^Tr i -\3 "fl-\ :. * -/^ _^ "tp^p^tp ^ip^ * *^&^*jm'-:^ *y5f THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. REVISED AND ENLARGED. WITH NEW ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES. A BOOK OF INSTRUCTION TRACK FOREMEN J. KINDELAN, R. M. C.. M. & St. P. Ry. TIIR,I> KIJITIOIV. CHICAGO: ROADMASTKR AND FOREMAN, PUBI.ISHBRS, 91 and 93 South Jefferson St. 1894. Entered According to Act of Congress, in the Year 1894, BY J. KINDELAN, In the office ot the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 1894. Printing and Electrotyping by B. 8. WASSON & Co., CHICAGO. 538 CONTENTS. Af 57' NEW ROAD. CHAPTER I. 1, New Road -2, Track Laying 3, Track-Laying Machine 4, Have Tools Beady 5, Track Laying Tools and Material 6, Tie Bedding 7, Omit the Tie Bedding 8, Good Men at the Front, a Surfacing Gang 9, Locating Joint Ties 10, Laying the Bails 11, Expansion and Contraction 12, Heat and Cold, Expansion Table-H, Transferring Mate- rial 14, Mixed Lengths of Bails 15, A Short Bail for Curves 16, A Tie Under Joints 17, When Laid in a Sag 18, Change of Line 19, Good Side Tracks 20, To Stop Track from Creeping 21, Making Connections 22, Short Pieces of Bail 23, The Steel Car :4, Lining New Track 25, Track Line 26, One or More Steel Cars 27, How Constructed 28, Track-Laying Gage 29, Cattle Guards 3^, List of Track Tools 31, Locating Wagon Crossings 32, Where to Spike the Plank 33, A Common Plank Wagon Crossing 34, A Standard Highway Crossing 35, Laying New Steel 36, How to Belay Iron or Steel 37, Average Life of Iron and Steel 38, Even or Broken Joints 39, Heavier Bails Warded Spik- ing and Gaging, Paragraphs 1 to 9 ............................. SPRING TRACK WORK. CHAPTEB II. 1, Spring Track Work 2, Washouts 3, Bepairing Track 4, On Long Sections Ballasted With Earth- 5, Dressing Mud Track 6, Lining Old Track 7, Bolt- That Are Too Tight 8, Be- moving Old Track Bolts 9, Changes of Temperature 10, Line of Bridges 11, Repairing Bridges -12, The Ends of Bridges 13, Ditching 14, Width and Shape of Ditches 15, Slope of Ditches 16, Grade of Ditches 17, Cleaning of Ditches-18, A Ditching Bule 19, Track Drainage-20, Cul- verts and Bridges 21, Grading Cuts ........................... SUMMER TRACK WORK. CHAPTEB III. 1, Summer Track Work 2, Track Ties 3, Putting New Ties Under the Track 4, Select Your Joint Ties 5, Finish as YOB Go 6, Distributing New Ties 7, Make the Worst Places 379425 IV CONTENTS. Safe First 8. Ties Under Joints 9, Estimating New Ties for Repairs 10, Counting the Bad Ties 11, Wide Spaces -12, Remove Bad Ties When Ballasting 13, Twisted Ties 14, Ties at Highway Crossings 15, Remove the Bark 16, Old Ties 17, Average Life of Ties 18, Tie Account for a Year 19, Cutting Weeds 20, Weeds on Heavy Grades -21, To Lessen Weed Cutting. 1, Ballast 2, Surface Levels 3, Before Ballasting Track 4, When to Ballast 5, Ballasting 6, Raising Track 7, Raise Both Sides 8, Solid Centers 9, High Places 10, Uniform Tamping 11, Dressing Ballasted Track 12, A Day's Work 13, Refuse Ballast in Cuts 14, Have the Track Ready 15, High Raising 16, Gravel Required to Ballast a Mile of Track 17, Level Track in Yards 18, How to Level Yard Tracks 19, Gravel Pits 20, Gravel vs. Weeds 67101 FALL TRACK WORK. CHAPTER IV. 1, Fall Track Work 2, Cleaning the Right of Way 3, Raising Up Sags in Track Surface 4, Narrow Embankments 5, Haul Out Material from Cuts 6, To Remedy Too Wide an Open- ing at the Joints. 7, Building Fences 8, Board Fences 9, Fence Tables 10, Weightlof Nails-ll, Weight of Fence Wire-12, a Day's Labor. 102 118 WINTER TRACK WORK. CHAPTER V. 1, Winter Track Work 2, Shimming Track 3, Heaved Bridges and Culverts 4, Report Amount of Snow 5, Snow on Side Tracks 6, Snow in Cuts 7, Flanging Track 8, Opening Ditches and Culverts 9, Snow Walls 10, Snow Fences. 1 , Bucking Snow 2, Two Locomotives 3, A Piece of Steam Hose 4, Length of Runs 5, Preparing Dri f ts 119133 FROGS AND SWITCHES. CHAPTER VI. 1, Turnouts 2, Split or Point Switches 3, Laying Switches 4, To Change a Stub to a Split Switch 5, Description of Table 1, for "Stub Leads" 6, Description of Table 2, for "Point Leads" 7, Frogs 8, Laying Frogs in Track - 9, Length Of Frogs 10, Guard Rails 11, If There Is No Standard 12, Switch Timbers 13, To Cut Switch Ties the Proper Length 14, Tamping Switch Ties 15, Putting in Three Throw Switches 16, Derailing Switches 17. Turnout from Curves 18, To Reach a Side Track with a Reverse Curve Behind the Frog 19, Round House Tracks 20, Another Method 21, Cross-over Tracks 22, Table of Distances Between Frog Points in Cross-over Tracks 23. Parallel Tracks 24, How to Ascertain the Kind of Frog Needed 25, Spur Tracks 134170 CONTENTS. V CURVED TRACK. CHAPTER VII. 1, Radii, Ordinates, Tangent an I/arc flicni above the oreraije. eren ai on increoxed price. Other things being equal, a railroad which is not compelled to re- new its track ties for nine or ten years after they are laid in the ground, has an immense advantage over a road that must renew its ties once in five years. The 70 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. latter road must figure into its expense account almost double the cost for material, besides the additional track labor necessary to do the work, and during the interval it cannot have as good a track as the former. Ties sawed square will rot quicker and break easier than hewed ties, and are generally too small to give a good bearing surface. But pole ties, with a face on two sides, made by sawing slabs from them, are gen- erally good and preferable to quarter ties or ties split out of very large logs, because the wood of a big tree is more brittle than that of a younger growth. A well hewed pole tie, with a face on two sides, eight to ten inches wide, is preferable to all others for track pur- poses. No tie should exceed several inches in thick- ness, and all ties should be cut a uniform length for main track, except in bridges and switches.* The life of a track tie is not altogether dependent upon the kind or quality of timber used. jj'he same kind of a tie will last longer at the North where the ground is frozen all winter, than in the South, where the process of decay goes on uninter- ruptedly. There is also a marked difference in the effect on ties of an extremely wet or dry climate, or the amount of traffic over them. In the spring, on railway lines which run East and West, the frost goes out from under the south rail first * It seems to be a very difficult matter, when constructing a new rail- road, or when procuring new ties for renewals, to secure ties of a size that will be uniform in width of face and thickness. In regard to the length of lies, I believe the ugly and ii regular line of ties on the gage side of track, caused by the difference in the length of ties, is the result of gross care lessness in the officer or company that accepts them from the tie maker. If ties were all of a uniform length, besides improving the track, it would prevent uneven settling of track; and by lining evenly on both sides, they aid the Track Foreman in arranging the ballast a uniform width on each side of track, and prevent the useless work spent in tamping the long ends and digging out for them, and 011 mud track it would lessen the labor of weed cutting. SUMMER TRACK WORK. 71 at all places where there are no cuts or other shade to assist in equalizing the heat of the sun on both sides of track. At such points I believe it would be a good policy when putting in track ties to lay the widest or butt end of the ties under the south rail of the track. PUTTING NEW TIES UNDER THE TRACK. 3. When putting ties under the track the Foreman should never allow the men to dig out any more than is necessary to allow the. tie to go under easily. The old bed should not be disturbed if the new tie will fit. A very good method for putting ties in a mud track, where there are a good many ties to be changed, is to dig out between every two rotten ties, and on each side of the track, a little deeper than the bed of the ties, pull the spikes from the old ties, spring the rail on a tie either side of the hole which has been dug, and slip a spike under the rail. Use nothing thicker than a spike.. Then knock the old ties into the hole, and pull out. Pull the new tie into the same liole from the opposite side of the track, if it is of about the right size; let a man on each side of the track slide the tie into its bed, keeping it close up to the rail un- til in its place. If the place to receive the tie is a little too deep, scatter a shovel or two of fine dirt evenly over the bed, then slide the tie under the rail as be- fore. When both new ties are in, take the spike from under the rail, and you will find both ties in better shape than if tamped under for several minutes. The ties will hug the rail and very seldom be over an eighth of an inch too high, an error which cannot be seen after the first train passes over. The writer has tried all methods, but finds the 72 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. above the best, safest, and quickest. When ties are put in this way there is 110 tamping to be done, and they can be spiked without the necessity of having a man to hold up the ends of the ties for the spiker. This method can only be used when putting ties in a mud track. In gravel or stone, the ties must be tamped, and should be held up to the rail when spik- ing them. When men- have had some practice at putting in ties in this way, they can put in one-third more in a day, per man, than by tamping; and in much better shape. But it is not advisable to raise the track up to put in ties in gravel, because the gravel will run under the ties and spoil the surface of the track. New ties should always be spaced evenly; they should be square across the track, and laid so that the same length of tie will project outside of each rail, as very short or long ties, if put to line on the line side, would give an uneven bearing surface for the rails, thereby making track difficult to keep level. The only necessity for a line side on such ties is when laying new track. SELECT YOUR JOINT TIES. 4. When selecting ties to put under joints, where common splices are used, always choose the best hewed and widest tie you can find, but never bring the shoulder ties close to the joint at the expense of the quarters. Under joints where angle bar splices are used, put in two well hewn ties of about equal size, and have each tie come well under the angle bar splices not over six inches apart. When putting in ties a Foreman should divide his gang in such a way that all can be working at once, having each man do the SUMMER TRACK WORK. 73 work he is best suited to perform, and when working a large gang of men he ought to have tools enough to work them in separate gangs, because in this way a great deal more work can be doneiii proportion to the number of men. Ties sawed square should never be put under a rail joint. FINISH AS YOU GO. 5. When a Section Foreman is putting in ties out of a face, leaving the track well tied behind him, he should take time each day to level up all low places in the piece of track tied, dressing it up, not only in spots where the ties have been put under, but contin- uously. He should, if necessary, cut the weeds at the same time, and do any other work that is needed. By doing the work this way, he leaves behind him, every day, a good piece of track, which grows longer as he advances, and shows up to his own advantage, and his superior's satisfaction. DISTRIBUTING NEW TIES. 6. When new ties are being distributed on his sec- tion, a Foreman should be particular to so distribute them that it will not afterwards be necessary to haul them any great distance to where they are wanted. Hauling ties half a mile or more with a push car to where you want them, when they could as well have been put there with the train, is only a waste of time and labor-. MAKE THE WORST PLACES SAFE FIRST. 7. When the number of rotten ties on a section is very great, or when the bad ties are in bunches, from three to ten together in a rail length, making the track unsafe, always look to sucli places first, and get 74 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. in enough new ties in these places to make them safe, and keep track in good gage. After you have done this, then will be time enough to commence putting in the new ties out of a face. When putting in new ties out of a face, if the old ties left in the track are not to gage, bring to the proper gage with new ones; don't leave them an irreg- ular gage. TIES UNDER JOINTS. 8. When two rail joints on opposite sides of the track are not squarely opposite each other, never try to twist one tie around so as to make each end of it come under the center of a joint. This makes the joint weaker than any other part of the rail in propor- tion to the difference between the square of the joints. When rail joints pass each other so much that the center of each joint will not rest on opposite edges of a good tie, put into track another tie, so that the cen- ter of each joint will rest on the center of one end of either of the ties. Track is much better and easier to keep up to surface where there are plenty of ties under it. A good method for spacing ties is to have the space between all ties just wide enough to pass a track shovel up between them. Where white cedar ties are used there should be not less than seventeen to a thirty foot rail length. ESTIMATING NEW TIES FOR REPAIRS. 9. In the fall of the year, or at any other time that Section Foremen are requested to send their Road- masters an estimate of the number of new ties wanted for repair of track on their sections, the Foreman should make a personal examination of every tie in SUMMER TRACK WORK. 75 the track in his charge, counting every rotten or broken tie which must be removed from the track be- fore the end of another year. In the statement should also be included the number of ties wanted to repair his side tracks, and any extra ties wanted to fill wide spaces, which may have been omitted when the track was first laid. COUNTING THE BAD TIES. 10. When the bad ties are counted, each one should be examined, and tried with a pick, if necessary. Do not run over the track on a hand car, carelessly count- ing the ties as you go, nor make an estimate of the number of ties wanted by guess. The number of ties wanted each year for repairs is an important item of expense to a railroad company, and all estimates for new ties should be made as accurate as possible. WIDE SPACES. 11. When putting in new ties, Track Foremen should see that all wide spaces are filled between the old ties which were too far apart when the track was laid, or where other Foremen neglected to space them properly, putting in two for one, or three for two wher- ever necessary. REMOVE BAD TIES WHEN BALLASTING. 12. When a track is being ballasted with gravel, stone or other material, all the bad ties should be re- placed by new ones as fast as the track is ballasted. The work of changing ties is more easily done when ballasting, and costs less; and the track does not have to be disturbed again for a much longer period. TWISTED TIES. 13. Foremen putting new ties into the track should 76 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. adze off the edge at the ends of all twisted ties, suffi- ciently to give the base of the track rails a level sur- face to rest on for the full width of the tie, at each end of it. TIES AT HIGHWAY CROSSINGS. 14. When new ties have been distributed along the track, the Section Foreman should go over his secfion immediately after the distributing train, and remove to a safe distance all ties which are close to the track rails, or in a dangerous position. All ties on the ground close to highway or farm crossings should either be put into the track at once, or remove to some place where there would be less danger of their being stolen, or obstructing the highway. Section Foremen should not overlook any crossings when putting in ties; the plank should be taken up, the track exam- ined, and all the new ties needed put in there. REMOVE THE BARK. 15. The bark should be removed from all hewed or round timber used in railroad construction, before it is put into service in the ground, or above the ground. Bridge piles will remain sound much longer, if the bark is removed, and they are allowed to season, before they are put in the ground, because the water which falls on the wood above the surface of the ground, soon evaporates, and leaves the timber in a good, dry con- dition. If the bark is allowed to remain, it prevents evaporation of the sap, or other moisture, for a much longer time, and therefore induces decay. The same may be said of fence posts, and there is considerable loss occasioned by nails or other fastenings not secur- ing a firm hold on the wood, where they are driven through the bark. SUMMER TRACK WORK. 77 In the case of track ties, * the bark, if not remov- ed, assists materially the process of decay, and it is also a continual source of annoyance to the track men when tamping or repairing the track, and dan- gerous on account of fire. The best time to remove the bark from ties is during the winter months, before the ties are distributed along the track. OLD TIES. 16. I believe the best way to dispose of the old ties, which are taken out of the track, is to get rid of them with as little expense and handling as possible. After the section men receive what old ties they require for firewood, the balance should be traded for work, or given away to people living along the road, with the understanding that the old ties be removed at once, after they are taken from the track. There is a large amount of labor wasted in picking up, hauling, piling up and burning old ties which had better be devoted to improving the track. In most sections of the country where timber is scarce, the farmers living along the track will do plowing or grad- ing, or give labor on the track equivalent to the old ties. AVERAGE LIFE OF TIES. 17. The average life of ties can only be determined in localities where they are used. Ties made from the same timber will rot quicker in one kind of soil or ballast than they will in another. The climate also affects the life of a tie, as also does the amount of * All track ties last much longer, hold a spike better and give better re suits generally, if they are thoroughly seasoned before putting them into the track. All timber used in railroad construction should be well sea- soned before putting into the ground. 78 THE TRACKMAN S HELPER. traffic over the road, the width of rail base, etc. Another point to consider, when calculating the life of a tie, is the condition in which it is allowed to re- main in track. Some companies have all the old ties removed from track as soon as they will not hold a spike, while other roads allow old ties to remain in track until they are entirely worthless. The latter roads gain about another year's use of the ties, but it does not pay except in the case of an occasional tie, broken or rotten in the center, but still giving the rails a good support at the ends. Any tie which has begun to give away under the rail should at once be replaced by a new one. When bad ties are numerous it is impossible for trackmen to repair the road with- out putting under new ties. 18. TIE ACCOUNT FOR A YEAR. MONTHS . TIES RECEIVED. PUT IN TRACK. ON HAND. HardTies Soft Ties HardTies Soft Ties. HardTies soft Ties. January February March April 1000 none 300 500 160 none none none 1100 IK. ne none yoo 1(00 1000 800 500 600 400 May June August September. . . November... December.... Track Foremen will find the above form a handy way to keep a correct account of ties handled on their sec- tion. If it is necessary to keep account of more than two kinds of ties, additional columns may be put in under the three heads, "Ties Received," "Put in Track," or "On Hand." SUMMER TRACK WORK. 79 CUTTING WEEDS. 19. Weeds on track should be cut clean with the shovel between the ties and out to a distance of at least three and one-half feet from the rails on mud track, and to the outer line of gravel or stone ballast parallel with the rails in cuts; the weeds growing out- side of the track should be cut to the back line of the ditches, unless where grass sod is allowed to grow to protect the shoulder of the track. On embankments, the weeds at a greater distance from the ends of ties than that mentioned above should be kept cut down with a scythe or bush hook, as far out as the right of way limits, if the Foreman is allowed men enough to perform this work without neglecting the track or other necessary work. A clean track is not by any means a safe track, and a Foreman should not have his men mowing grass and weeds along the right of way, unless the help he is allowed and the condition of his track at the time will admit of it. Before com- mencing to cut weeds a Foreman should grind on the inside of the blade any new shovels he is about to use and bevel them back from the edge about five-six- teenths of an inch. He should also carry a flat file to use when necessary, and never allow his men to hammer shovels on the edge of the blade, as this prac- tice causes pieces to break out of the front of shovels and render them almost useless. A Foreman should watch his men when cutting weeds and see that the weeds are cut under the surface of the ground, as those which are only cut off above the ground commence growing immediately after being cut. When weeds are cut in the center of a track or on an embankment, 80 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. the dirt which comes on the shovel together with the weeds should not be thrown down the embankment but be either turned over or allowed to remain where it was moved from. The practice of shaving off the embankment one or two inches every time weeds are cut is bad, and should not be tolerated, as the loose dirt thrown down the hill soon washes away, and each additional weed cutting of this kind weakens the shoulder, makes the fill narrower, and in time al- lows the ends of ties to project over and track to set- tle for want of a sufficient foundation. When cutting weeds, always have your men cut on separate rail lengths, as this relieves the monotony of the work; it also acts a? a stimulus, making each one anxious to do his part of the work in time to take his place in turn with the other men. WEEDS ON HEAVY GRADES. 