 45 ballast, in the maintenance of a railroad, is a first- rate joint for the rails. For a very long time, in this country, experiments we:e confined to seek- ing the cheapest device which would carry a train safely; it did not enter the minds of men to in- vent the best possible joint regardless of cost, as they ought to have done first ; when, having found a perfect standard, they might have calculated how far they could afford to depart from it. It is likely that they would have become satisfied, very soon, that the best joint is the cheapest in the long run ; for it is a difficult thing to hold together stiffly the adjacent ends of two shallow bars, such as our rails, under the impact of the heavily loaded wheels of a railroad train. The first fish-plates used were little more than a hinge ; the short angle plates leave something to be desired ; laid between the sleepers, they certainly have not ful- filled the expectations of their advocates; length- ened to extend over three sleepers, one of which is under the joint, they make a splice which carries the wheels better than any thing yet tried. For a long time, it has been an unsettled ques- tion whether to lay the joints, in the two lines of rails which constitute a track, opposite or alterna- ting ; theory, of course, woulci counsel that they should alternate, yet the weak joints used at first caused a track so laid to impart a rolling motion to the train, which was more disagreeable that the 46 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. square jump made when the joints were opposite ; a remembrance of this still survives among old track-masters, who are reluctant to believe that this objection has been overcome by strengthen- ing the joint ; nevertheless, they may convince themselves of the truth by riding over a good track so laid, or by inspecting the diagrams taken by Mr. P. H. Dudley's admirable testing car, which prove it conclusively. The best sleepers (the name cross-tie is a mis- taken use of a word which belongs to the bridge builders) are of white oak ; they should be peeled, with ends squared exactly to length. As they cost less here than steel rails, we can afford to use more of them under the rails, rather than to in- crease the height or weight of the rails, one or the other of which things ought to be done, on many of our railroads ; for the sleepers should be so near together that there will be no sensible de- flection of the rails between them, under the heaviest loads, which is not the condition now generally existing. An extensive use of iron or steel for sleepers will not probably prevail in- this country, for many years yet. The impossibility of getting strong, durable timber sleepers at reasonable cost, has led to the use of metal ones in countries where-there is very little or no frost ; in this land, where every thing is more or less rigid in winter from freezing, the superior elasticity of wood under the rails will continue to make wooden SLEEPERS. 47 sleepers preferred ; and if they were to be creosot- ed, they might prove not only better on this ac- count, and cheaper, but even as durable as the iron ones. It is a question at this time, worth the attention of managers, whether or not it would be profitable to creosote them ; probably the slightly increased cost of handling would be more than repaid by the increased durability of the sleepers, to those roads which import their supplies of them through one or two depots. Chestnut and the best Southern yellow pine rank next after white oak in value for sleepers; other woods are either very much inferior to these in durability in their natural state, or are to be had in too small quantities to make it worth while to classify them. There are many kinds which would be very valuable if creosoted ; the requisites then would be that they should possess a firmness of fiber sufficient to stand up under the load of trains, and to hold a spike. There are several other processes for preserving timber which would be of value, yet creosoting has established itself as the most satisfactory one for sleepers. CHAPTER V. TRACKMEN AND SIDINGS. THE TREATMENT OF TRACKMEN TOOLS AND EQUIP- MENT SHOVELING SNOW LOCATING SIDINGS FROGS AND SWITCHES. Although the better the track the fewer the men required to keep it in good order, yet a cer- tain number will be required upon any track to look after it and to make immediate repairs when needed ; and, as in other work, experience is of value in the performance of the duties of a laborer on track. If he is possessed of a little judgment he will waste less time,about a job than if he has none ; so that old trackmen who have been under the training of a good foreman are entitled to be classed as skilled laborers, and a railroad company should try, by a little increase of wages and of privileges, to keep them in its service rather than to allow them to be replaced by green men. The same is true as to foremen in a greater degree. They are, indeed, every- TREA TMENT OF TRA CKMEN. 