20. If a Section Foreman's help is so limited that it is not possible for him to keep all of the track in his charge clear of grass and weeds during the summer months, he should commence part way up the heav- iest grades on his section, and cut the weeds clean out of the track to the top of the grade and down the same distance on the opposite side. This will enable heavy trains to go through without any inconvenience, and the weeds in the sags can be cleaned out afterwards as the Foreman has the time to do it. If the section is all level track you can follow the same plan, cutting the weeds a quarter of a mile or more in one place, occasionally skipping a piece. This will enable an engine to gain speed enough where the track is clear, to haul the train without slipping, over places where the weeds are not cut. SUMMER TRACK WORK. 81 TO LESSEN WEED CUTTING. 21. The labor of weed cutting on a dirt-ballasted track may be lessened a great deal by work done on the section in the spring before the weeds become troublesome, by the following method: At all points where a Foreman puts a number of new ties in the track near together, he should stop long- enough to surface up the track, line and dress it out of a face, and by this means kill the young weeds, or at least retard their growth at that place. After a Foreman is well advanced with the work of putting in ties, some of the old ties may be traded to farmers living near the track for ploughing a couple of fur- rows along on each side of the track 10 or 15 feet from the rail, and in a line parallel with the track, keeping a little outside the bottom of the track embankment. Have this work done where it is high and narrow, especially where the shoulder of the track outside the ties has been weakened by surface washing or from constant weed cutting previous years. After the plowing has been done the Foreman should take his men and level up all low spots in the track and line it up ready to fill in and dress. Then put part of the men to work on each side of the track and have them cut the plowed sod into handy lengths and lay them along at the ends of the track ties with the grass side down, and fill the balance of the track in the center and between the ties with material taken from the bottom of the newly plowed furrows and dress and finish the track with it. This work should be continued as long as you can spare the time from other necessary track work and by the time regular weed cutting begins you will have one or two miles 82 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. SUMMER TBACK WOBR. 8*3 of first-class mud track with all the old grass or weeds killed. The track will be strengthened and kept in better line, and, there being no weeds in the material taken from the plow furrows for ballasting, you will be saved the necessity of cutting much weeds on that piece of track all summer, and all your other work will be advanced proportionately. Although a shovel is the tool most commonly used for cutting weeds on railroads, tools, such as are shown in the illustrations, are now being gradually substi. tuted for the shovel on many roads on account of their superiority in many respects. In the first place, they are more convenient for the men to use, are not so tiresome, and can be handled with greater ease, the men standing in an upright position, when cutting weeds with them, instead of a stooped or bending over position, which must be assumed with a short handled shovel. From one-sixth to one-fourth more weeds may be cut in a day with these tools than can be cut with a shovel. They are less expensive than shovels, and are therefore more economical to use, and the dirt or ballast which would be lifted by a shovel and wasted by careless men is not disturbed by the tools shown, when weeds are cut, but remains in its original form in the center of track or on the shoulder of embank- ment. This last advantage alone is a sufficient reason for their general introduction on all roads in prefer- ance to shovels. Either of the weed cutting tools, shown in Figures 8 and 9, should have a blade made of very thin hard steel. The blade of the hoe, as manufactured for garden use, when properly tempered, is the correct thing, because, although the edge gradually wears 84 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. away, yet it never requires sharpening, as thicker blades would on account of coming in contact with stone and gravel. Section Foremen can improve the appearance of their track greatly and save considerable labor by bolting a piece of timber to the end of the hand car, projecting far enough out on the side of track to attich an iron rod with a small steel shovel at the end of it, which will mark the outside line for cutting weeds as the car is pushed ahead on the track. BALLAST. 1. A better track can be made with gravel and stone combined for ballast, than when either of these materials is used alone. The foundation for the track should be laid with broken stone, and above the stone should be placed a quantity of coarse gravel sufficient to bed the ties, surface the track, and dress it. Where gravel and stone are used together, as above stated, the stone need not be broken as small or uniform in size as where stone is used alone for ballast. Gravel and stone when used for track ballast have, each, advantages peculiar to themselves. Stone makes the most solid foundation, drains the track best, does not freeze in cold weather, does not grow weeds, will not wash, and makes very little dust. On the other hand, gravel is easier to procure along most roads, costs less than stone, is more elastic, not wearing the track ties or iron, or the rolling stock as much as stone, drains the track well and does not grow many weeds. It also possesses superior advantages in handling, lit- tle more than half as much labor being required to SUMMER TRACK WORK. 85 86 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. surface a given amount of track as when stone ballast is used; and all kinds of track repairs, especially changing ties, can be made much quicker and cheaper in gravel than in stone ballast. Two car loads of gravel to a thirty foot rail length, laid upon a layer of broken stone twelve inches thick, will make a first- class roadbed, but the proportions of gravel or stone used for ballast should depend on the kind of bottom* over which the track was laid, the cost of materials and the amount which could be furnished. SURFACE LEVELS. 2. When it t is intended to ballast several miles of old railroad, or when ballasting track out of a face behind Tracklayers, levels should be given by the Engineers just as for bedding ties, with only this difference, that the top of the level stakes should be the surface level of the track rails. These level stakes could be ar- ranged so as to answer for lining track, like center stakes, and in all cases where track is newly ballasted, provision should be made for putting it in perfect line, more especially curve track which should be lined as originally located. BEFORE BALLASTING TRACK. 3. All track that is about to be ballasted with cind- ers, gravel, or stone should be cleaned out to a level with the bottom of the ties, and the dirt taken out should be put along the shoulder of the grade, to strengthen it and save the ballast from washing away. If the dirt between the ties in a new track is not taken out before putting under ballast of cinders or gravel, * Deep sags should always be raised up the required height before track is ballasted. It is a bad policy and a waste of material to increase the depth of ballast in order to level up a deep sag in the grade. SUMMER TRACK WORK. S7 r 88 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. it soon mixes with the ballast used, and works grad- ually to the top in wet or low places, making the labor of repair more difficult, and growing more weeds. Where the ballast is of sufficient thickness, or in tak- ing up sags, the digging out can be omitted. The grade on high embankments before receiving ballast of gravel or cinders, should be made at least fourteen feet wide, and as much wider as is possible without too great an expense. WHEN TO BALLAST. 4. On Nothern railroads, track should not be bal- lasted earlier than May loth or June 1st. The ground should have time to settle, and the heaving to go down. BALLASTING. 5. When a Foreman is putting ballast under the track he should raise the track out of a face, taking out all light sags where there is enough material to doit. RAISING TRACK. 6. The following is one of the best methods of raising track to a level surface: Take a piece of board two inches by four inches, and five feet long, place it across the trackway, and cut notches in it three inches deep, near the ends, so that it will fit between the track rails like a gage. Put this board on a high place in the track about ten or twelve rail lengths ahead of where you will com- mence to raise the track, shim it up at the end to a perfect level, at whatever height will be the top sur- face level of the track rails after they are raised at that place; you may then go back and begin surfacing. SUMMER TRACK WORK. 90 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. Raise the first two joints on opposite side of track and tamp them level. Then lay the spirit level aside until you have all the track surfaced up between where you commenced to work and where you placed the sighting board across the track. When sighting track, have each joint raised and tamped one-fourth of an inch higher than the top of the sighting board, and on reaching the last joint, raise and bring it to a level with the finished track by striking down on the tie once or twice with a sledge, or other heavy tool. The center of the rail should only be raised to a level w r ith the joints. The man sighting track should sit at least sixty feet back of the joint which is being raised, and ninety feet back is better, because the long surface of rails raised assists the eye to more accurately sight a true and level line ahead. When trackmen sight at the first joint back of the one which is raising, light sags are apt to get into the surface of the track unnoticed, as swings do when men stand too close to a place in track when they are lining. The above method is simple, less liable to varia- tion, and makes smoother and better track than when the spirit level is used on every rail joint, because the Foreman does not have to test every joint with the level and keep the men idle while doing it, nor will he be so apt to pass over a joint which is not up to accurate surface with the others. Use two jacks when surfacing with a large gang of men, a heavy jack for the joints, and a lighter one for lifting the centers of the rails. Do not allow the jack men to lift up rail centers high enough to spring the rails, and always have the jack set in ahead of the joint SUMMER TEACK WORK. 91 next to be raised, except when the rail is surface bent in the quarter behind the joint. Tainp up the tie ahead of the joint with the joint tie when raising track more than two inches. This prevents the joints from hooking over and making it necessary to go back and raise them a second time. By adjusting a joint some distance ahead to the proper elevation or level and sighting the track into it a curve track can be surfaced by the method described for straight track. Always sight curve-track along the inside of the rails. In that way you can see further and better. When making a "run-off" for trains be sure to have it long enough to let them over it easily. Time can be saved by only tamping three ties solid ahead of the last joint raised. The material can be thrown loosely under the balance of the "run-off" and the track let down upon it. Have your men well organized, each one working in his proper place, and if you employ new men pair them with older hands. If you have a gang of four- teen or sixteen men work them as follows: Put two men tamping out ends of ties on each side of the track, four men tamping the centers of ties inside the rails, and two men with the jack. The balance of the gang may be divided, a part of them filling in the bal- last ahead of the men tamping and the others filling in behind the men tamping. If you work your men so that they will be about evenly divided on each side of the track they will be more apt to compete with each other and help forward the work. You can see at a glance whether each one performs his share of the work or not and you will also be pre- pared to finish up a piece of track quicker, when 92 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. necessary, than if the men are allowed to straggle along and work where they please. For inexperienced men it is a good method to sight track over the tops of two small blocks which are of an equal height with the sighting board or a painted line upon it. The man with the track-jack carries one block, and when the top of this block is placed on a rail joint and comes up level with the sight-board and the top of the track-sighter's block, the joint is high enough. These blocks are not used when sighting the center of the track-rail. RAISE BOTH SIDES. 7. It is best to raise both sides at once when bal- lasting, as track raised and tamped on one side be- fore it is on the other always has a space not tamped under the rail, on the first side, when the opposite side is brought up to level. The center of ballasted track should never be tamped solid; it will be enough to fill under the center of the ties without tamping very solid. About eighteen inches inside the rails on each side of the track, will be enough of the in- side of the ties to tamp solid. SOLID CENTERS. 8. Where the weight of the engine and the cars bears most on the center of the ties, great numbers of them break, especially ties sawed square. On Northern roads, when the frost is leaving the ground in the spring, the ends of ties thaw out first and where they are very solid in the center they rock under the weight of a train and the track slides out of line. HIGH PLACES. 9. Short high points in the track to be ballasted SUMMER TRACK WORK. 93 should not be raised at all if they are higher than the surfaced track, but should be let down, if this re- quires less labor than to surface up the track to the high point. UNIFORM TAMPING. 10. The secret of putting up good smooth track that will remain so a long time, lies in having your men well organized and in getting them to work as nearly alike as possible; uniformity in. the work is everything. A first class track can be ballasted with- out tamping it with either tamping pick, bar or shovel handle, where sand or gravel is used, by having the men put the material to place under all the ties with the shovel blade, tamping only the* joint ties, and picking up the low places after the trains have passed over it. DRESSING BALLASTED TRACK. 11. When the ballast is composed of gravel, sand, and loam, and only a small quantity is used, the track, when dressed up, should be filled in the cen- ter a little heavier than dirt ballasted track and the ballast gradually sloped off on both sides from the center of the track to a point at about half the thick- ness of the ties at the outer end. If the ballast used is coarse gravel, or cinders, and there is sufficient ballast under the track to drain it well, it is the best when dressing the track, to fill up between the outer ends of the ties with ballast, leaving it level with the tops of the ties and then putting a good heavy shoulder of the ballast outside the ends of the ties, dividing the material evenly on each side of the track. The 94 THE TBACKMAN'S HELPEE. shoulder of track should be of a regular width. Where there is a surplus, put it at weak places. A DAY'S WOEK. 12. Sixty feet, or two rail lengths, of finished track ballasted per man, per day, is generally considered fair work for a surfacing crew. If possible, a Foreman should finish up, before leaving for home, all the track raised during the day, as a heavy shower of rain, or a storm of snow or sleet will injure any track which is left open and not filled in the center between the ties. A little good judgment will enable any Foreman to so arrange the work, that, when himself and his men get through wojk in the evening, the track where they were working will be in good shape, and safe, if they were not to return again for several days. It is very important that all track should be filled in and dressed up as fast as it is surfaced, in order to pre- serve a good line on the rails. Track which is not filled between the ties will not stay in line. The heavier a track can be filled without interfering with its drainage, the better it will stay in line, but no material should be piled upon or around the track ties which would in any way stop the free passage of water which falls 011 the track. EEFUSE BALLAST IN CUTS. 13. Only the cleanest of gravel ballast should be unloaded in cuts to ballast track with. Where it is necessary (in order to get rid of them in the pit) to haul out on the track, together with the gravel, large 'stones, grass, sods, etc., they should always be dumped on an embankment where they will assist in strength- ening the fill. If they are placed in cuts they must SUMMER TRACK WORK. 95 be removed after the track is ballasted so that the time spent at this work is wasted. This lost labor amounts to considerable when many miles of ballast is handled. There are very few gravel pits where an occasional train of clean gravel cannot be procured, and even where part of the train load is composed of poor material, when unloading it, the worst cars can be cut off and left outside the end of the cut, and the cleanest gravel unloaded in the cut. HAVE THE TRACK READY. 14. When ballasting track or raising it to surface, the Foreman should so arrange his work that he will have the track ready for trains when due to pass there. He should make a "run-off" at the last rail of track raised, and outer ends of ties should at least be tamp- ed up before a train is allowed to pass over it. The length of the "run-off" should be in proportion to the height the track is raised. Never make a "run-off" too short; ft is better to flag a train and hold it until you are ready, than to risk surface, bending the rails, or wrecking the train. Foremen ballasting track should always protect themselves against wild trains by keeping a flag out against them and off the time of regular trains. HIGH RAISING. 15. When track is raised more than six inches high, to put ballast under it out of a face, the Fore- man employed to do the work should be thoroughly competent and reliable. One Foreman should work the larger part of the surfacing gang, and with them lift the track, tamp the ties, and do a part of the filling, leaving the track behind him with a true surface, 96 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. perfectly level and in good line. Working some dis- tance behind the first gang another Foreman with a smaller crew of men should do the finishing work. He should carry, besides his other tools, a full set of tamping bars and raise up to surface all depressions in the surface of the track made by trains which passed over it after the front gang left it. Every piece of track taken up to surface by the second gang, should be tamped solid to a perfect surface with tamping bars, they should also put a true line on the rails and fill in the balance of the gravel, and dress up the sides and center of the track, moving all sur- plus ballast with their push car to points along the line where it is needed to make the shoulder of a uniform width. GRAVEL REQUIRED TO BALLAST A MILE OF TRACK. 16. Allowing an average of thirty-three feet for each car length, including the space between the cars, one hundred and sixty-three cars of gravel will reach over one mile of track. If this amount of gravel is unloaded by hand, or plowed off from the cars, which is a better way, and if the trains average about eight yards of gravel to the car, there will be gravel ballast, deposited along the track equal to six inches in thick- ness, twelve feet wide on top, and twelve feet six inches wide at the bottom, for the entire length of one mile of track. Deduct from the above amount of gravel about one-half for filling between the track ties and for dressing the center of the track after it has been surfaced up, and there is still left a balance of about three inches in thickness to be put under the bottom of the track ties. If two cars of gravel are unloaded at one place, SUMMER TRACK WORK. 97 the depth of gravel ballast under the track ties is increased about three fold. The only loss from the second carload of gravel is about one-twelfth, which goes into the side slope of the shoulder of the fill. The second car leaves a load of gravel 8-| inches in thickness beneath the track ties. This is a good argument in favor of ballasting with not less than two carloads of gravel in a place. One carload in a place makes a very poor job, especially where it is put under the track without digging out the mud from between the ties. Where the sub-grade is well drained and solid, a first class track can be made by ballasting with^two cars of gravel in a place, and to do the work in this way, estimates may be taken at the rate of three hundred and twenty-five cars of gravel to the mile of track. The embankment should not be less than fourteen feet wide on top, and should be made sixteen feet wide, if possible, before putting on the gravel, to prevent the ballast from washing away. Gravel may be loaded in pit for 75 cents per car, making the cost for one mile, one car to the rail length, about $125; in some pits the work may be done cheaper by building a trap and scraping the gravel onto cars with horses. LEVEL TRACK IN YARDS. 17. The track in all yards should be surfaced level throughout their entire length, and all tracks running parallel with each other should be of the same height when possible to have them so. When tracks have once been put to a uniform level surface, no part of them should be raised again higher than 98 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. the rest of the yard unless it is intended to raise the level of the whole yard. Many inexperienced Fore- men, in charge of yards, think it is necessary every time they repair track, to surface it a little higher, and a difference of several inches in the heights of the tracks may be seen in some yards. This is a harmful and senseless policy and should not be tolerated. HOW TO LEVEL YARD TRACKS. 18. A simple method by which to get tracks which run parallel to each other, to the same height, is as follows: First, put up the main track properly, then use a straight edge from the nearest rail of the adjoin- ing track in order to raise it to a level with the main track. You can then move to a point several rails ahead on the main track and repeat the operation. After this you can raise and sight, level the track on the siding between the two points which you have made level with the main track. A Foreman can level a track lengthways somewhat in the same way as above described. RULE: Run the level and a straight edge on the top of two or three stakes running parallel with the track to be leveled, and do the same at a place some distance from that point. Then sight over the tops of the stakes at both points, and have a man drive stakes between the two places where you have leveled, until the stakes which he has driven, are at the same height as those you have leveled with the level and straight edge. The top level of the stakes will be the level of the track rails. In important yards the company's engineers generally give level stakes for all tracks. SUMMER TRACK WORK. 99 GRAVEL PITS. 19. A few words about the gravel pit will not be out of place in this book. On roads where stone, or other kinds of ballast is scarce, or cannot be procured, a gravel pit along the line is very desirable. There are very few roads that cannot find at least one or two gravel pits along a division. After the gravel pit has been purchased, and when the work of removing the gravel is about to com- mence, the Foreman in charge of the work should thoroughly examine the lay of the land and find out how his track must be laid in order to get the deepest face of gravel to work on. Of course, at the same time, the best location for the track must be arranged for the accommodation of trains, and this should be done with a view to future improvements. The track should always be longer than the face of the gravel in the pit, so that one, ten, or any number of cars could be loaded without danger of spoiling the line of the pit face. This is very important, be- cause where a short track is put in on account of a handy place to put in the switch, or for the reason that there is not much gravel needed at that time, the face of the pit, contracts and becomes so short that the loading place is only like a sink hole in the ground, and it soon becomes difficult for an engine to pull out of the pit more than two or three cars at a time, making necessary six or seven switches to do what could be done in one, with a good track. Be- sides this, there are other reasons why a short track should not be used. The men loading the gravel keep lining the track over as the bank recedes and 100 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. there is soon a heavy curve in the track which follows around the edge of the excavation, so that it is only a short time until the track has to be torn up and the work all done over again. Now is the time the loss occasioned by gouging a hole in the bank is dis- covered. If the track is laid along the face of the pit, cars can only be loaded at either end of the pit, and there is loss of time from placing cars, switching, etc., and perhaps the two ends of the pit next the track are not long enough together to allow a full train of gravel to be loaded at once, and there is no help for it except to work at the ends of the pit until the gravel can be reached all along the track. Another argument in favor of a longer track, is that the face of the gravel can be increased in depth by lowering the track. Foremen in charge of loading gravel should see that the men load gravel in one place until there is a space on that side of the track at least two or three feet lower than the ties and wide enough to let the track into it. The track should then be lined over and the men could load on each side of the cars Every foot that the face of gravel can be deepened, makes the cost of loading it less, and reduces the proportion of top soil which mixes with the gravel Men loading gravel on cars will load more cars, if paid by the car, than in any other way. When the work of loading is not let to the men in the above way the Foreman should divide his gang so many men to each car; this makes them compete with each other. The steam shovel, with a sufficient number of gravel trains, of flat cars, and one or two plows and SUMMER TRACK WORK. 101 wire cables, is the best equipment to use, for econom- ically getting out gravel from the pit, to the place where the track is to be ballasted. GRAVEL VS. WEEDS. 20. When ballast is scarce or the business of a railroad will not warrant an expenditure equal to ballasting the whole road, it is a wise policy to put gravel ballast on a part of each section, more especi- ally on long sections with only small gangs of men to keep up the track. When possible, the gravel or other ballast should be put on that end of the section which is farthest from the Section Foreman's head- quarters. Besides the saving effected on a long sec- tion, by reducing the cost of cutting the weeds, the ballasted piece of track, being the best part of the road, will save for the company many hundreds of dollars which would otherwise be paid out for pump- ing the hand car the extra distance to and from work every day. The cost of cutting the weeds on eight miles of dirt ballasted track for one season, on many railroad divisions, would pay for the loading and haul- ing of gravel, and putting in first class condition two miles of track or one-fourth of the eight-mile section. Putting the ballast under the track in small quantities at a time in one place, need not cost the company any- thing extra, as the section crews can do this as well as cut the weeds, and in most cases the work will be better done than by an extra gang. It costs less to maintain a gravel track in first class condition, after it has been put up properly, than any of the other kinds, whether of mud, cinders or stone, and the ratio of cost increases from gravel to stone, as the ballasts are named respectively. FALL TRACK WORK. CHAPTER IV. 1, Pall Track Work 2, Cleaning the Right of Way 3, Raising up Sags in Track Surface 4, Narrow Embankments 5, Haul Out Material from Cuts 6, To Remedy too wide an Opening at the Joints. 7, Building Fences 8, Board Fences 9, Fence Tables 10, Weight of Nails 11, Weight of Fence Wire 12, A Day's Labor. 1. Track Foremen will find plenty of work to do during the fall months before the ground freezes, preparing their sections to go through the long win- ter months with as little repair work as possible. If the weather is good more work can be done (which will benefit the track) in one month before the ground freezes than can be performed during the whole winter. Section Foremen should find all the worst places in the track and repair them in the best manner possible. Special attention should be given to improve the surface of the track and putting a perfect line and gage on the rails. The roadbed should be cleared of weeds and grass and the ballast along the shoulder of the track and between the rails should be dressed up neatly ; joint fastenings should be made tight, and the ditches in all cuts should be cleaned out. Any rotten ties remaining in the track should be taken out and replaced by new ones. All new steel should be laid before cold weather. The joint ties should be spaced properly and ballast FALL TRACK WORK. 103 put under the track, and at other points on the road where steel is not laid good repair rails should be put into the track to replace those which have become battered. Dead grass, weeds and other rubbish should be cut or cleaned away from around the wood work of all bridges, culverts or cattle guards, and the rubbish should be gathered up and burned. In a prairie country the grass along the right of way on both sides of the track should be burned off clean as quick as it is dry enough, and the tops of the cuts should be burned off first, to prevent the loco- motives from setting fires on farm lands adjoining. All right of way fences should be examined and re- paired and snow fences should be put in good condi- tion to be ready for the first snow storm. All track material should be piled at the stations, a safe dis- tance from the track, and where it would not cause snow drifts, or be liable to catch fire. Rails, splices and such other material should be raised from the ground and piled upon platforms of old ties so there will be no difficulty in handling them after snow falls on the ground. All ties, fence posts, engine wood, or lumber, should be corded up with spaces between the piles so that in case of fire it could not communicate to a large quantity at once. Emergency rails and joint splices should be placed at the mile posts along the section where they would be handy in case of broken rails. Much of the fall trackwork is the same as that done during the spring or summer. But Foremen should be particular to do this season of the year all work which can only be imperfectly done in the winter or must wait over until the following spring. 104 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. CLEANING THE RIGHT OF WAY. 2. In the latter part of the month of July, or be- fore the weeds growing along the railroad right of way run to seed, the Section Foreman should com- mence mowing, and cutting down all grass, brush and weeds from the shoulder of the track out to the right of way limits. This work should be pushed when once begun, and as soon thereafter as the material which was mowed down is dry enough, it should be gathered into piles and burned clean, or disposed of in some way, without danger to the company's property. The grass and weeds growing around the ends of culverts, or close to the bridges, should be mowed down, while the surrounding grass is still so green it will not burn, in order that the mowed grass, when dry, may be burnt without danger of the wind spread- ing the fire, and to prevent other fires from reaching the wood work, when burning off the right of way afterwards. In localities where the sections are long, and only a small force of men is employed, the right of way mowing is sometimes only done for a short distance out from the shoulder on each side along the track, and the balance of the right of way is left to be burnt off later in the fall. RAISING UP SAGS IN TBACK SURFACE. 3. It frequently happens that a Track Foreman will undertake to raise the track in a sag up to level surface without any knowledge of the amount of material necessary to put under the track or the time it will require to do the work with the force at his command. In some cases, the time consumed in taking up a sag is so great that other parts of the FALL TRACK WOEK. 105 track which should be attended to are neglected. The following simple rule will enable Track Foremen to make a very close estimate of the amount of labor and material required to bring any sag up to surface. RULE: Set two stakes, A and B, close to the track rails and level with their top surface at each end of the sag, as shown in Fig. 13. Then set a third stake C at the middle of the sag and in line with A and B, and drive it down until the top of it is level with the tops of the outer two stakes. You can ascertain whether this is the case by sighting over A and B. Measiire the height of stake C above the ground and multiply it by the distance in feet from A to B, and again multiply the product by 14 or 16 feet for the width of the embankment. This will give you the contents in cubic feet and dividing the whole number of cubic feet by 54 will be the number of cubic yards of dirt or ballast which will be required to surface up the sag. If the sag is deeper than twelve inches an allowance of one foot in width for each foot in depth should be made up for the side slopes. An allowance of about one-sixth of the depth below level in some cases should be made on the middle of light sags when surfacing up. This can best be done by level- ing a sight board the proper height in the middle of the sag and sighting the track to it from one end, and from that point sighting the rails to where the sag runs out at the other end. A sag, which has only been raised level with the track on each side of it, will soon become low again in the middle unless made very solid. NARROW EMBANKMENTS. 4. Many Section Foremen have a habit of dig- 106 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. FALL TRACK WORK. 107 ging holes in the embankment just outside the ends of the track ties when they want a little dirt Or bal- last to pick up or dress the track. This is all wrong. On a mud track if material is wanted for this purpose it should be taken from the nearest cut with the sec- tion push car or if the fill is not very deep the Fore- man should set his men throwing up dirt from outside the bottom of the original fill. There the necessary material can be procured without injuring the embankment, sufficiently to make it liable to wash away or weakening it as a support for the track. The preference should always be given to material from a cut even when the cost is a little greater. A double purpose is served by removing the surplus which accumulates in the ditches and putting it on the fill to strengthen it. Of course, where track is ballasted with gravel, or other like material, dirt should not be mixed with it, but when only a small quan- tity of material is needed it can be taken from places where the ballast is the heaviest along the shoulder of the track. Whenever any material is taken from a grade or wasted thereon, such places should be leveled off, dressed and finshed up in a workman like manner. Never leave unsightly holes along the track. Both sides of the embankment should be the same width outside the ties, if possible, and grass should be encouraged to grow along the slopes, because it offers the best protection against weeds and washouts. Section Foremen should not attempt to raise up track on high narrow fills in order to surface it. At such places it is always best to pick up and tamp only joints or other low places in the rail, and keep the track in good line until you can get enough dirt or 108 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. ballast to leave a good shoulder outside the ties after raising up the track to surface. HAUL OUT MATERIAL FROM CUTS. 5. Where the distance between cuts is short, and the . track fill between is high and narrow, Section Foremen should make good wide ditches in the cuts, and haul out on their push car the material from the ditches, and distribute it evenly on both sides of the track. This work should be done either early in the spring, or late in the fall of the year, or when the facilities for doing other work are not good. TO REMEDY TOO WIDE AN OPENING AT THE JOINTS. 6. Track is often laid with too wide an opening at the joints, and as a result the ends of the rails batter down very quickly and the joint splices often break and tear apart, owing to the contraction of the rails in extremely cold weather. Track Foremen who are troubled with this state of affairs should try to remedy it at once in the following manner: Loosen the bolts in forty or fifty joints and pull out all the slot spikes which are used to control the expansion, whether driven in the rail slot or joint fastenings. Then select a space about midway to take out one or two of the rails on each side of the track. Have ready to replace the rails which you take out, one or two rails the combined length of which will be six or eight inches greater than that of the rails which you take out, allowing this length to be a little less than the total amount you wish to close the joints. Have your men get astride of one loose rail, lift it up and bunt back the track rails on each side of the opening until it is wide enough to FALL TRACK WORK. 109 admit of putting in the longer rails, then bolt and spike the rails to place, dividing the expansion on the other joints afterwards. Follow out this methed at different points along your section wherever you see it is necessary, and you will have no more trouble with rails tearing apart in cold weather, endangering trains and increas- ing your responsibility. The rails will wear much longer, and you can keep a much better surface on the track. But Foremen should exercise judgement in this matter and be sure that the expansion is so distributed that there will be no danger of making the joints too tight for warm weather. When you have fixed a piece of track the above way, provide some new ties and put one into track under the center of every rail joint which has been moved out of its place on the track ties, when you were shifting the rails. Both jobs should always be done at the same time and low joints tamped up to surface, the ties spaced properly so that the spikes may be driven in their proper places and prevent track creeping. BUILDING FENCES. 7. It is sometimes the duty of Section Foremen to build wire fences along the railroad right of way limits; and as there are many foremen who have had no experience in this branch of work, it will not be out of place here to give a good practical method for performing this duty. Measure with a tape line from the center of the track to the right of way limits, which is generally 110 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. fifty feet, and set a stake in the ground. This should be the outside face of the fence posts when set in the ground. Where the track is straight these measure- ments need be taken only at distances of forty or eighty rods, but around a curve they should be taken every sixty or hundred feet, in order to have the fence conform to the line of the track. Peel the bark from all fence posts and set their cen- ters sixteen feet apart, when not otherwise ordered, so that boards may be nailed on them if desired. To line the fence and regulate the distance between posts, use a chain or line two hundred feet long for straight track, and one hundred feet, or less, for curve track. Have tin tags at regular distances on your chain, or tie knots in the line to mark where the center of each post hole should come, and when the line is stretched, take a spade and remove a little of the sod or top surface of the ground opposite the marks on the line as a guide for the men digging the post holes. The line may then be moved ahead. Set all posts two and one-half feet in the ground, and have the men who are digging, carry a measuring stick with which to determine the correct depth of the post holes, and thus have all the posts of a uniform height above the ground. A good way to save sight- ing along straight track is to set a post every forty or eighty rods with a temporary brace, and stretch one wire of the fence to use as a guide to set them by. When putting on wires, if you are not furnished a wire stretcher, the wire may be tightened by taking a turn of it around a lining bar. Stick the point of the bar in the ground diagonally from you, and pull ( >n the top of bar with the right hand. In this way you can take up the slack. FALL TKACK WORK. Ill Fence wire should not be stretched too tight in warm weather, or it will break when it contracts in the winter. Always put the wire on the farmer's side of the fence posts, except on the inside of curves. Then the wire should be on the track side of the posts, to strengthen the fence. A good brace should be put in at the end of each piece of fence, or at any point where the fence turns an angle at the end of fence, also at farm gates and cattle guards. See Figs. 14 and 15. Mortice one end of the brace into the top of the corner post, and the other end into the botttom of the post adjoining, where it enters the ground. Pro- vide a board with notches cut into it at distances equal to the proper space between the wires. The wires may be hung in the notches, and the board will keep them in position while they are being fastened to the posts. Have the men well organized. Divide a gang of sixteen about as follows: Assign two men to lay out the fence; six to dig post holes; four to set the posts; and four to string the wires and fasten them. Move the men occasionally from parts of the work which are the most advanced, to parts which are behind. When crossing creeks or marshy places, it is well to turn the fence in at right angle to end of the bridge and string the wires across on the piles. Order material as follows: Fence wire, one pound for every single wire panel of sixteen feet; staples, one and three-fourths pounds for each hundred pounds or spool of wire used. When spacing wires, have the bottom wires the 112 THE TRACKMAN S HELPER. PALL TEACK "WORK. 113 1 I 114 THE TRACKMAN"^ HELPER. closest together. For instances, for a five wire fence four and one-half feet high, place bottom wire eight inches above the ground; the second wire ten inches above the first, and the other three wires each twelve inches above the last, or the third wire from the bottom could be spaced ten inches above the second, and the top wire fourteen inches above the fourth. The latter is the best method where it is desirable to fence against all kinds of stock. The top of fence posts should not be more than six inches above the top wire of the fence, and all posts when set and tamped solid should be all in perfect line and a uniform height from the ground. When posts are irregular in length, the surplus timber should be sawed off if it amounted to four or more inches, but where the post is only two or three inches too long, the hole may be deepened sufficiently to leave it the proper height when set. If a post is two or three inches short fill up the hole sufficiently to bring it to the right height above the ground. But should it be as much as six inches too short, do not use it in the fence except at some places where it would answer for a short brace. To regulate the height of fence post above the ground, have a standard made the correct height, and nail square across the bottom of it a cross piece two feet long, which will prevent slight inequalities in the surface of the ground from affecting the height when placed beside the post. This standard can also be arranged to regulate the distance between the boards or wires as they are nailed on the fence. A fence with the top wire or top board four and FAEL TRACK WORK. 115 one-half feet from the ground is a lawful fence in most of the states. BOARD FENCES. 