49 where paid as skilled men ; yet the value to a company of a trusty man, who is acquainted with his section and who has learned how to keep his men well at work, and how to teach them, is not always appreciated. Such men are rare and are the most necessary to the proper maintenance of the track. It should be the aim of every trackmaster or supervisor to increase their number ; for this reason, and to add to the efficiency of the track force, it is advisable to have at least two foremen in embryo, upon each section, distinguished by authority and by a small increase in wages from the other men ; the higher in rank may be called assistant foreman and the other spiker. These small allowances in their pay will be well returned to any company, if the track-master has selected the promoted men with judgment. It has been found useful, as a means of discipline and of instruction, to require frequent written reports from the section foremen ; they should not be too long nor relating to unimportant matters ; but they may embrace all the statistics which would be useful, and convey lucid information as to any notable events which occur on the section. Printed forms containing questions to be answered assist in giving an idea of the information wanted. It is common enough to find a severe economy as to the number of men employed, upon roads where very little attention is given to economizing their time, by providing them, for instance, with 50 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. hand cars which run easily and with cold chisels which will stand to cut a rail, or claw-bars which will really pull a spike; and on such roads the working trains will generally be equipped with the least useful engines, which will get stalled in the pit or even on the main track, resulting in the loss of hours of the time of the men. A little reflec- tion, or a brief calculation, should convince any railroad officer that such neglect involves the most useless waste. Better to pay the highest price for the hire of a serviceable locomotive, rather than to use an incompetent one for a working train. On roads where this train is required to serve at distant places, boarding cars with arrangements for lodging the men will prove very economical of their time, and will more than repay the cost of fitting up. The force may then be laid off at any siding, at night, without unnecessary running to headquarters. It is not everywhere made one of the special duties of the trackmen to clear the road of snow in the winter, depending upon the snow-plows run by the locomotives to accomplish this ; yet a force on foot, armed with shovels, can often anticipate the plow, or lend great effect to its finishing work by roughly trenching the drifted cuttings. In fact, the quickest mode of opening a badly-drifted road is by shovelers rather than by locomotives. It is an excellent plan, on such a road, to author- ize each section foreman to hire as many men as SHOVELING SNOW. 51 he can after a violent storm, to help in clearing the track. The whole neighborhood will generally assist with great cheerfulness, and the drifts will have disappeared in no time, if the wind has gone down. Immense service in clearing away the snow cheaply may be rendered, on tracks not too busily occupied by traffic, by snow-plows of rough planks, such as are used for common roads, drawn by oxen. Such means are not to be despised, even on great main lines, where several locomo- tives frequently fail to drive through the most magnificent regulation plow on wheels. The principle of overcoming the enemy in detail, or in small detachments, is'well illustrated in the suc- cessful " fighting of snow-drifts." Whenever a siding is to be laid, leading out of a main track over which the trains run rapidly, a new source of danger is introduced into the oper- ations of the road, and it should be a matter of grave reflection how to construct it in the manner which will involve the fewest chances of accident. The most convenient or the least expensive posi- tion for the switches may be where they will be the most concealed from the view of approaching trains ; and it would be better, in the long run, to spend a larger sum for the sake of having them visible from afar, or to protect them by interlocked danger signals, at a safe distance. In England, the risks from " facing points," that is, from switches leading out of the line from 52 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. the direction in which the train is moving, were formerly regarded as so considerable, that on many roads none were permitted ; any train taking the siding had to run by and back in ; and although the exigencies of traffic have now com- pelled the use of " facing points " there, they are generally guarded by devices for locking them which insure that they are well home, before a train is allowed to pass. In the United States, the enormous number of accidents occurring at switches and frogs goes to prove that a distrust of them is warranted and that we can not guard them too carefully. There are a few suggestions which maybe borne in mind, when a siding is to be located. It is bet- ter to place it on the outside of a curve than on the inside; for, when occupied by a train, the view of the line from the main tracks will not then be obscured. The cross-overs from one main track to the other may almost always be arranged so as to avoid facing points ; even if safety switches are used, it is safer to run from than against the points of the frogs. It is prudent to place switches as far from bridges or deep ravines as the circumstances will admit, so that if any thing about them were to fail, the locomotive may not certainly plunge into a gulf. When sidings are upon a grade inclined toward the main track, they should open into a safety-end by a switch which should be kept set for the safety-end, ex- LOG A TIXG SIDINGS. $3 cept when communication with the main track is desired ; so that if cars are moved down the grade by wind or by gravity, they will not foul the main line. If the switch which leads into the safety-end is interlocked with that in the main track, so that it shall always move with it, it will avoid mistakes on the part of trainmen. This is a much safer arrangement than beams of wood or iron fastened across the siding, although even that device is better than to make no provision against one of the common causes of accident. It is often convenient, upon a road with double track, to place a siding for meeting and passing trains between the main tracks and communicating with both of them. In such a case it is best to make it long enough to