8. In building a board fence, the setting of posts and nailing on of the boards, can be done at the same time/ Always use the shortest boards to meas- ure from one post to the next one to be set; the longer boards can be sawed the proper length. Nail the boards on the out side of the fence. Several men can be nailing on boards at once, by ending the boards against those last nailed on the adjoining panel. On straight track, sighting posts can be set at the proper distance from the track, every forty or sixty rods ahead of the men digging the post holes. But on curve track, to make a good fence and have it in line, every panel post should be measured from the center of the track, and a stake set for it. This is not much of a job, if two men go along the track carrying the tape line stretched from place to place, while a third man sets stakes for the posts. By laying a board against the two panel posts, it lines the place for the middle posts. A bracket, made the proper height from the ground with the projections on it to fit between the boards, making the spaces the correct width, is very handy when building a board fence. It makes a much better fence than when the spacing is done by guess, and saves measuring the spaces. If board fence is built with the boards meeting on the same side of the post, a batten should be nailed over the joint from the ground to the top of the post. For a permanent snow fence constructed with posts and boards, the posts may be set about fifteen feet four inches apart, and the ends of the boards can be nailed on opposite sides of each panel post. By 116 THE TRACKMAN'S .HELPER. this method there is a larger amount of the board available for nailing when putting them up again after being torn, or blown off. It also saves the labor of sawing off the ends of the boards to make them meet square on the post. FENCE TABLES. 9. The following tables will be useful to Foremen, when estimating the amount of fencing material re- quired to build a post and board, or wire fence. TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF POSTS REQUIRED TO BUILD ONE MILE OF FENCE. DISTANCE ' NO POSTS IN & NO. POSTS IN '/ 2 NO. POSTS IN 1 BETWEEN POSTS. MILE. MILE. MILE. 8 feet. 116 331 661 12 " 111 221 441 16 " 83 166 331 20 " 67 133 265 32 " 42 83 166 TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF BOARDS REQUIRED TO BUILD ^ MILE, ^ MILE, OR 1 MILE OF FENCE AT A GIVEN NUMBER PER PANEL. NO. OF B'BDS. PER PANEL. ONE-FOURTH MIUC. ONE-HALF MILE. ONE MILE. 4 boards. 330 660 1320 5 " 412 825 1650 6 495 990 1980 7 " 577 1155 2310 8 660 1320 2640 9 742* 1485 2970 10 825 1650 3300 One sixteen-foot fence board contains 8 square feet of lumber. If a lumber estimate is required, PALL TBACK WORK. 117 multiply the number of boards wanted by eight, and the result is the number of square feet. EXAMPLE: 4 boards per panel for mile of track= 330x8=2,640 sq. ft. of lumber. 10. WEIGHT OF NAILS. 55, 10 penny, common nails, weigh one pound. 45 12 " " " " " " 30[ 10 " fence 28 19" " " " " " To ascertain the amount of nails wanted to build a given length of fence, multiply the number of boards by 6, and divide the result by the number of nails to the pound. EXAMPLE: For \ mile board fence, 330 boards, 4 per panel; number of nails per board 6; number of fence nails per pound 30: 330x6=1980-5-30=66 Ibs. WEIGHT OF FENCE WIRE. 11. The average weight of the wire now used by railroads is very close to one pound per rod for one wire, or about 6| per 100 feet in length. When mak- ing estimates for wire fence, about 10 pounds to the mile of fence may be added for tying, splicing, etc. The weight of staples varies according to the size used. 70 staples to the pound is the size most com- monly used in building railroad fence. A DAY'S LABOR. 12. The average day's labor for one man at building post and board fence, where the boards meet on the post, six to a panel, and the work of setting the posts is included, is about eight to ten panels of fence com- plete. When the ends of the boards lap on opposite sides of the posts, thirteen to fifteen panels can be 118 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. constructed by one man in a day. Building a post and wire fence, posts one rod apart, and four strands of wire, a man can construct about fifteen panels in a day; but a great deal depends on the conditions under which the work is performed, the quality of material used, and the quality or general excellence of the work when finished. The results obtained from a man's labor, depend, first, on his intelligence: next, on his willingness to work; and lastly, on his physical endurance. These three requisites should always be considered by a Foreman when employing men; and when possible he should always choose for his men, those who possess all the qualities mentioned. WINTER TRACK WORK. CHAPTER V. 1. Winter Truck Work 2, Shimming Track 3, Heaved Bridges and Culverts - 4, Report Amount of Suow 5, Snow ou Side Tracks 6, Snow in Cuts 7, Flanging Track 8, Opening Ditches and Culverts . Snow Walls 10, Snow Fences. 1, Bucking Snow 2, Two Locomotives 3, A Piece of Steam Hose 4, Length of Runs 5, Preparing Drifts. 1. There are many kinds of track work which the section men should do during the winter months on northwestern roads, all of which are important, and assist materially to lighten and advance the work of the following spring and summer. In the early part of the winter, when the cold weather has contracted the rails, its effect on the rail joints, bolts, and splices should be noticed by the Foreman, and all loose bolts should be tightened up, arid broken or cracked splices should be replaced by good ones. All open joints should be closed to the proper space, especially in the switches, to prevent the ends of the rails from becoming battered, and to save car wheels from breaking when passing over wide openings be- tween the ends of the rails, as often happens in cold weather. All battered rails should be taken out of the track and replaced by good ones. When the number is so great that they cannot all be removed in a short time, good repair rails and splices should be 120 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. distributed every mile or two along the section, so tliat when snow on the track, or bad weather inter- feres, broken rails or spikes can be replaced without any difficulty or unnecessary delay. As the winter advances, all good weather should be taken advantage of, and every spike above the rail or flange, or leaning from it, should be knocked down to place, and all of the track should be brought to a perfect gage. Cleaning switches and yard tracks, and flanging out the main track after snow storms; shimming track, peeling the bark from ties, distributing ties for spring work, opening up ditches, and culverts, etc., all add to the Section Foreman's labor, and it requires a man of good judgment and energy to keep all of his work done properly at the right time and place. If a Foreman keeps the loose spikes knocked down to place, and a good gage on his track, he will be surprised at the splendid line which he can have on his track the following summer, and trains will ride over it without that disagreeable side motion of the cars which knocks the line and surface out of the track, and is so fatal to the comfort of passengers. SHIMMING TRACK. 2. Shimming track is a very important kind of winter work on northern railroads, and should be done with a view to keeping straight track level, smooth and safe, and the proper elevation of the outer rails on curves. Shims are placed under the track rails to raise up the low places to a smooth surface, and care should be taken to bring the rails to their proper place with the spirit level, where the track has heaved up. All shims over a quarter of an inch in thickness should WINTER TRACK WORK. 121 have holes bored through them for the track spikes. This can best be done by boring the holes through a block of straight grained hard wood, six inches wide by ten inches long, and splitting off the shims as thick as needed. The top surface of the track ties should be adzed off level, especially when there is a groove made by the rail. This is necessary to give the rails a solid foundation, preserve the correct surface, and prevent the shims from breaking. Shims should never be placed lengthways under the rails, because in that po- sition they increase the height of the rail without widening the base. Section men cannot always see them, and they are liable to slip out of place, and by so doing weaken the support, and may cause a broken rail. Where the shims used are over one inch in thick- ness, spikes seven or eight inches long should be used to secure the rails, and where thicker shims are used, old rail splices should be spiked on the ends of the ties and against the outside of. the rails for braces. These braces should be spiked on every second, third or fourth tie, in proportion to the height of the shims. To shim two or three inches high, plank of the proper thickness, sixteen feet long, should be cut in halves and spiked to the ties with boat spikes. For four inch shims put a one inch shim on top of a three inch plank, and for five inches use a bridge tie on top of the track ties. All high shimmed tracks should be watched closely, and thinner shims should be used to replace the thick ones as fast as the heaved track settles in the spring. Shims should not be removed from the track 122 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. until all heaving has gone down, except where they are put under the rails to level up low joints or other spots which were left over in the fall of the year. When the rail which has shims under it is higher than the track either way from it by the thickness of the shims, you may remove them as the heaving has all gone out of the ground. Many Foremen have spoiled a nice piece of track by removing the shims and tamping the ties as soon as the frost was out to the bottom of the ties. All good shims, shim spikes and braces, should be put away in the tool house every spring, and saved for use another year. And any planks which were used for shims in the manner here mentioned, may be put in service during the summer on highways or private wagon crossings. HEAVED BRIDGES AND CULVERTS. 3. Pile bridges and pile culverts need careful watching in the winter season, and whenever the Sec- tion Foreman finds them heaved up out of surface or line, the bridge carpenters should be promptly noti- fied. In some bridges and culverts the piles which heave up have to be cut off, and that part of the bridge or the culvert must be lowered to correspond with the track on either side of it. Unlike the track in cuts, or on dumps, some piles which heave up in the winter do not settle back to place again when the frost goes out of the ground, and shims have to be put under the caps or stringers, to keep the bridges up to surface during the summer. The greatest dan- ger is to be apprehended where the piles in a bridge heave up irregularly, as when only one or two piles heave in a bent, or when the piles heave up in opposite corners of two different bents. This WINTER TRACK WORK. 123 often happens when the piles are driven in deep water, as the ice which freezes to them lifts them up and should, therefore, always be cut away by the track- men before there is danger of its doing so. REPORT AMOUNT OP SNOW. 4. Section Foremen should ascertain the condi- tion of the track in their charge immediately after every snow storm (or wind storm) which would be liable to drift snow upon the track, and report to their Roadmaster the depth and length of snow drifts in all the cuts on their sections. It is of the greatest im- portance that snow reports be sent promptly to the Roadmaster by telegraph in order that the officers of the road may be able to make necessary preparations to clear the track. When there is no snow in the cuts on your section, report your section clear of snow. SNOW ON SIDE TRACKS. 5. Section Foremen should clear away the snow which has drifted upon side tracks as soon as possible after a storm, and the snow on switches and in frogs and guard rails, should be shoveled off and the track for the full length of the switch lead and mov- ing rails should be swept clean. This work should never be delayed because all freight trains will need to do switching as soon as the road is open for traffic. SNOW IN CUTS. 6. During the winter months when snow falls or is drifted into cuts to a depth of two or more feet, Sec- tion Foremen should take their men, just as soon as possible after the storm, and remove from the track sufficient snow at the ends of all drifts, to leave a clean flange and a clear face of snow, at least 18 inches 124 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. deep, at both the approach and run out end of the drift. It is a notorious fact that a great many engines, when bucking snow, run off the track when coming out of, or running into a snow drift. This is gener- ally caused by hard snow or ice in the flanges, as the engine, on being suddenly relieved of the weight of the snow, easily mounts the rail on a hard flange way, and runs off the track. FLANGING TRACK. 7. Whenever the track becomes full of snow in the winter, and needs flanging out. Section Foremen should take their men and flange out the track at the tops of the heaviest grades first, and next, at all places on their sections where it is most difficult for an en- gine to pull a train. Always leave till the last those parts of your section which needs flanging least, such as high dumps, level track or sags between grades. OPENING DITCHES AND CULVERTS. 8. On roads where snow lies on the ground during the winter months, Section Foremen should open up all ditches, culverts, and other waterways which pass along or under the track. Culverts, which are apt to be covered with snow in the winter, can easily be located when the thaw comes, if a long stake is driven close to the mouth of each culvert early in the fall of the year before any snow falls on the ground. In cuts that are full of snow on each side of the track leaving only room enough for trains to pass through, Foremen should make a ditch in the snow when it begins to melt in the spring, about six feet from the rail on each side of the track so that when the water begins to run it will not injure the track by running over it. WINTER TRACK WORK. 125 SNOW WALLS. 9. If you have any snow fences for protection along the cuts on your section, watch them closely and whenever you find a fence which has been drifted full of snow or nearly so, buikl with blocks of snow, taken from the inside face of the drift, a wall four feet high along on the top of the highest part of the drift. As long as the weather remains cool a wall built of blocks of snow will give as good pro- tection to a cut as the same amount of ordinary snow fence would. Make snow walls strong and thick and increase their height on the worst cuts in propor- tion to the force of men that can be spared to do the work, and use double lines of snow wall fifty feet apart when they will be beneficial. SNOW FENCES. 10. On the majority of northern railroads the amount of snow which falls upon the ground during the winter months is not so great as to require the building of snow sheds', but to protect the cuts along the track from filling with snow, fences are built along the tops of the cuts at a sufficient distance from the track to catch the snow when it is drifted, and pre- vents it from being blown into the cuts and block- ing the track. The efficiency of a snow fence as a protection against snow depends on its strength, du- rability, height, how far it is from the track and the manner in which it is arranged along the top of the cuts. The writer has had some experience with snow and snow fences, and will here offer a few suggestions which may be useful to those interested. 126 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. A snow fence, no matter how well made, or of what material, will rot and become useless in eight or ten years, at the latest. The yearly cost of repairing snow fences, the first cost, and the interest of the money invested, should all be considered before putting up a snow fence on any railroad cut. And where the work of grading down a cut on each side of the track, so that it will not hold snow, can be done for an amount of money equal to the cost of the items above re- ferred to, the grading of the cut should be done in preference to the building of a snow fence. In many sections of the northwest, a cut which is only two or three feet higher than the track rails can be graded from the right-of-way limits down to a level with the bottom of the track ties, and the dirt wasted on the fills near at hand for less than it would cost to main- tain a snow fence on the same cut. Even when the cost of putting a cut into such a condition that it will not hold snow, is somewhat greater than that of maintaining a good snow fence, the difference is in favor of the grading on account of the benefit the track derives from it. Snow fences are not needed at deep cuts, which from their top slope back into a valley within a short distance from the side of the track; nor are snow fences much good as a protection where the ground slopes with an in- cline off from the track unless the fence is close enough to carry the wind above the cut, or catch the snow before reaching the cut. Snow fence is not needed on cuts where heavy timber or underbrush grows close along each side of the track, the only snow in such cuts being that which falls directly upon the track and cannot be prevented. But where WINTER TRACK WORK. 127 the ground is level for some distance from the track, or on a gently rolling prairie, cuts are liable to fill up with snow if not properly fenced. Snow fences should be set up at such a distance from the track that the edge of the snow drift inside of them will not reach within thirty feet of the track when the fence is drifted full. Set the fence about eleven or twelve feet from the track for each foot in height of fence. The height of snow fence should regulate its distance from the track. If a snow fence is set too far from the track for its height, the wind, after passing over the top of the fence, soon strikes the ground on the inside of the fence and gathers all the snow before it into the cut, and part of the snow which blows over the fence is also carried upon the track. A snow fence is seldom set up on each side of the track unless the road is so situated as to be ex- posed to storms from both directions. Storms from the northwest, north, and northeast are the most paevalent throughout the northwest, and as a general rule the north sides of railroads running east and west and the west sides of roads running north and south need the most protection from snow and need the most snow fence. Where two snow fences are put up on one side of the track, they should run parallel with each other, and there should be a space of at least 100 feet between them. Unless a very large quantity of snow is drifted the outside fence will hold it all. Very good results have been attained by setting out the snow fence next to the track in the follow- ing manner. If the snow fence is of ordinary height, 128 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. set it up seventy-five feet from the nearest track rail. Enough of the snow fence should run parallel with the track to reach the full length of the cut, no more. After this part of the fence is up, turn a wing on each end of it, approaching the track gradually until the extreme end of each wing ex- tends 100 feet beyond the end of the cut, at a dis- tance of about fifty or sixty feet from the track rail. When a cut ends abruptly on the beginning of a high fill, the wing on that end of the snow fence should be turned in towards the track before the end of the cut is reached, or at least soon enough to pro- tect the cut from a quartering storm. A snow fence built parallel with the track and without a wing on the end of it, is of very little use when a storm blows nearly along the track, as much of the snow on the inside of the fence is apt to be blown into the cut. New ties which are received for repair of track the following spring, can be distributed and used advan- tageously to make a temporary snow fence on cuts where needed. The ties may be laid along in line with their ends lapping each other, about one foot slats or pieces of board can then be put across the ends of the ties where they lap and a new line of ties laid along on top of them until the snow fence is of the proper height. *** "BUCKING" SNOW. 1. Clearing the track of snow in the winter really belongs to the Koadm aster's department, but as this book is intended to instruct young men who may fill that position at some time in the future, I cannot re- WINTEB TRACK WORK. 129 f rain from writing upon a subject which is of so much importance to railroad companies who are troubled with snow on their roads to a greater or less extent every winter. No man is so well qualified to buck snow as he who has had some experience at it, and no man should be trusted with full charge of a snow plow outfit unless it be known that he understands the best methods to be employed in opening up the road for traffic after a blockade. The man in charge of a snow plow outfit should be informed of the exact condition of the road the depth of snow, the length of drifts, and the loca- tion of the same, as nearly as possible, before starting on the road. He should have good, live engines, and willing engineers. The plow itself should, like the engine and engineer, be the best that can be procured and of a pattern that could throw snow out of a cut eight or ten feet deep. Small plows, fenders, or other make-shifts which are only good to clean the rails of light snow, or gouge a hole through a big cut, should be left at home, and not taken out to buck snow. When there is a large quantity of it to be moved, the extra time and labor expended in shoveling and pull- ing such craft out of the snow would purchase a good plow in one trip over the road. Another engine and car, with a conductor, train crew and shoveling gang, should follow close behind the snow plow during the day time, and should be coupled in behind the plow when running after dark. The second engine should be used as a helper in striking deep snow, and to pull out the plow engine whenever it is stuck fast in a . snow drift. All cars attached to the helper engine should be left behind on the clear track when both 130 THE TEAOKMAN'S HELPEK. engines run together to buck a drift of snow. The pilot should be removed from the engine which is used for a helper, so that a close coupling can be made when both engines are used together. The less slack there is between two engines coupled together the less liability is there of the hind engine pushing the front engine off the track. This is most liable to happen on a curve track, or where hard snow is encountered. Never allow two engines to buck snow with a long car coupling between them, or with a caboose or other car between the engines, as either arrangement en- dangers the lives of the men on the train and often results in a wreck. There is no necessity for using two engines behind the snow plow to buck snow which one engine can as well throw out. If the snow is not too hard, one good heavy engine and plow will clear the track of a snow drift three to five feet deep, and from five to eight hundred feet in length, at one run.* TWO LOCOMOTIVES. 2. Two good locomotives coupled together behind the plow, if managed properly, will remove any snow which it is advisable to buck. Snow drifts which are higher than the plow cannot be cleared from the track successfully without first shoveling the snow off the the top of the drift, except when the drift is very short, Where the top of the snow drift is shoveled off, it should be opened wide enough to allow the plow to throw out of the cut the snow left in it. On roads where a flanger is used and made to pull be- * On account of the invention of the rotary snow plow it is not likely that snow plowing with a plow on the front of a locomotive will be done to any great extent in the future, especially when cuts are deep and long, and snow is hard. But when the snow is soft, and not too deep on the track, the old way of getting rid of it is still apt lo be practiced. WINTER TRACK WORK. 131 hind an engine on a train, it should be sent with the snow plow helper, and used to clean out the snow left between the track rails by the snow plow. When the snow is reported hard those in charge of snow plow outfits should be very careful to have their engines arid plow in as perfect condition as possible. They should run no risk; every snow drift should be exam- ined before running into it, and each end should be shoveled out enough to leave a clean flangeway and a face that would let the plow enter under the snow and kept it down upon the rails. The tendency of hard snow is to lift the plow up over the top of the drift and throw the engine off the track. Whenever the ends of the drifts are not faced as before mentioned, there is always great danger when entering or leav- ing short, shallow drifts of hard snow, while on the contrary, there is little or no danger in plowing soft, deep snow at the greatest speed the engine can make. The engines with a snow plow outfit should always take on water and fuel to their full capacity at every point on the road where a supply can be obtained, no matter whether it is liable to be used or not. When it is at all probable that progress will be slow on ac- count of hard or deep snow, a car loaded with coal should be taken along by the helper engine. If there is plenty of snow the supply of water can easily be made in the engine tanks by commencing to shovel snow into them before they are more than half empty. A PIECE OF STEAM HOSE. 3. Every snow plow, engine, and helper engine should be supplied with a piece of steam hose which can be attached to the cyphon cock and reach from it to the water hole in the back of the tank. With this 132 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. hose an engine steaming well can quickly make a full tank of water from snow shoveled into the tank. It is also useful to thaw out the machinery or clean the track rails of ice. LENGTH OF RUNS. 4. In plowing snow the length of runs and the speed of the engine should always be in proportion to the depth and length of the snow drifts. If the drifts are deep and long, and likely to stick the plow, a good long run should be taken on the clear track, so that the plow engine may acquire its greatest speed before striking the drift. A good engineer who has had some practice in bucking snow, will so handle his engine that very little shoveling by the men will be needed. It is not advisable to start out on the road with a snow plow outfit during a heavy storm, but everything should be ready to make a start as soon as the storm is over. The snow plow should be attached to the best and heaviest engine in service on the division where it is used. The man in charge of a snow plow outfit should use his best judgment and have his wits about him at all times, that he may not be caught on the road with a dead engine, or be wrecked and block the road for other trains. It is much better for the company's interests, and those of all others concerned, when all accidents are avoided, even should it take much longer time to open up the road. The engineer of the snow plow engine should sound the whistle frequently when approaching a cut, so that section men, if working there, would be warned in time to get out of the cut. When the snow plow is making repeated runs for a big snow drift, the signal WINTER TRACK WORK. 133 to come ahead should never be given until all the snow shovelers have left the cut. It is very difficult for men to climb out of a cut where the snow is deep, and many accidents have occurred where approaching trains have failed to warn the men in time, or where the men have neglected to look out for the danger until it was too late. If the men with the snow plow are always on the alert, and careful and conscientious in the discharge of their duties, the safety of all con- cerned will be assured and the work will progress rapidly. PREPARING DRIFTS. 5. When a snow drift is so long and deep that it may stick the snow plow twice, the better policy is to shovel out snow enough from the approach end of the drift to enable the snow plow to go through in the second run. In this way the labor of digging out the engine a second time may be avoided. All very hard snow should be broken up by the men and the crust thrown out before striking it with a snow plow. The shock felt when a snow plow strikes a hard drift is sometimes very great, and often dam- ages the machinery, or knocks the plow from the track. The force of the concussion may be materially lessened by having the men clean a good flange way, and then shovel out of the face and top of the drift enough snow to make a gradual incline of about one foot to the rod. Besides reducing the force of the shock the above method of preparing a hard snow drift en- ables the snow plow to open a much greater distance FROGS AND SWITCHES. CHAPTER VI. 1, Turnouts 2, Split or Point Switches 3, Laying Switches 1, To Change a Stub to a Split Switch 5, Description of Table 1, for "Stub Leads" 6, Description of Table 2, for "Point Leads" 7, Frogs 8, Laying Frogs in Track 9, Length of Frogs 10, Guard Rails 11, If there Is no Standard 12, Switch Timbers 13, To Cut Switch Ties the Proper Length 14, Tamping Switch Ties 15, Putting in Three Throw Switches 16, Derailing Switches 17, Turnouts from Curves 18, To Reach a Side Track wilh a Reverse Curve Behind the Frog 19, Round House Tracks 20, Another Method 21, Cross-over Tracks 22, Table of Distances Between Frog Points in Cross-over Tracks 23, Parallel Tracks 24, How to Ascertain the Kind of Vrog Needed 25, Spur Tracks. TURNOUTS. 1. A turnout is a curved track, by which a car may pass from one track to another, and consists of a frog, a rail leading to the frog, a corresponding opposite rail, and a device connecting these rails with the main track, called the "switch." If a switch is made to serve two turnouts, it is called a "three-throw switch;' 1 a "trailing" switch, is one where a train on the main track passes from frog to switch; while a "facing" switch is one that approaches in the opposite direc- tion. The common or "stub" switch, consists of a pair of connected rails, A C, andB D, Fig. 16, so arranged that while one end is fixed, the other can be moved so as to be a part of either the main track, or turnout. The FROGS AND SWITCHES. 135 136 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. fixed end is called the "heel," and is the beginning of the turnout curve. The other end is called the "toe," and the distance it moves in passing from main track to the turnout rails, is called the "throw." The toe rests on a large piece of timber, called the "head block," on which are placed the "head chairs," and "switch stand." The portion of the turnout be- tween the head block and frog point is called the "lead." The "total lead," includes the switch and lead rails. The turnout curve is from A to F, and should be a simple curve considered as joining the two long ends; one of them, I F, is the turnout line of the frog produced, until it intersects the opposite rail; the other I A, is the opposite rail. As two tan- gents to a curve from any point are equal, I F, and I A are equal. The length of lead depends on the gage and frog number, and is equal to the gage multiplied by twice the frog number. The switch rails are spiked for a certain part of their length, then when they are thrown, the free end will bend to an arc of a circle, and fit the line of lead. K L and K' L' are guard rails, M O is the middle ordinate of the chord C F, and Q O and Q' O' quarter ordinates. The stub switch has two serious defects, one of which is want of safety. Statistics show that 50 per cent, of derailments are caused by defects and mis- placements of stub switches. The second objection is the necessary space at the end of the moving rail, which jars the rolling stock, batters the switch rails, and causes some discomfort to passengers. "SPLIT" OR "POINT" SWITCHES. 2. In order to have an unbroken bearing for car wheels on the track rails, the " split," or point switch FROGS AND SWITCHES. 137 138 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. was devised. Figs. 17 and 18 show these switches in their simplest form. Fig. 17 shows the switch set for side track. Fig. 18 shows it set for main track. The rails, A B and G D, called "stock rails," are continu- ous and spiked their full length, the point rails, E and F, are usually fastened at their heels, H H, by fish- plates to the lead rails. The heels in the split switch, are in the places occupied by the toes in the stub switch, or at head block. The split rails are gener- ally fifteen feet long for all turnouts; it gives the best results, combining strength, ease of handling, and economy of manufacture (a thirty foot rail makes two). As a rule, they are straight, and planed so that they bear against the rail six or seven feet. The throw of the point is about 4^ or 5 inches, and the clear space at the heel between gage lines is about the same distance. By introducing a spring or other device in the switch stand, a split switch is sometimes made a safety switch, so that when they are set against a train trailing them, the wheels will push the points aside and leave an unbroken rail for the wheel. The first cost of a point switch is more than a stub switch, but the split switch is more economical to maintain and safer, making it the cheaper in the end. There can be no question that it is superior to the stub switch, and is fast superseding it all over in the United States.* LAYING SWITCHES. 3. In laying switches, whenever possible, locate the * There is no necessity for using short guard rails just ahead of the points in a split switch. There are no elements of safety existing in the guard rail, when the throw of switch is more than four inches, and when guard rails are used as a protection against wear on the points. The saving ef- fected will rarely compensate for the use of so much extra material. FROGS AND SWITCHES. 139 frog with a view to cutting the least number of rails. A deviation of 5 per cent, from the theoretical lengths in the table makes but little appreciable difference. After you have determined where the frog point will come, mark the place on the track rail, take from the turnout table the distance from the head block to point of frog corresponding to the number of the frog which is used, add to this the distance from the theo- retical to the blunt point of frog. The head block can now be located by measuring the total distance obtained fipm the frog point. Make marks with chalk along the flanges of the rail between the head block and frog, so that the switch ties can all be placed the proper distance apart from center to center. After the switch ties have all been cut the proper lengths, lay them out alongside the track, and see that each tie is numbered, and in its proper place as it will lay in the track. Then take out the cross ties and pull in each tie in regular order. When pulling the ends of the ties to line, time can be saved by using a gage, made by nailing a cleat across a piece of board, allowing eighteen or twenty inches to project beyond the cleat. Have this gage square at each end, lay it with the cleat against the end of each tie and draw a chalk line across the tie at the end of the board, marking all the ties the same length from the end. This chalk line should be at the out- side flange of the rail and have the spikes driven in it on the line side. When the ties are all in place under the track, the ends of all the ties will line uniformly. This is a much better way than measuring the end of each tie, with a stick or the maul handle. The switch ties should be put in from either end, 140 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. just as you have the time to spare between trains. If trains are running close together begin at head block and select the time longest between trains to put in frog and lead. At least two long switch ties should be put in behind the frog to obviate the necessity of adzing and crowding short ties past each other where the two tracks separate. Before taking up a rail in main track, cut a rail of a length that, with the frog, will replace the rail taken up, and give the necessary opening at the head chair joint, if a stub switch. Use two full length 30-foot rails for the sliding rails so that enough of the ends can be spiked safely beyond the cross rods. Have the cross rods an equal distance apart, and use five of them instead of four, if you can get them. Then put the head chairs in position under the ends of slide and lead rails. The rails should be properly curved or the switch can never be kept in a good line. As soon as the rails are connected between frog and head chair the main track should be spiked full, and put to a perfect level surface and line before the turnout curve is permanently spiked. An experienced track- man, with good eyesight, can line the lead curve, but it is better to lay it to ordinates first. Stretch a cord from point of frog to the toe of switch, see Fig. 16, and mark its center and quarter points. In all stub switches, spike the center to an ordinate of seven inches; and each of the quarters to an ordinate of 5^ inches and this forms the true line of the turnout curve. As soon as the rods are put on the slide rails and main track is in line, the switch stand should be bolted to the head block and connected to the rails. FROGS AND SWITCHES. 141 The switch stand should always be placed so as to be seen from the engineer's side of the engine, facing the switch, when possible. The gage rail of the siding should be spiked to an accurate gage to the point of the frog, the same as on the main track. But the curve beyond this may be allowed to vary a little from true gage to prevent a kink showing oppo- site the frog, as would be the case if the whole turn- out was spiked to accurate gage. Should it be neces- sary to widen gage at the frog, the guard rail distance should be increased as much as the gage is widened. For a 4 ft. 8^ in. always place the side of the guard rail that comes in contact with the passing wheel, a distance of 4 ft. 6| in. from the gage line of the frog. This gives the guard rail distance 1^ in. when gage is exact. If gage is widened -| in. the guard rail distance should also be widened. Next lay down the guard rails opposite the frog on each side, secure them to place and the switch is ready to use. If it is a point instead of a stub switch, the method of procedure is nearly the same. As the split rails are laid tangent to the curve, the degree of curve and oridinates of the lead will be slightly increased, and should be taken from table 2, if you are not fur- nished with plans from the Road Department. Bend the stock rail about the proportion of 1 in 40 with a rail bender. If the switch is made \" extra gage at points, place the angle about 10 inches back of them; if made ^" extra gage, place about 20" back. When laying a point switch in connection with a No. 9 frog, it is not necessary to cut any rail, but "heel" the frog at a joint and use two 30 ft. rails between the frog and switch. 142 THE TKACKMAN'S HELPER. TO CHANGE A STUB TO A SPLIT SWITCH. 4. The attachments necessary to make the change from a stub to a split switch, are as follows: Two rails, generally 15 feet in length, with a part of the top and side of the ball of the rail at one end planed off to a point, hence the name point or split rails. There are four cross rods which are used to con- nect the two split rails, and are bolted to them either at the flange or through the web of the rails. These rods are generally numbered from the head rod back; the head rod, number one, besides con- necting the split rails, are also arranged to be con- nected to the switch stand and moves the switch. The other rods must then be placed in the order indicated by their number. There are also wrought iron plates furnished, which are placed along on the top of the switch timbers under the split rails to enable them to slide over the flange of the main rails and lay up close against it. When the switch is thrown to either side, four of these wrought iron plates have an offset in them. The thick part is placed under the split rail and the thin end reaches out under the main rails. Two of these plates are placed on each side of the track, and one on each side of the head rod. The other plates are spiked down on the timbers further back from the point with their end under the split rails and close up against the inner flange of the main rails. When the throw of the split switch is the same as the stub switch, the same switch stand will do for either. But if the split switch is to have a different throw, to comply with a standard, the switch stand must be adjusted to throw the switch a proper distance. The PROGS AND SWITCHES. 