accommodate two ordinary trains or, better, two of the longest trains, for they will be quite sure to reach it together. In general, however, sidings are more convenient, even for meeting points, if at the side of the main tracks ; if not too far from the one to the next, having in view the volume of traffic upon the road, they may be laid out alternately on one side and the other of a road with double main track, avoiding to a great extent the use of the cross-overs ; for a train may wait a short time to be passed at a siding which leads out of its own track, rather than run further and be delayed by crossing over the other main track and back again. It is in favor of outside sidings, that 54 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. others can be led out from them without adding to the number of switches in the main track. Sidings upon the passenger side of the tracks should stop short of the passenger station, say 200 feet, if possible, never passing before it, if avoidable. Although 6 feet has been the standard width between the adjacent rails of contiguous tracks, a greater width is very desirable on many accounts. The latest instance of a double track road has 8 feet between the main tracks. Unless parallel sidings are to be used for transferring freight from car to car, a greater width than 6 feet should be taken, if possible. It is generally desirable to have a bunting post, or some other kind of a stopper at the ends of stub tracks, al- though where they are not too long for the en- gineer - and trainmen to communicate easily together, as in passenger yards, the absence of any stopper is an effectual restraint upon careless shunting. The very best stop, where there is room, is a bank of gravel or cinders, about two feet deep, across the track ; and it may be given a neat appearance by walling it in on the sides and rear. Iron brackets gripping the rails are neatest, however, and occupy least room. It is impossible to touch upon frogs and switches without also touching inventors ; yet there are general principles to which they must conform to reach the best results. For instance, as to frogs : no doubt the best are made from steel rails ; no FROGS AND SWITCHES. 55 doubt the best mode of fastening them together is by clamps and keys, so far as possible, instead of by bolts ; no doubt that the rails should, be worked in the planer instead of in the fire, at least in the present state of the art ; no doubt that a frog for the main track should have a spring rail on the outside, to avoid the jar which is otherwise caused in passing over it at high speed. In yards, where the trains take first one track and then another, and at low speed, the movable wing rails may not be worth their extra cost. Opinions vary as to the most desirable angles to be used ; it is common to use a less angle (a higher manufacturer's number) in turning out of the main line than is used in the yards. In frogs, as in almost all things used on a railroad, it is best to have a few fixed standards ; the supply to be carried for repairs will be thereby much reduced. The safe use of a frog requires a guard rail, which should be strongly braced opposite the frog point, not relying upon spikes to hold it in place, as is often done. New roads will find it convenient and economical to have them furnished with the frogs, as they require to have a part of the flange cut away, and this is better done by the planer than by the cold chisel. The standard switch of the world is some variety of the split switch; for places where it is to be constantly used, no doubt the most convenient of any possible form. 56 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. It is light, easily adjusted and taken care of, and admits of operating by an interlocking ap- paratus more readily than any other. It is, how- ever, a fearful danger, if out of order. If not fitted with springs to admit of running through it when mis-set, without breaking the tie-rods, it is likely to be so run through, and to wreck the next train which passes over it ; if it is fitted with springs, a little thing may prevent the point from closing, which will as surely cause an accident. Our annals are full of disasters from these causes. The only safe way is to know, by one means or another, that the switch is certainly all right before each train passes. When interlocking signals are used, the arrangements usually provide for locking the point securely in its place before the danger signal can be lowered. Admitting the advantages of the split switch, where it is in constant use and can be watched over and attended, no switch at all is the best, where it can not be so thoroughly looked after ; and the nearest approach to this is the Wharton safety switch. It is not agreeable to call names, but there is nothing with any other name to class with this. It is not a switch except when it is required for use, for it forms no part of and does not interrupt the main track ; it lies inert at the side of the track, untouched by the wheels except when needed to cross them into the siding ; con- sequently it suffers little from wear and tear ; it BUY FROGS. 57 does not admit of rapid shunting, but should be passed over rather slowly. For use in the main tracks at country stations and sidings, which are entered by only a small portion of the traffic, it is the safest and most suitable switch yet offered. There was a time when frogs, switches and signals were better made by each railway com- pany for itself than any which it could buy; but this is so no longer. The manufactories devoted to the construction and perfection of these devices have now sufficient patronage to enable them to employ special tools, which will do the work better and cheaper than can be done in ordinary shops. It is therefore unwise for companies, whose shops are too small for their locomotive and car repairs, to encumber them with the manufacture of frogs and switches. CHAPTER VI. STATIONS. ROOMY SITES LOCATION OFFICES AND WAITING-ROOMS WATER-CLOSETS, ETC. FREIGHT HOUSES WATER-WORKS. It is plain, upon the slightest consideration, that there are many circumstances which may affect and even control the site chosen and the arrangements adopted for any station ; yet there are certain general principles which may be stated, according to which one would wish to build it if he could. Upon a new road in a new country, the choice of a site will not be difficult, although there, as everywhere, an ample space of land, nearly at grade, is the first desideratum ; to this, many other good reasons for another location ought to yield. For instance, a limited area, somewhat too small for present, or at any rate for future needs, may be available nearer the business center of the town ; and persons interested in that property may be very anxious to have the station estab- STATION SITES. 59 lished in its neighborhood ; yet it is certain that the interests of the railway and of the town, so far as its future is concerned, will be promoted by the selection of the larger ground ; for it is im- portant to all parties that the station shall be large enough to allow all necessary facilities to be constructed upon a liberal scale. However grand our anticipations may be respecting the future of any town, it is more than probable that they will be short of what may be realized in the course of twenty or fifty years ; so that no harm will result to the company if a large margin of room is secured for expansion. Gen- erally, such land can be bought, before the site of a station has been fixed upon, at the price of farming lands ; and often, soon afterward, the prices for any additions to the station grounds are at the rate for town lots. It not seldom hap- pens that the establishing in a town of one enter- prising manufacturing company creates more business for the railway than its station grounds can accommodate, which is not a flattering commentary upon the foresight of its con- structors. The consideration of proximity to the business should have some force, yet not too much ; for when the freight or the passengers are once mounted on wheels, a small additional distance to be traversed is of little moment. It is very desirable, when it can be done, to 60 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. place the passenger buildings all on one side of the line, throughout its length ; it makes it simpler for the passengers who are unfamiliar with the road to debark, in the night especially ; and it allows of greater uniformity in the signaling arrangements. There are sometimes reasons for a departure from the general rule, but they should be important ones, such as the greater part of a city being on the other side of the track, although if the drive between the city and the station can be easily carried over or under the tracks, that ceases to be a good reason. It is preferable to have the passenger station on the south or west side of the tracks, so that the offices which face the tracks will have an eastern or northern exposure ; for this will make the occupants of them more comfortable than if placed so as to receive the direct rays of the west- ern sun. It is a species of cruelty to require tele- graph clerks or others to write all day in the glare of the sunlight ; the temperature of the rooms in summer is pleasanter, too, when facing north or east. The size of the offices is the first thing to be taken into account ; a mere cupboa'rd is not a fit place to transact any business in, still less is it a suitable place in which to compel a person to pass the greater portion of the working hours. For one person a space of 12 by 12 ft. is the least that should be allowed ; two persons can get along WAITING-ROOMS. 61 with less than twice this room ; but when desks, chairs, ticket cases and so forth are allowed for, not with much less. It is better to allow for an increase of force at large places, rather than to have to alter and enlarge after ; and it is of more importance to give room enough to the em- ployes than to the public, for the first must occupy their offices for longer periods than the passengers do the waiting-rooms. But the waiting-rooms should not be scrimped in size nor in comfort ; at large stations, such as important junctions, passengers find it convenient often to remain at the station between trains, par- ticularly ladies and children ; the more attractive and convenient the rooms are, the oftener they will go over the road. A fire-place in each wait- ing-room adds not only to the cheerful appearance of the room, especially in spring or autumn, when a little fire only is needed, but it insures ventila- tion in the easiest way, which is a valuable result, for all public rooms should have ventilation to be comfortable, although we have become accus- tomed from long habit to tolerate bad air. A few chairs, of a strong pattern, which can be moved about, should always be provided in the ladies' room for the use of mothers with infants, or for persons who would like to sit in a group ; it is not possible for more than three persons to talk together upon a bench, and an infant can not be suitably dandled or nursed upon one. 62 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. These are trivial matters, but they concern the rights and comforts of travelers. So does the matter of lighting the rooms. No- where are the waiting-rooms so well lighted, in the day time, as in the United States ; in part because we have the most cheerful sun, and in part because we have taken care to avail of it ; but generally it is impossible to read at all in them after dark ; not often because there are not lights