143 difference of half an inch in the throw of a switch stand, or the length of the cross rods will make an inch difference in the gage of track at the points. When ready to begin the work of changing the switch, lay down the two split rails upon a couple of pieces of timber, close to the track, in the same posi- tion they would occupy in track, and let one of your men bolt the cross rods to the split rails securely; measure with tape line fourteen and one-half feet from the head chair joint of the stub switch along the moving rails and mark this as the place where the head rod of the split switch will come; a couple of ties can then be removed, and if a double head block is required it can be put in, one on each side of where the head rod will be, with a space of about four inches between them. If only one head block is nec- essary, put it on whichever side of the head rod that will best accommodate the switch stand. While some of the men are doing the work specified, others may be removing the headchairs, tie rods and head block and other connections of the stub switch. One of the side rails of the stub switch, which is on the side track side of the main track, is named the stock rail in a split switch. This rail should be taken out of the track and bent at a point a short distance ahead of the point of split rail. It should then be put back in the track and bolted to the main rail at one end, and to the outside rail of the side track at the other end. This rail should be bent carefully, so that it will be perfectly straight from the point of split rail, back to a point square with the heel of the split rail. The opposite joint in the main track, should then be secured with bolts and fastenings. Next, THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. on OOHJ anaoiw UIBUI jo aAjno jo ' ureui jo aAana jo gap jad a^Bnipjo aippjui ut rera 90HJ JO XNIOd OX HQXLAiS JO 3OX aoNvxsia aaono 3Aano jo aaaoaa IIVH HOXLiiS anxs ^o HxoNan JjI JO ?U aaawnu ooaj OCOrHOQOOO (MOOC-i li liOCO 4 LO iq o iq ic 'SMI CO H H* t- 0> i-< CO LO L- O i-l CO LO 00 < J-^fC^^OOOi^OlOrHCOr- ) ir.f W t-fce j - . ftf r^i (7J 7! | *"j /T- j 7 j -j 7 j 7*1 f | iQ L^ Ci T ) "SKI I CO HX H-* 'SMI I O 'H*=C CURVED TRACK. 185 For these and similar reasons I do not think it pos- sible to make any average rate for speed of trains of all classes on a single track, nor to make a rule for the elevation of curves which would be anything like ac- curate, except on a four track railroad where trains always run in one direction. Then the speed would of course be more regular. If a curve requires a cer- tain elevation in order to carry a train safely over it at a speed of 45 or 50 miles per hour, it does not seem to me to be a reasonable theory to split the difference and reduce the elevation because another train, or a majority of trains, will run over the same track at a slower rate of speed. Keducing the elevation on curves to suit the speed of the slower running trains, is equivalent to admitting that the same elevation is enough for faster trains on the same track, which is not the case, except when the greater elevation was excessive. Regulate speed to suit the curve or ele- vate the curve for the greatest speed. SHARP CURVES AND ELEVATION. 9. It seems remarkable to me that of all the differ- ent authorities on the elevation of curves few have seen fit to say at what degree of curvature elevation should stop, or when it would be too great for the width of the track. Various persons have advocated elevating the outer rail on curves one-half inch, three- fourths of an inch, and as high as one inch and a quarter per degree of curvature, while some civil en- gineers have gone so far as to make tables giving the elevation of curves from 1 up to 20 degrees for differ- ent rates of speed of trains, carrying the elevation into feet instead of inches. All of this must seem ridiculous to any practical Trackman, who knows it is 186 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. not safe to run trains at such high rates of speed on very sharp curves. It seems as if some writers were too superficial in the treatment of the subject, while others, in their effort to impart knowledge, have over- reached themselves. And I believe these are the causes of the conflict and diversity of opinion among railroad men of the present day in regard to the proper elevation of curves. Now I maintain that the greatest elevation of the outer rail on curves, no matter how sharp they are, should not exceed one inch to the foot width of track, because, when the maximum elevation is reached of about 5 inches, the curve is too sharp for the main track of any railroad where it is desir- able to make fast time. If sharper curves are neces- sary in a yard or at other places, the elevation should be lessened instead of increased, because trains must necessarily run slow at such places. Instead of trying to tinker up the elevation on very sharp curves on the main track, so that trains could run around them, the company should at once take such curves out of their track, or at least reduce the curvature to a minimum. There is a good deal of valuable time wasted by trains running slow on sharp curves, and liability to accident is much greater than on straight track. There is also an immense amount of wear and tear on the rolling stock and track, especially the wheels, and rails, and the amount of money lost is so great on account of the limited number of freight cars which may be hauled that the saving which could be effec- ted in a short time on some railroads with a heavy traffic would pay all the expense of taking such curves out of the track when it is possible to dispense with CURVED TRACK. 187 them. The necessity for economy in the construction of a new road is in most instances the only excuse for having sharp curves in the track. When it is possi- ble, railroad companies should take out of their main track, as fast as they can afford the means for carry- ing on the work, every curve which will not admit of running trains at a speed of 60 miles per hour, or which will materially affect the number of cars a loco- motive can haul.* WHEN SPEED DOES NOT EXCEED FIFTEEN MILES PER HOUR. 10. On any curve where the speed of trains does not exceed fifteen miles per hour an elevation of the outside rail equal to the middle ordinate of a thirty foot rail on the same curve will be sufficient. RULE: For every degree of curve give the outside rail one-fourth of an inch elevation, widening the gage of track for each degree as in rule for elevating the outside rail of curves. THE CURVE ON PASSING TRACK. 11. On curves where the speed is less than ten miles per hour, such as those beyond the switch leads on yard or "Y" tracks, elevate the outside rails as follows : * The opinion seems to be general among the leading Trackmen and Engineers of the present day, that the easement of sharp curves by com- pounding them on the approach, so as to have the least amount of curva- ture next the tangent, and gradually Increase the degree up to the middle of the curve where it should be greatest is the best method of securing a good riding track for trains which run at hiph rates of speed. When laying out reverse curves of one. two or three degrees, there should be left between them not less than 60 feet of a level tangent, and this dis- tance should be increased in proportion to the degree of curvature, either side of the tangent to enable Trackmen to put in a gradual approach to each curve when elevating the outer rail. Curves should not be put in on any railroad except where the natural conditions are such that their use cannot be avoided. Or where the econ- omy in cost of construction is so great that their benefits as against disad- vantages, can be clearly demonstrated 188 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. RULE: Commence at one degree, giving ^ inch elevation, and for every degree of curve thereafter in- crease the elevation at the rate of 3-16 of an inch to the degree of curve, widening the gage as in rule for elevation. There should never be any elevation in the lead rails of switches between the heel of frog and end of switch. TABLE OF ORDINATES. 12. The following table showing how to find the degree of a curve by the middle ordinate, with strings or cords of different lengths, will be of great value to Section Foremen who have heretofore had no instruc- tion on this subject. The reason why so many differ- ent lengths of cords are given with the ordinate is that the Foreman who desires to be accurate with his work may use any of them as circumstances may require. Length of Cord. Middle Ordinate of a One Feet. Degree Curve. 20 feet I inch. ork 30 44 FlG. 28. FOUR-DEGREE CURVE. The above illustration, Fig. 28, will show how to apply any of the different lengths of string in the table of ordinates and to ascertain the degree of curve. CURVED TRACK. 189 HOW TO APPLY IT. 13. Draw a cord tight on the inside of the gage line of the rails on a curve, measure from the center of the cord to the rail. The distance in inches divid- ed by the middle ordinate for that length of cord as shown in the table will give the degree of the curve. COMPOUND CURVES. 14. When the greater degree of a compound curve begins at about the middle of the curve, elevate the outside rail gradually from the approach of curve, giving the elevation which belongs to the greater de- gree, when you reach it. In the same manner lessen the elevation as you approach the straight track at the opposite end of the curve. If the greater degree is met at the point of curve, and the curve terminates with a less degree, elevate the outside rail for the greater degree until you come to where it meets the less degree ; then diminish the elevation one-half inch to the rail length until you reach the elevation which properly belongs to the less degree of curve, then continue this elevation to the opposite end or the approach of the curve. FREQUENT CHANGES. 15. Where the changes are frequent and abrupt in a compound curve, it is generally best to elevate the outer rail for the highest degree and carry this elevation uniformly throughout the curve. Never change the elevation more than one-half inch in rail length in passing from one degree of curve to another, otherwise a swing or a jar will be felt on a train in passing over that place. 190 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. CUEVE TRACK GAGES. 16. Section Fore-men should be provided with a special gage for gaging curves, and made in such a manner that when adjusted properly for work the width of gage could not be accidentally changed. Track should be spiked accurately. LAYING THE RAILS ON CURVES. 17. No rails should ever be laid in track and spiked on any curve of over two degrees without first being curved the proper shape. The middle ordinate of a 30 foot rail is one-fourth of an inch on a one degree curve with very little variation up to 10 degrees and is so nearly proportionate to the degree of curve, that it can be used as a guide in curving rails. MIDDLE ORDINATES FOR CURVING RAILS. DEC. OF CURVE. 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... 9... 10... 11... 12... 13.. 14... 15... 16 17 18 19 20... LENGTH or RAILS. 30ft. 28ft. 26ft. 24ft. 22ft m 1 k ill sy Of o% 01 IX m 11 I 1 20ft. Or 5 . OA OA Of oj Of OM 1ft 1* CURVED TRACK. 191 TO CURVE A RAIL PROPERLY. 18. Bend or curve the rail through its entire length until the middle ordinate of the rail equals as many quarter inches as there are degrees in the curve for which you are preparing it. To ascertain this, stretch a string between the extreme points of the rail on the gage side and measure the distance from the cen- ter of the string to the gage side of the rail at its center. For Foremen who have not had much prac- tice in curving rails it is best to also measure the distance from the string to the rail at the quarters, seven and one-half feet from the end of a 30 foot rail, and this distance should be three quarters of what it is at the center of the rail. By measurements taken at the quarters it is generally easy to detect a kink in the rail, which should always be taken out. Rails which have a true curve will be in their place in the track ready for spiking and gaging without being held or drawn to place with the bar and will not need rail braces except on very sharp curves laid with soft wood ties. The more accurate the curve of rails, the less lining of track will be needed afterwards. THE CURVE APPROACH. 19. Where the elevation here given is not divisible envenly into half inches, elevate for the additional fourth of nn inch at the point of curve, just as if it were a half. inch. To illustrate : Take a three-degree curve, elevation two and one-half inches, length of approach on straight line 150 feet or five rail lengths from point of curve. Elevate the first rail on the straight line one-half inch, the second one inch, the third one and one-half inches, 192 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. the fourth two inches, and the fifth joint or point of curve, two and one-half inches, the full elevation. This elevation should then be carried uniformly to the other end of the curve where it should be eased off on the straight line in the same manner as the approach. PRINTED INFORMATION FOR FOREMEN. 20. On all curves it would be a good policy to have a plainly painted sign showing the degree of the curve. For the sake of economy the information could be given on a board secured to a telegraph pole near the curve. There could also be a rule on the time card calling the attention of the employes, most interested, to the subject. There is no reason why a Foreman placed in charge of a piece of track should not re- ceive all the information relative thereto that it is possible for the railroad company to give him, instead of having to find it out for himself as best he can. Printed information from the Engineering Depart- ment should supplement the Track Foreman's other instructions and in most cases it would materially assist in bettering the condition of the road, and bring more uniformity into the work. If every Section Foreman was provided with a little book giving loca- tion, degree and amount of elevation of the outer rail on the curves on his section, together with location, size and number of all culverts and bridges, and distance from stations, also amount of snow fence on cuts, and kind and quantity of rails laid, etc.,it would be placing the information where it would be of the most practical value to the railroad company. GUARD RAILS ON CURVES. 21. When speed of trains exceed twenty-five miles CURVED TRACK. 193 per hour, curves of ten degrees or over should have a guard rail inside the inner rail of curve. This guard rail should be spiked down on the ties all the way around the curve and turn-off from the track rail at each end of the curve. The space for the wheel flanges between the guard rail and track rail should be two inches wide. The extra width over standard gage as given in the table for elevation of curves should be added where the degree of curve makes it necessary to widen the gage of track. BETWEEN REVERSE CURVES. 22. Where straight track between two reverse curves is not long enough to give the outside rail the required elevation before reaching the point of either curve, begin to elevate the outside rail at a point midway between the curves, and give the first rail one- half inch elevation, after which you can increase the elevation one-half inch to the rail length, or one inch if necessary for sharp curves. When there is a differ- ence of one or more degrees in two reverse curves the greater degree should have the longer approach. Reverse curves should be well surfaced, and the track made as perfect as possible, and between the ap- proaches of the reverse curves there ought to be at least 60 feet of level track, where the distance between curves will allow it. PUTTING THE ELEVATION IN CURVES. 23. If the surface level of the whole track through- out a curve is good, and without any sags, you can give the curve the proper elevation with one-half the labor by only picking up the low spots along on the inside rail of the curve and raising the outside rail of 194 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. the curve out of a face to give it the required eleva- tion. When only the outside rail of a curve is raised up, always be particular to get the ballast under all of the ties which are raised out of their old bed. When dressing curve track between the rails keep the highest point of the material a little closer to the out- side rail of the curve; about one-fourth of the gage of the track. This allows most of the water which falls on the track to run off under the inside rail of the curve. If the highest point of the material used to dress the center of the track is left midway between the rails as on straight track any water which falls upon the track cannot readily run off under the out- side rail of a curve which has three or four inches of elevation, and in many places the track will be seri- ously injured by water settling down under the out- side rail and between the track ties. Whenever you raise only the outside rail of a curve to give it eleva- tion, some allowance should be made for the track settling on that side, when the height of the raise exceeds two inches. For instance, should you raise the outside rail of a curve to give it two and one-half inches elevation on a dirt ballasted track, without having to take up the inside rail, the outside rail should have an elevation of about three inches all around the curve if the bed of the track is soft or the fill narrow. RULE FOR LINING CURVES. 24. Select any part of a curve track which seems to be in the best line for a distance of at least 60 feet, but do not begin at the point of a curve unless you know positively that the curve turns off from the straight track without leaving a swing in the line. CURVED TRACK. 195 Set two stakes accurately in the center of the track, 60 feet apart, and one in the center of the track at the middle of the 60 feet. These three points are shown in Fig. 29 by the letters A, B and C. Now stretch a cord tight from A to C, and measure from the center of the cord indicated by M to the center stake, B. The result should be your guide as a mid- e FIG. 29. The letters A B C to G are track centers of a curve 30 feet apart; A C is a 60-foot line with which to ascertain the middle ordinate ; B M shows where the measurements should be taken to find the middle ordinates. die ordinate for the balance of the curve in either direction from where you commence work. We will suppose this middle ordinate to be four inches. You next move the cord 30 feet ahead in the direction in which you wish to line, stopping at B with the end you had first at A, and holding the end of cord w r hich was at G in your hand until its center is directly opposite and distant just four inches from the track center, at C. You may then set track center D at the end af the cord which you hold in your hand. This process may be carried out until you have set track centers for the whole curve. Every stake set for a track center should be driven 196 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. into the ground with its inside face or edge touching the cord, and this side of the stakes should be a straight edge if possible, so as to have a uniform cen- ter throughout the curve and along the inside face of all the stakes. This will obviate the necessity for using a track to make an accurate center on the stakes. After you nave set the track centers for the whole curve, procure a gage which is square and true, and mark on the gage, with some sharp instrument, the correct center between track rails or middle of the gage. Place this gage on the track between the rails and over the track center where you wish to begin lining the rails to place. Then have your men move the track with their lining bars until the center, as marked on the gage, comes directly over the track center on the stakes. Move the track in this manner at every point where you have set a track center stake, and then go back over it again, taking out any kinks or other defects left in the line, and you will have a splendid and a true curve line on your track, as good as if a civil engineer had set your track centers with an instrument. Care should be taken not to make any mistakes in measuring the middle ordinates, or in setting the track centers. It will pay to take your time and do the job well, because if properly done (like well sur- faced track) it will only need to be retouched in spots ever after. By commencing at a rail joint, this method of lining a curve may also be applied to the gage side of the rails, and any defects in the track line can be taken out by moving the rails to place as you go, but CURVED TRACK. 197 the work will not be as accurate or as reliable as by the process first given. EFFECT OF LOCOMOTIVE AND CAR WHEELS ON CURVE TRACK. 