enough, but that they are placed too high. It is often difficult for the passenger to see his money or ticket, while he is buying it at the window, with sufficient distinctness to enable him to correct a mistake, if one were made. There should be ample shelves outside of the ticket offices and telegraph offices near the windows, upon which the travelers may open out their wallets or write their dispatches. The tele- graph office should have a projection on the track side, with windows commanding a view up and down the line; the hexagonal form is not so good as the rectangular, for the vision is more distinct through a pane which is parallel to the eyes than through one which is oblique. There is more reason to fear that passenger buildings will be placed too near the track than too far away ; there is too little room between the station door and the track, at almost every one in this country. This limited space is uncomfort- able upon almost all occasions ; and when there is WATER-CLOSETS. 63 a crowd, as upon excursions or festivals, it be- comes really dangerous. Not less than 24 ft. in width of platform, in front of the building, should be allowed at country stations, and more in pro- portion should be given as the population of the place is larger. J If drainage can be had, or if it is not necessary, the station should be provided with a cellar, to contain fuel and a furnace or steam apparatus for heating the entire building. There is no other convenient or so neat mode of storing the fuel ; the risk of conflagration and the nuisance of dirt are both lessened by having only one fire to attend to, and that out of sight. The matter of drainage will settle the question of water-closets also ; if that can be secured, they are the most convenient of any form of privy, for water can be pumped by hand into a tank suffi- cient to provide for them, where other means do not exist. But water-closets must be kept warm enough not to freeze. Where drainage can not be had, the dry earth closet will answer the pur- pose perfectly ; it requires no skill nor unusual labor, only energy on the part of the agent to see that it is properly attended to. The horrible vaults which have so long disgraced our civiliza- tion should not be tolerated by a respectable rail- road officer, even if the improved sanitary vigi- lance of the towns would permit their use. There has not been any invention yet, however, which 64 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. will secure neatness on the part of the public which uses the privies ; they must be watched, and attended to when necessary, at once ; if neg- lected, the Augean stables were nothing in com- parison with what they will attain to ; yet that does not excuse a public corporation, which fails to provide decently those conveniences, which it professes to afford its patrons. The urinary vessels always give much odor unless the urine is discharged into cold water; if the water, which is generally discharged at the bottom of the vessel, were allowed to fill it and to overflow at the top there would be no odor. Try this ! In winter they must not be allowed to freeze, of course. A cheap means of providing more waiting room, at a station likely to be crowded, is to place benches outside, under shed roofs or overhanging eaves ; they will be frequented in any tolerable weather by smokers and by many other persons who prefer fresh air. A well with a good pump in it and a cup attached is a comfort at every station ; or a drinking hydrant and even a fountain where water is abundant ; either is much more attractive than a water cooler, apt to be not too well at- tended to. As to the surroundings, let them be neatly kept, at any rate. The addition of trees and grass with graveled paths suggests itself. Flowers are beautiful and attractive, but require more care and more expense, while they are of FREIGHT HO USE S. 65 less consequence. The ash heap, so common at country stations, does not seem to be needed, and the ashes spread over muddy roads will serve some good purpose if distributed not too thickly. One side of the track being selected for the passenger side, all extra tracks, freight yards and so forth will fall naturally to the other side. The signaling arrangements which have been provided for the single or double main track will not have to be disturbed, whatever the changes the in- crease in freight business or yard room may occa- sion. If additional main tracks become necessary, as has already occurred in the life of many other railroads, it will be a simpler problem to arrange for them, if carried along on one side of the ex- isting tracks, than if on both ; and it will not be necessary in any case to move the passenger buildings. On roads already built, where a similar scheme has not been borne in mind during con- struction, opportunities occur to carry it out grad- ually, if decided upon. New buildings are fre- quently required and alterations are made in old ones, which can be brought into conformity with a general plan, if it exists. Much foresight and judgment are required in any scheme to avoid future changes, but this admits of keeping quite free of them on one side of the line. On general principles, it is advisable to place water tanks, and such other structures as will admit of it, at the outer limits of the premises. The most desirable 66 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. location for the freight house is on the other side of the tracks from the passenger station, not quite opposite, for that interferes with the view from the windows of the station, and gives a confined air to the arrangements generally ; not too far away, for it is well to have it so near that one agent and one telegraph office can conveniently serve both the freight and the passenger station, at all but quite large towns. The freight house should be put, at first, where it is expected permanently to remain, leaving space enough between it and the main track to admit of laying all the parallel tracks which can ever be wanted in the future. This will cost a little more to begin with, but will avoid the trouble and expense of moving the building at a future time, as also the suspension of business involved in such moving ; and as the track-scales, stock-yards, platforms, cranes and other conven- iences are constructed along the track which accom- modates the freight-house, to place this in its per- manent place is to save future alterations in the position of these. Some managers are quite unwilling to incur the expense of track-scales and cranes or derricks at stations, even of considerable importance, but experience has shown that they are a profitable investment. Freight houses are almost always too small ; built too small in the first place, they are reluct- antly increased in size ; business suffers in con- WA TER STA TIONS. 67 sequence ; cars have to serve as warehouses and are detained when in very great demand, because there is no place in the freight house for their contents. Water stations, to be good, or at all satisfac- tory, must be expensive ; the effort to build very cheap ones has proved this proposition, so that it is scarcely worth while to try the experiment again. A small reservoir with small pipes and supplied by a small pump cannot be relied upon to yield a large supply. To change these every little while, in order to keep pace with the grow- ing demands of the traffic, involves the sacrifice of nearly the whole of each successive plant. It is better, therefore, to build, at first, a minimum number of water stations and to have them first- rate ones, than to construct a larger number of poor ones. This number having been fixed upon, and the desirable site of each station determined, the sources of supply which are available near each are to be examined. A sufficient quantity at all seasons of the year is the first necessity, and the next that it shall be as free as can be from the salts of lime, which form the scale in boilers. Running streams are less likely to be of hard water than springs or wells, at least during the rainy season. A convenient test of water for boiler use is to prepare a solution of white soap in rain water, or better in distilled water. A few spoonfuls of this stirred into a glass of the water 6 8 ELEMEN 7 'S OF &A 1LROA DING. to be tested, will produce coagulation of the lime and soap, according to the quantity of salts in the water: and by treating a glass of each kind of water to be compared with the same measure of soap solution, a very marked difference will appear in a short time, if it exists. Three or four spoon- fuls of a solution of oxalate of ammonia in distilled water, poured into a glass of water to be tested, will cause the salts of lime to be precipitated, and in the course of a few hours all will have settled on the bottom of the glass ; by comparison of the quantity so precipitated from any two kinds of water, a very accurate knowledge can be had of their relative values for steam boiler use. It will doubtless be found that at some of the places selected at first, sufficiently pure water in ample quantity can not be found, and some redis- tribution of places may be necessary. If a storage reservoir of sufficient size, not too far off, can be availed of to supply the stand-pipes, from which water is taken into the tender, by gravity, it will be best to use that as the direct source of supply to the stand-pipes ; but the head of water above the rails should not be less than 25 ft.; any height above that, up to 300 ft., is all the better. With 25 ft. head, and a pipe of 8 or 10 in. in diameter between the reservoir and the stand- pipes, past the station buildings, the flow into the tender will not be too slow, and hydrants near the buildings will be available for sprinkling and use- RESERVOIRS. 69 ful in case of fire. It is advisable to use stand- pipes (of not less than 7 in. opening) at first, upon a new road, even though it may be intended afterward to use the Ramsbottom troughs, or " jerk-water " system for filling the tenders while the train is in motion ; because the troughs can not well be maintained except upon thoroughly settled level planes, with the track in perfect condition. If a natural elevation for the reservoir is not available, Burnham's frost-proof tank, or its equivalent, upon posts is the next best means of storing a large quantity at a sufficient height. This may be filled by gravity or by pumping according to circumstances, remembering that one may go a long distance for a gravity supply rather than to have to pump by steam. Where there is a favorable exposure to the wind and not too large a demand to be supplied, wind-mills will pump very cheaply and satisfactorily. Generally, it has been expected of a small wind- mill that it should pump as much as a more costly steam engine ; whereas, a larger sum may be afforded for the wind-mill than for the steam pump, because it requires no fuel and less attendance : wear and tear are also less. Where a quantity of more than 25,000 gallons per day is needed, it is better probably to use a steam pump than a wind- mill. In all cases, it is advisable to use larger pipes than have been generally employed for pumping through : for the demand upon them is 70 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. almost sure to increase. A pump that proves too small can be easily moved to another place where it will be useful, and a substitute provided which will be satisfactory, without much loss ; but it is a very expensive job to replace a long line of pipe. It is also in favor of the larger pipe that it takes less coal to pump a