25. Car wheels which are badly worn on the tread, or close to the flanges, or which have the flanges worn sharp, are very unsafe when passing over switches if there is the slightest lip on the rails. They are danger- ous also on battered rails, or going around sharp curves, where they are liable to climb the rails and leave the track. Wheels of the kind mentioned have a tenden- cy to hug the rail on their side of the track, and as a consequence make a considerable wear along the gage side of the ball of the rails. They also wear spots along the top surface of the outer rail on curves, because the circumference of the wheel being the same or worn smaller at the flange than at the outside, the wheel must slip a certain amount in proportion to the degree of curvature, in order to travel as fast as the wheel on the inside rail. When the gage of the track on sharp curves is the same and not wider than the standard for straight track, the car wheels do not have play enough to enlarge the circumference of the wheel tire upon the outside rail of the curve, and the result is a wearing of the top surface of the rail the same as mentioned above. When the drive wheels of an engine are allowed to run too long with- out being turned off, the groove worn in the tire often causes considerable damage to track before the cause is known. Badly worn drive wheels break the frog points when passing over switches, and as a general rule the most of the wear on the rails on curve track is chargeable to the same source. 198 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. ELEVATION BALANCE. 26. On curve track where there is not enough ele- vation or the gage of track is tight, the car wheels wear off the gage side of the outer rail, by the wheel flanges crowding against it, and this causes the track to spread and become unsafe. If the elevation of the outside rail of a curve is excessive, the rails will wear most from the top surface downward and on the in- side rail of curve. It also forces the inside rail below the proper surface. It does not make the track any safer for trains and lessens the number of freight cars that an engine can haul over them. Especially is this the case when the elevation is excessive on sharp curves at terminal stations where trains run very slow. LIABILITY OF DERAILMENT. 27. The liability of accident to trains such as the derailment of locomotives or cars is much greater on a curve track than on a straight track, and a large percentage of the accidents which do happen is chargeable to the defects in the rolling stock as well as to the defects in the track itself. Heavily loaded freight cars often leave the track owing to the failure of a truck to adjust itself to the curve of the track, caused, perhaps, by a defective curve roller, and the greater part of the load resting upon one side of the truck. REDUCED SPEED. 28. Curves of ten degrees or more are not common on the main line of standard gage railroads. When they do occur the speed of trains should be reduced in proportion as the degree of curve increases. CURVED TRACK. 199 CURVE IN A SAG. 29. When a curve is approached from both direc- tions by a heavy down grade the speed of all trains is greater there than at any other point on the track, and for this reason it should have all the elevation necessary to carry trains safely at their greatest speed. Foremen should give such a curve half an inch more elevation and an approach thirty feet longer than the amounts stated in the table for elevation of curves. CARE OF CURVES. 30. The rails on curves could be made to wear much longer if those which showed signs of wear were transferred to the opposite side of track before they become badly worn. A depression of three-fourths of an inch in the surface of track on the outside rails, or a slight kink in a rail on a curve, or a joint out of line or gage, will throw every car in a train heavily to the opposite side of the track. For this reason Track Foremen should keep curve track in the best condi- tion possible. LINING CURVES. 31. Some Foremen have a very bad habit of always lining the curves out. This should not be done. The tendency of engines and cars is to knock parts of the curves towards the outside at the weakest points. If the Foreman will line towards the inside of the curve any points or rails which project beyond the true line of curve, there will not be any necessity of increasing the curvature by lining so much towards the outside. STRAIGHT RAILS IN CURVES. 32. When iron or steel rails are laid in curve track 200 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. CURVED TRACK. 201 without first being curved, or just as they come from the rolling mill, the joints soon project out of line, and by the knocking of the train wheels against the joints they are partly assisted to get back to their original shape, destroying the proper line of curve. Such rails gives the cars passing over them a peculiar side motion which makes the track appear very rough, no matter how well surfaced it may be. TRACKLAYING WHERE CURVES A RE FREQUENT. 33. When laying track where curves are frequent, the writer uses blue print diagrams, as shown in Fig. 30, to avoid confusion in forwarding material at the front and laying the track. The line A B represents the center line, showing a 6-degree curve to left, followed by a tangent of 452 ft., thence a 5-degree curve to right compounding into an 8-degree curve. The line is to be laid with 30-ft. rails using 29^-ft. rails on the inside of curves to square joints. Each curve is marked with the degree and the total angle. Below the line A B is given the lengths of the tangents and the curves in feet, also the station numbers of the beginning and end of curve. Above the line AB is given the number of rails for each tangent, and the number of 30-ft. and 29^-ft. rails for each curve. One 29^-ft. rail is laid for each 6 degrees of angle in the curve. The compound curve contains a total of 48 degrees of angle, requir- ing eight 29^-ft. rails to square the joints. At the end of each day's work the station of the end of track should be marked on the diagram. In the material yard, with the aid of the diagram, the Foreman will know just what kind of material to 202 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. forward each day. On the side of each loaded car the Foreman should nail a piece of board or shingle upon which is plainly written the kind of material on the car, as: 40 S. Rails. 17 C " for 6 Lt. Sta, 753. 3 O 29f ft " The straight rails should be separated from the curved with pieces of board. When laying with a track-laying machine it is more convenient to put the 29^-ft. rails on the car of trimmings. A diagram is given to the Foreman in charge of bending rails. The ordinates of the different curves should be marked 011 his sheet. At the front the Foreman in charge of the steel crew will know at a glance how many 29^-ft. rails are to be laid on the inside of each curve. He should endeavor to lay these at regular intervals throughout the curve. If track is laid with even joints on the tangents and broken joints on curve, the difference in length between the inner and outer rails of the curve should be marked on the diagram. The rail should be cut (see paragraph 6, page 180) in the material yard and the length of each piece and the station of the curve to be plainly marked on it so as not to delay work at the front. FOREMEN SHOULD KNOW THE DEGREE. 34. Foremen in charge of curving rails should know before hand the degree of each curve and the number of rails wanted for it, so as to have no delay in getting them to the front when called for. A GOOD CURVE. 35. A curve track is put up properly when the CURVED TRACK. 203 engine and all the cars in a train run smoothly onto the point of a curve from straight track without any shock or jar that would indicate there was a change in the line or surface of the track. All the cars in a train should run around the curve leaning slightly towards the inside rail, and not change this position perceptibly until the straight track is reached again at the opposite end of the curve. Above all things, Foremen should keep the surface of a curve track as smooth as possible. In this more than anything else lies the secret of having a good riding track. DANGEROUS CARS ON CURVES. 36. I am fully convinced that it is both a fool- hardy and dangerous policy to allow the cars from any road with a 4 foot 9 inch gage to run on a standard gage road unless the flanges of all wheels have the same "clearance" room between them and the rails as is allowed for the standard gage wheels. The Inter-State Commerce Commission reports for 1889 show 387 railroads with a mileage of 28,939 miles of 4 foot 9 inch gage, while of the standard gage there is 1,030 roads operating 114,148 miles which shows that with all our boasted progress there is yet nearly one-fifth of the railroad mileage of the country which does not conform to the standard gage although the freight cars of these roads are inter-changeable. It is a nortorious fact that the cars of a railroad with a 4 foot 9 inch gage are the ones which are oftenest derailed when running on standard gage track both on the main track and at switches, and on curves, and when not wrecked or derailed they are continually damaging the standard gage track and spreading the rails out of proper line and gage. 204 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. Their wheels run more on the flange than on the tread of the wheel and in so doing soon make those flanges very sharp and dangerous, peeling and wear- ing away the inner side of the track rails and always ready to climb the outer rail on curves; they are de- railed by the slightest lip on a stub switch, and often run foul of a frog point. These wheels have to be changed so often that it adds another large item to the cost of car repairs, and if the whole of the damage to track and other defects that are chargeable to this ruinous system were sum- med up and kept account of, we would have an exhi- bition of one of the most dangerous and expensive methods of operating railroads. How often has one of these wide gage trucks jump- ed the track and wrecked a train on some sharp curve without leaving a clew for those who come to investi- gate the cause of the accident? Probably the track will be torn up and everything in confusion and some person will say that the trouble was caused by spread- ing of the rails or an improper adjustment of the elevation of the outer rail on the curve or something else just as far from the truth. As a remedy for the foregoing, I would suggest that all standard gage railroads which inter-change traffic should make it a rule to have the wheels on all cars received at junction points, examined and tested with a standard wheel gage, and those not conform- ing to the proper specifications should be rigidly excluded, and wheels of a correct pattern should be put under the cars to replace those which are defec- tive, the cost to be charged up to the company own- ing the defective wheels. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. CHAPTEK VIII. 1, Boarding Accommodations 3, Discharges 3, Ride Over Your Section on the Engine 4, Following Trains 5, Accidents 6, Go Over the Track 7, Raise Up the Wires S, Extremes of Temperature 9, Track Jacks- 10, The Spirit Level 11, Surface Bent Rails 12, Low Joints 13, Examining Track 14, Scarcity of Repair Rails 15, Changing Battered Rails 16, Extra Work 17, Train Accidents 18, At Wrecks 19, Water Stations 20, Trespassers 21, Protect Fences 22, Rails of Different Heights 23, Expansion Blocks 24, Switch Stands 25, Absent From Duty 26, Emer- gency Rails 27, Extra Men 98, A Prompt Reply 29, Get Acquainted With Tour Section 30, The Proper Way 31, Working New Men 32, Clear Water Passages 33, Neat Station Grounds 34, Expansion at Switches 35, Look Over the Yard 36, Lips on Stub Switches 37, Bent Switch Rails 38, The Moving Rails of Stub Switches 39, Battered Switch Rails 40, To Straighten Rails in Track 41, Ties Under Moving Rails^2, Bent Splices^S, Punch or Bore Rails 44, Lining Disconnected Track 45, Ordering Tools or Material 46, Keep Men's Time Correct-^7, Dupli- cate Time Books 48, Track Material Account 19, Printed Forms 50, Section Foremen's Reports 51, Shipping Track Tools 52, Distance to Set Out Danger Signals 53, Always Keep Signals With You 54, Time Cards and Rules 55, Note of Flags 56, Stops Signals 67, Look Out For Signals 58, Obstructing the Track 59, Replace Signals 60, Injured Sig- nals 61, Complying With the Rules 62, Location of Whistling Post and Signs 63, Train's Disrespect of Danger Signals 64, Look Out for Trains 65, Always Be Prepared 66, Hand Car and Tool House 67, Telegriiph Office Reports 68, Removing Hand Cars from Crossings 69, Throwing Switches 70, Leaving Hand Cars on Track 71, Loaning Tools, Cars, etc. 72, Different Varieties of Ties 73, Care of Tools 74, Hand Cars, etc. 75, Shovels 76, Cold Chisels 77, Use of Claw Bars 78, Lining Bars 79, Rail Punches 80, The Place for Tools 81, Cutting Steel 82, The Ballast in Yards^-83, Execute Promptly 84, Protect Against Fires 85, The Curving Hook 86, Report Stock Killed 87, Damage by Fire 88, Be Careful of Material 89, Pick up Scattered Material 90, Do First What Needs to be Done 91, How to do Work 92, Foremen on Duty 93, Adopt the Best Method, BOARDING ACCOMMODATIONS. 1. Track Foremen should always see about secur- 206 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. ing boarding accommodations for the men working un- der them. Do not make a favorite of any particular house in town, but select the hotel which will give the best accommodations the cheapest. The wages of track laborers as a general rule are low, and very few of these men can pay their board in advance. For this reason the Foremen should see that board bills presented by hotel keepers against any of their men are properly signed, corrected, and sent into headquarters promptly at the end of every working month, and when a man is discharged, if he is in debt for board, the amount of his bill should be sent in with his check to the superintendent to be deducted therefrom. By paying particular attention to the foregoing instructions, Track Foremen will always be able to more readily secure men when wan- ted. The hotel men will not refuse to keep them, and you will save yourself and the officers of the company a great deal of annoyance and useless correspondence. Never keep at work a dead beat or an habitual drunk- ard, and you will materially assist in bettering the condition and reputation of men employed in the track service. DISCHARGES. 2. Upon the day on which a man is discharged the Foreman should make out his time in full on the time book, and write opposite his name on the time book, "discharged," or the letters C. G., which means certificate of time given. The Foreman should also fill out a discharge check, using the regular blank form for that purpose. The man's name should be written in full on the discharge check and spelled in the same way as on the time GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 207 book. His occupation, number of days worked, and amount due him should also correspond with the same on the time book. The discharge check should be signed by the Foreman and forwarded to the Road- master for approval. A board bill should also accom- pany the discharge check whenever there is any deduction to be made from a man's wages for that purpose. Foremen should not discharge any of their men without sufficient cause, except when they have re- ceived an order to reduce their force; nor should a Foreman keep any more men than the regular force allowed him without orders from the Headmaster. RIDE OVER YOUR SECTION ON THE ENGINE. 3. Section Foremen should take an occasional ride over their section either on the engine or on the back platform of the rear coach or caboose of a train; and while riding over the track they should not make a pleasure trip of it, merely, but should watch closely how the cars ride, and note all the worst places in their sections, and note what causes these places to affect the smooth running of the train. A train run- ning at the speed of 45 miles per hour does not ride as smoothly as a train which only travels 20 miles per hour on the same track, because the cars which travel the slowest have more time to get righted after the wheels meet with a place out of line, level, gage or surface, while the fast trains may meet with, and pass several of these slight obstructions within a second of time, thus having no time to regain its balance. When a train runs along smoothly for a distance and suddenly swings' to one side, if it be on a straight track, that place is either low on that side, or is badly out 208 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. of line or gage. If the train be on a curve, and the car swings heavily toward the higher rail, there is not enough elevation in the curve at that point. If the car swings toward the inside rail of the curve, there is too much elevation at the outer rail at that place. A low joint on the inside rail will cause the train to swing to that side, and the striking of the wheel flange against joints that are hooked in out of line on the outer rail will also throw the car toward the inner rail. A Foreman can soon become expert in distin- guishing the slight difference in the motion of the car as it swings to either side of the track, and tell the cause by examining the bad places in the track soon after riding over it on the train. FOLLOWING TRAINS. 4. Track Foremen should not, at any time, secure their hand or push cars behind a moving train to save the labor of pumping or pushing them. Many serious accidents have happened from this cause. If a train should slacken speed, or suddenly stop, with a hand car attached, it would be hard to prevent the car from going under the coach or caboose, and the men on the car might be injured or killed. ACCIDENTS. 5. All personal injuries to men working in track service should be reported on. the proper blank form by the Foreman to the Headmaster, and all accidents resulting in damage to the railroad company's prop- . erty should also be promptly reported to the Road- master. When there are no suitable blank forms a written report should be made. GO OVER THE TRACK. 6. Section Foremen should always, in very stormy GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 209 weather, go over their sections and examine all cul- verts, bridges and other places liable to wash, and report condition of track to Headmaster. In going over their section, Track Foremen should be very thorough in their examination of everything in their charge. See that the telegraph lines are in good order; if they are not, repair them where you can, and report to Train Dispatcher or Headmaster any defects that may need the service of the telegraph line repairer. Foremen should also notice the condition of all snow or right of way fences, especially the latter, and repair all breaks in them as soon as found. Gates left open by farmers should be closed and secured. Unreliable men, or those ignorant of their duties, should never be detailed to patrol the track. RAISE UP THE WIRES. 7. When telegraph wires are found down after a storm, Section Foremen should hang them high enough on the poles to insure their working properly, and prevent cattle or teams crossing the track from running against them. EXTREMES OF TEMPERATURE. 8. Whenever the temperature changes suddenly there is always danger whether the changes be to extreme heat or extreme cold. Section Foremen should be very particular to go over and examine all the track on their sections to discover places where track has been kinked and thrown out of line by the heat, or splices broken and rails pulled apart by the extreme cold. Foremen should remember that acci- dents of the kind mentioned are liable to happen at any point on the road, even where the rails seem to 210 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. have the proper allowance for expansion, because the change of temperature may come on quickly. Places where the ballast is light, or where the track is not filled in between the ties, are the most liable to be affected. TRACK JACKS. 9. Every Section Foreman should have a track jack along with his other track tools, and he should always carry it with him on the hand car, and have it ready to use whenever it is necessary to raise track. There are few things that look more ridiculous, than three or four men making futile efforts to raise a rail of track, with a long bar or track lever, and a block of wood which is either too high or too low. The ingenuity or ignorance of the whole gang is dis- played a score of times during the day, whenever the block will not do to raise the track to the proper height, and valuable time is lost in trying to find a stone, a chunk of wood or a spike to increase the leverage, and which is seldom or never thought of until the moment it is wanted. Sometimes the spikes are pulled out of one or two ties in every rail length, and the track is raised from the top of the ties. This way also causes a considerable loss of time, pulling the spikes and respiking the ties, besides the injury done the ties, when the old spike holes are left open to rot the wood. Raising track with a lever, pulls the rails out of line much more than raising it with a jack, and makes it more difficult to get back to place, often loosening the spikes where the ballast is heavy, and the track is laid with soft ties. A good track jack is one of the best and most eco- nomical tools that can be used on a railroad. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 211 In order to avoid accidents when tracK. is being raised, the track jack should be set on the outside of the rails. In this position the pilot of an engine, if it should strike the jack, will knock it clear from the rails. But there is no necessity of using a track jack immediately ahead of the passage of trains, or when they are due at that point, and the men can be em- ployed at other work for the time. A track jack placed inside the rails which could not be removed in time, caused the derailment of a passenger train on the Old Colony Railroad and ten persons were killed. THE SPIRIT LEVEL. 