given quantity of water through it than through the smaller one. Wooden pipes bound with a spiral of hoop iron and coated with coal tar are least costly and have proved very satisfactory and durable in wet soils. In other soils, cast-iron pipes coated outside and inside with coal-tar preparations are certainly as good as any. It is important and useful to have standard patterns and uniform arrangements in the water works of a railroad company as in any other de- partment, and an experienced, intelligent superin- tendent of water works, who is penetrated by this conviction, will be of untold value to the company which he serves. CHAPTER VII. SHOPS AND ENGINE HOUSES. LOCATION BUILDINGS HEATING FOUNDRY INTERIOR FIT- TINGS SANITARY ARRANGEMENTS CRANES ROUND- HOUSES TURN-TABLES. The best location for the machine shops for repairs of locomotives, upon a road less than two hundred miles long, is at one of the termini ; upon a longer road, they should be placed as near the middle as may be ; upon a very long road with branches, as near the center of traffic as may be ; always supposing that a sufficiently large tract of nearly level ground can there be obtained upon which to place them. It would be wiser to pay a large sum for a suitable area, well situated, than to accept another unsuitable, or one not well situat- ed, for nothing. Generally, however, the erection of shops is regarded as of so much advantage to any town or neighborhood that the necessary land will readily be given by its citizens to secure them. 72 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. If near to a city of from ten to fifty thousand in- habitants, not in it, but so near that the workmen and their families can easily go to the town " to trade," it will be an advantage. It is a very com- mon mistake to take too little land, even by dona- tion, at first, and afterward to pay for additions much more than the entire area finally acquired would have cost in the beginning, because of the enhanced value of property due to the shops. This increase in the value of adjoining lands may be certainly counted upon, and ought to be availed of, by any railway company which pays for the land used for its shops, by buying the adjacent ground, to be sold or leased to employes and others. The area required for the buildings and yards about them will vary in every instance with the particular road for which they are designed ; but from an examination of the grounds occupied by- similar establishments already erected, and observ- ing that they are almost always in need of more room, a liberal mind may arrive at an approxima- tion to the probable requirements. It is better to err, in a matter of so much importance, upon the safe side, and to be sure of enough. It is much more economical for any road to have one grand machine shop, at which all the principal work of construction and of heavy repairs shall be done, than several smaller ones. The best and cheapest work is done by costly special machinery, LOCATING SHOPS. 73 which ought to be provided for any great estab- lishment, but can not be afforded for several shops ; such machines are generally capable of doing all the work that could be required of them for the largest road, and need not be duplicated if the important repairs are concentrated at one place. The number of high-priced men to be employed is lessened by having the work which requires the best skill and superintendence all executed at one shop ; and this will also assist much in securing uniformity and interchangeability of parts in engines and cars. Small adjuncts at engine-houses, fitted with a forge, drill, lathe and small planer, are necessary, of course, and are not referred to here in speaking of shops. The shops for the construction and repairs of cars should be at one of the termini, on a short road ; and at both of them and in the middle upon a longer road ; it is convenient and economical to associate one of them with the principal machine shops, if not upon a very large scale : if it is to be a great shop, it will require a separate outfit of tools and a special staff of foremen, so that there will be no advantage in such a connec- tion. Usually only one of the car shops need be upon a grand scale ; but cars are less substantially built than locomotives and are very much more numerous ; there is therefore a necessity for more shops in which to repair cars than for repairing engines. 74 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. The cost of buildings of equal character is somewhat in proportion to their cubic contents. In disregard of this fact, many shops have been built with high roofs and with trusses of wide span, involving not only useless cost but other disadvantages without corresponding gain. Shops built with walls high enough for the uses which they are to serve, with low roofs, as flat as may be, say with a slope of I in 12, carried by light trusses of short span, supported by posts, are in every respect the best as well as the cheapest. They are more easily warmed and ventilated ; they can be better lighted ; the shafting may be more readily suspended ; the posts are a positive convenience for the attachment of cranes, tool racks, etc. When it is desirable to use traveling cranes, as it is in erecting shops and others, a clerestory can be carried up on the posts for their accommodation. It is best to make the walls of brick and the posts and roof trusses of iron ; if the roofs are covered with tarred felt and gravel, or something equivalent, and if the planking of the roof is whitewashed upon the inside, the buildings will be almost fire proof ; and the roofs will be much more accessible in case of fire than those with high trusses are. The low roofs are convenient, if built with a due amount of strength, for the attachment of a light hoisting apparatus at any point desired; SHOP BUILDINGS. 75 such are required over every engine pit and are useful at all tools where heavy parts are handled. A skylight can be inserted at any place where one is wanted, to the great saving of artificial light, in the course of a year ; and the intensity of the illumination from a skylight low down is im- mensely greater than from one high up. If walls are of brick it is best to make them hollow, with a 2-in. space in them, well bonded ; which ex- cludes cold and damp, costs little or nothing except oversight during construction, and saves fuel permanently. Insert windows everywhere that it is possible, high as the walls, wide as the panels in the doors and over them, if necessary to insure abundant light, always indispensable to good or rapid work. Where brick and iron are not available, or would be too costly, wooden buildings, with the same general features which have been described, are recommended. All shops require a firm floor, which, over such large spaces, must rest upon the ground. Wooden floors perish rapidly, requiring constant renewal, to the great interruption of work and at consider- able cost. It is better to use some of the many forms of mineral pavement, such as asphalt on concrete, or blocks of asphalt, which are whole- some, easily cleaned, durable, and easily repaired when injured. Being impervious to damp, such floors are better than any other kind, when laid on the earth, regard being had to the health of 7 6 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. the workmen, which is likely to suffer from damp or decaying wood ; and, with such floors, other foundations are not required for ordinary tools; a block of wood or metal under each foot, to give a broader bearing upon the asphalt, is sufficient. The only proper mode of heating shops is by steam-pipes carried in accessible trenches lined with masonry and covered by iron gratings; the pipes may, without loss, be carried upon the walls ; the other is the better way, unless the trenches are likely to be wet ; yet there is no ob- jection to the use of the trenches for draining off clean water if it does not touch the pipes, which may be supported above the bottom on brackets or trestles. Excellent radiators for steam heating may be made from old boiler tubes which are un- fit to use in boilers, and are cheaper, for those who have the old tubes on hand, than any other kind. One of the most important of all shops for a railroad company is a good foundry, fitted to make every casting that can be required, from the largest to the smallest. It need not necessarily be a very large foundry, but it should not be a very small one, and it should have all the best appliances of cupolas, cranes and ovens. It will generally be found profitable for the foundry to make castings enough to at least consume the scrap iron which is accumulated by the company ; it can always be run at a profit, if reasonably well SHOP FIXTURES. 77 managed, and it maintains a wholesome check upon the foundries from which supplies are pur- chased ; yet, perhaps, the greatest advantage to be derived from it lies in the quickness with which important castings can be furnished to the several ^departments of the road when a sudden breakage occurs, sometimes saving great deiays, which may be costly and are proverbially dan- gerous. Indeed, most experienced men will agree that a good foundry is the greatest con- venience which can be mentioned. It is not intended here to enter into minute details concerning the interior fittings of shops, for they would vary much according to circum- stances, but a few things deserve mention which have a general application. It is better to drive the main line of shafting directly from the engine than to use a belt between tie engine and shaft- ing. This of course compels the use of an engine without a driving pv.lley, and there are many suitable varieties of such manufactured. It is preferable to suspend the shafting, both main and counters, by iron hangers, as may be done from the roof trusses, if low as described, rather than to encumber the space with the masses of timber which have commonly been used. This arrangement is safer against fire, does not accumulate grease or dust and does not ob- struct the light as the timber does. Tracks of standard gauge should pass through 78 ELEMENTS OF RAILROADING. or close to all the shops or departments of each shop, to admit of unloading heavy machinery and supplies as near to the places where they are to be set up or used as may be. Tracks of the same gauge or narrower should connect all the large and small shops, with turn-tables at all intersec- tions, so as to admit of carrying every thing from any one point in the whole system to any other point, on a larry, without unloading. The rela- tive positions of the several shops toward each other should be studied, with a view to make the journeys of the things which go from one to the other shop as short as possible ; and also to work through any shop from one end toward the other, where successive operations are required on the same material ; this is especially important in car shops, but should be had in view in all shops. Grinding machines, wood-planing machines, and such others as create objectionable noise or dust, should be apart from the main shops, in separate rooms. Hot and cold water with set-basins should be provided in sufficient numbers and con- venient for the workmen to wash easily and rap- idly. Good water-closets, self-operating, well warmed in cold weather, and so connected with the shops that the men need not go into the cold to reach them, should be attached in proper num- ber to each shop. They will require an attendant, who may also do sweeping and other chores. Shops and wash rooms and water-closets should SHOP COMFORTS. 1