10. Foremen should never go out on their sections to pick up track or surface it without taking the spirit level with them. It should be used continually, especially on track which was never ballasted, or which was surfaced hurriedly without using a level. Never listen to ignorant or conceited Track Foremen, who will tell you that they can put up as good track without using the track level. It is impossible. If you have surfaced a piece of track to a perfect level, then you can sight the depressions in the surface without using the spirit level, when going over it a second time, if the track has not become rough. It is the rule more than the exception, that where a track is newly laid and ballasted with dirt, the sur- facing is poorly done, and the spirit level seldom or never used. Section Foremen in charge of new track laid on dirt should make it their business to improve the line and surface as fast as possible with the force allowed them, before the track settles, or the dirt 212 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. becomes a solid mass. While the ties and iron are new is the time to make a good track. SURFACE BENT BAILS. 11. In wet cuts, or other low places, the track often becomes very rough, and the ties sink into the mud in places. The rails then, if of light weight, become more or less surface bent before the track can be raised up, or repaired properly. If the surface bent rails cannot be replaced by good rails before the track is ballasted up they are apt to cause the Section Fore- man much trouble in trying to make them remain in true surface, if he does not understand how to straighten them. This can best be done by the following method: If, for instance, a rail bows up at the quarter or the center, make the ties solid at each end of the bent place, then remove enough material from under the ties, where the rail is bent, so that the weight of an engine passing over the rail will bend the bowed place, just as much below level, as is then above. After a train goes over you will generally find the rail has resumed its proper shape all right. If the bend in the rail is downward, hang the center of the bent place upon one or more solid ties, accord- ing to the length of the bend, and allow the balance of the track under the rail to remain as it was. Joints which have been allowed to remain low for some time, often cause the rail to become surface bent in the short quarter, and they are very difficult to keep up ever after, unless the kink is taken out of the rail. A loose joint tie, in gravel or sand ballast, will soon pump out enough gravel to cause the rail to bend a short distance from the end, unless it is noticed by GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 213 the Track Foreman, and taken care of at once. When the Track Foreman wishes to straighten any surface bent rails, he should always signal the first train, and have it run slowly, because there is danger of the rails breaking where they are not fully supported. Surface bent rails, which are so bad that they cannot be straightened while in the track, may be taken out and fixed with the curving hook and lever. LOW JOINTS. 12. When picking up low joints in gravel or stone ballasted track, particularly where the depressions are only slight, Track Foremen should always use tamping bars, or tamping picks, according to the nature of the ballast, to tamp up the track ties to the proper surface level. There are many things other than a weak founda- tion which make low joints in track. Loose bolts in the joint fastenings make low joints, because they allow the joints to bend down under the weight of the engine and cars. Bad gage and line make low joints, because the cars, when trains run fast, are thrown heavily from one side of the track to the opposite, and the joint being the weakest point is liable to be affected the most. A wide space between the ends of the track rail also make low joints, and assists the car wheels to batter the ends of the rails. When rails are laid on soft wood ties, or when the ties have commenced to decay, you will generally find that a low joint is wide in the gage between the rails. Make low joints a scarce article on your section of track, and you will quickly have a good track, and a good reputation as a Track Foreman. 214 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. EXAMINING TRACK. 13. When the track rails on a section become badly worn, and need to be repaired often, or when the ground is frozen solid in winter, Section Foremen should go over their sections daily, and examine the track thoroughly for broken or cracked rails, remov- ing from track such rails, and replacing with good ones. It is the duty of Foremen never to deviate from this rule unless a regular track walker is employed for this purpose, or when they have orders from the Headmaster to the contrary. The Section Foreman is responsible for the con- dition of the track in his charge, and he should do everything in his power to contribute to the safety of passengers and trains passing over it. Report all broken rails to the Headmaster as soon as found, giving brand, weight, age, etc. SCARCITY OF REPAIR RAILS. 14. When repair rails are scarce, and a Foreman cannot procure enough to exchange for damaged rails in his main track, he can with only a couple of extra rails keep his track perfectly safe by commencing in time to bring into station the worst rails on the main track. Take the extra rails out on the section, if good and of the proper length, exchange them for two battered rails, bring the two battered rails into the station and put them in the yard, or in track some place near the station, and get two more good rails. These you take out on section as before, and exchange for battered rails. In this way a Foreman may exchange four GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 215 or five car loads of rails, or about one mile of iron or steel, until he receives a supply of repair rails. Battered rails are safer within one-half mile of a station at the Track Foreman's headquarters, than out on his section, because trains run slower there. Battered rails are less liable to break near the station. They are also much easier watched, and taken care of. When repair rails are received the battered rails can all be removed at once. CHANGING BATTERED RAILS. 15. The best method for changing rails which have become unfit for. use on the main track, when the rails furnished for repair are of a different length from those in the main track, is as follows: Put in track near the station a string of repair rails, and take out rails of a proper length to change the battered ones out on the section. In order to do this right, and save unnecessary expense and labor, always try to have the number of repair rails you put in track replace a greater or less number of rails of a different length without any cutting. If you have not the right number of rails without cutting one use a number of rails that will give the least waste. EXAMPLE. 15 26-foot rails equal 390 feet. 13 30-foot rails equal 390 feet. OR 7 30-foot rails equal 201 feet. 8 26-foot rails equal 208 feet. As will be seen in the above example, there are only two feet to be cut from the last 30-foot rail of the 7 to replace 8, 26-foot rails, and for this waste a Foreman should select (if he has it) a rail battered on the end, that will give the required 28 feet of good rail. 216 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. EXTRA WORK. 16. It is customary on most railroads to call upon the Trackmen to do extra work occasionally, such as assisting the telegraph line repairer, the bridge car ' penters, pump repairers, etc., whenever these gangs cannot well perform the work alone, or when a suffi- cient force of men cannot be procured to do the necessary work. Track Foremen should not assist with their men at any kind of extra work without orders from the Roadmaster. When such orders are received the Track Foreman should only give the amount of help required, using all of his men or only part, as is necessary. Never employ all of your force when a less number of men could do the work as well, unless your orders require it. Charge accurately on the work journal, and to the department to which it belongs, all extra work performed by your men during the month. Whenever you do any extra work, for which there is no printed heading on the work journal, put down the time in some column which you are likely not to have any occasion to use for the work specified in it, and state, in writing in the same column where you put the time, what the labor was. TRAIN ACCIDENTS. 17. In case of an accident to a train, the Section Foreman who is called should take his men and tools and go to the place, no matter whether it is on his section or not, and giv-e all the assistance possible. Foremen should obey the conductor of the train, and work under his instructions until the arrival of the Roadmaster, or until they receive other orders. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 217 Section Foremen should not wait for orders from their Koadmaster to do any extra work which they know to be absolutely necessary, but should do the work at once, and remain out with their men until everything is safe. If a Foreman is notified by train- men or others of something wrong on a section adjoin- ing his own, such as a broken rail, a fire along the right of way, or the telegraph wires broken or down, he should make all possible speed to get to the place of danger without questioning his right to go, because it may not be possible to notify the proper Foreman, and any delay may cause the company considerable loss. AT WRECKS. * 18. Whenever there is a wreck on the road, the Foreman on whose section the accident happens, should keep an accurate account of the labor and material expended in repairing the damage done to the track. This account, together with the one of the damage done to rails, ties, spikes, bolts, or to the grade, should be put in the form of a report, and properly sent to the Headmaster immediately after the track is repaired. Time of men working at a wreck should be charged to that account on the work journal. WATER STATIONS. 19. At all the water stations the Section Foreman should note the amount of water in tanks when pass- ing, and where wind engines do the pumping, they should be oiled often, and any defects in them or the pumps should be repaired, if possible, or reported by telegraph to the person in charge of such work. Sec- tion Foremen and their men should pump water into 218 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. the tanks whenever the wind engine fails to supply enough for trains. When it is necessary to pump by hand, Foremen should commence to pump before there is any danger of the supply in the tank being exhausted. Where steam pumps are to furnish the water for trains, Section Foremen should assist the man in charge to do any necessary repairing which he cannot do alone. Section Foremen should always be ready and willing to get out their men day or night, to do work where their services would be valuable to the company. TRESPASSERS. 20. Foremen should see that no person is allowed to erect dwellings, stables or other buildings within the limits of the railroad company's right of way, or in any other manner trespass on the company's property, without permission from the Roadmaster or Superintendent. PROTECT FENCES. 21. When burning grass, weeds or other material along the right of way, Foremen should be very care- ful and protect the fence from fire. Never go away from a place where you have been burning rubbish, and leave any fire behind you, no matter how small the fire, or how harmless it may appear. It is always dangerous until extinguished. If part of a fence should accidentally be burned, or destroyed from any cause, the damage should be reported at once to the Roadmaster, giving a correct list of the property destroyed, and location of same, so that material to repair the damage can be sent there promptly. RAILS OF DIFFERENT HEIGHTS. 22. All rails of different heights, where they meet GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 219 at a joint, should be connected with a step splice, and an iron shim should be put under the base of the low rail to give an equal bearing with the high rail. The iron shim should have slots punched in the sides so that spikes can be driven in to keep it secured in place. EXPANSION BLOCKS. 23. When it is necessary to use short pieces of rail, called expansion blocks, to close up an open joint between the ends of two rails, the holes in one end of the splices should be lengthened so that the joint can be full bolted and properly secured. The expansion block in a joint should always rest on the center of a sound tie. SWITCH STANDS. 24. All switch stand targets should show blind, when locked on the main track, also on all tracks running parallel to the main track, when connected at both ends. The switch target should show the red signal for an open switch when thrown for a spur track, and the switch should be thrown back to posi- tion on the through track, and kept locked, except when the spur track is in use. ABSENT FROM DUTY. 25. Track Foremen should never be absent from duty, unless by permission from their Headmaster, except in case of sickness or from some other unavoid- able cause, and in such cases the Headmaster should be notified immediately. EMERGENCY RAILS. 26. When it is possible to avoid it, I would recom- mend that Track Foremen leave neither track material 220 THE TKACKMAN'S HELPER. nor tools out along their sections over night. But on roads where snow troubles in the winter time, and Section Foremen have long sections, it is a good policy to have repair rails, with splices bolted to them, placed at convenient distances, one or two miles apart, along the section, where they can be easily reached. These rails can be used in case of emer- gency to replace a broken rail in the track, and the splices will also be handy to replace broken ones, without the necessity of going perhaps several miles through snow drifts, back to the station, for the material wanted. To prevent the rails or splices from being covered with snow, they should be secured on posts set with their top two or three feet above the surface of the ground. The condition of the rails as to wear should decide the number of emergency rails to be distributed along the track. Of course, where the rails in the track are badly worn, and broken rails are common, the number of emergency rails should be more numerous than where the track is newly laid, and the rails not much worn. EXTRA MEN. 27. When you are about to have an extra force of men, larger than you have been used to working, take a little time to plan how you will distribute the men to accomplish the most good. Organization is one- half the work. A PROMPT REPLY. 28. Whenever you receive a message from your Roadmaster, which requires an answer, don't wait or delay, but answer it promptly and correctly. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 2Zl GET ACQUAINTED WITH YOUR SECTION. 29. Every Section Foreman, as soon as he has been appointed to take charge of a section, should make himself thoroughly acquainted with every part of the piece of road in his charge. Get the numbers of all the bridges and culverts on your section, and the distance from the station north, south, east or west. Get the brand of iron or steel and if it is of different makes get the amount of each, and find when it was laid, also the length and kind of iron in your side tracks, number of panels of snow fence on your section, height of bridges from the ground, number of public crossings, signs, etc. Keep this account where it will be handy to refer to at any time, and keep it corrected from time to time. By doing this you will be able to answer any questions asked by officials of the road about any part of your section, and in case of a wreck or washoilt, you will be able to locate the place at a moment's notice, and give a close estimate of the kind and amount of material necessary for repairs, in case of damage to track. THE PROPER WAY. 30. Find out from your Headmaster the correct way of keeping your time, and filling out any other monthly reports that you have to send in to his office, and make them out as directed by him. You may have a printed form of some kind to fill out. Answer what is asked in the headings on form, but never omit or add anything. WORKING NEW MEN. 31. If it is necessary to work new men on your section, who have never worked on track before, do 222 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. not lose your patience if they are a little awkward in doing the work. If you can do so, pair these men with older hands. Take a little trouble to show them how you want the work done, in a manner that will give them confidence, and in most cases you will accomplish more good than by using the blow-and-blus- ter method so common with some Foremen. Remem- ber you needed instructions once yourself. CLEAR WATER PASSAGES. 32 No vegetable matter, grass, etc., should ever be allowed to accumulate under bridges, or near the mouth of culverts, or any other material that would be liable to catch fire easily, or stop the passage of water. NEAT STATION. 33. Section Foremen should keep the station grounds clean and. neat, and all track material should be piled up in several lots. There should be no dis- order; there should be a place for everything, and everything in its place. All stray links and coupling pins that are fit to use, should be picked up, and left where they will be handy for trainmen when wanted. All of the station grounds not occupied by tracks, or covered with ballast, should be allowed to grow up in tame grasses. Such plots should be kept nicely trimmed around the sides and ends, with a view to having them of a regular form, and they should be lined parallel with adjoining tracks. No rubbish of any kind should ever be allowed to accumulate upon tracks, or on the ground close to buildings. It should be taken away and dumped into places which need filling. Section Foremen should not spend too much GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 223 time working around the station, but do what work is required there when other track work is not pressing, or when the weather or extra jobs interfere, and take up so much of the day that it would not pay to go out on the section. EXPANSION AT SWITCHES. 84. Many Section Foremen, where stub switches are used, cut the ends off the moving rails, sometimes spending considerable time on a hot day trying to cut the end of a rail off without taking up the rail. Others do a little better and take off the cross rods to cut the rail. Now, instead of interfering with the moving rails, it is a much better way to cut the next two rails back of them, and control expansion there. It will save lots of time and hard labor on a hot day, when it is necessary to do such work. Cut off the ends of the rails mentioned from the first bolt hole. This will give a space of about three inches for expansion. Bore a new hole in the rails which were cut, put on the joint fastenings leaving an opening at the head chair joint of not more than one-half inch, then loosen the bolts on three or four joints further back, and open them sufficiently to take up all of the space except what is needed in the head chair joint for the rails to move easily. The open joints back of the moving rails can be closed whenever the switch becomes tight, and in most cases the one cutting of rails at a switch will do for a whole season. LOOK OVER THE YARD. 35. Yard Track Foremen should look over the whole yard every morning, and see that all switches 224 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. are all right, and nothing is wrong, before going to work for the day at some particular place. LIPS ON STUB SWITCHES. 36. On a road where stub switches are used, a Foreman should see that no lips form where the moving and lead rails meet; and that the track lines are true, no matter which way the switch is turned. To guard against having lips on the rails of stub switches where they meet in the head chair, the head rods on the ends of moving rails should fit as tight as they can be driver, on. No lost motion should ever be allowed to get in any switch connection. Switch stands should be bolted to the head block. BENT SWITCH KAILS. 37. Brakemen, when in a hurry, often pull the switch lever over before the trucks of the last car of a train are off the moving rails of a switch. This makes a kink or bends the rails out of line, besides, it often forms a lip at the joint in the head chair. The quickest way to fix a pair of moving rails, that have become bent as above stated, is to take out one of the rails and turn it end for end. This makes the bow pull in opposite directions, and in most cases will keep a switch all right until it can be repaired, or new rails put in. When the bend in moving rails is toward the side of track from which switch turns off, drive a stake at the ends of a couple of ties oppo- site the bent place in the rails, and drive spikes in these ties outside the bend part of rails to keep them in line. This will do temporarily when you have not the time to straighten the rails. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 225 THE MOVING RAILS OF STUB SWITCHES. 38. The moving rails of stub switches should never be cut except when battered. The best method of keeping the moving rails in good condition is to have them of the correct length, and to keep the joints in the head chairs just open enough so that the switch can be thrown easily in warm weather. When the rails begin to contract in cold weather, a pair of extension splices can be put on the connected ends of the moving rails, which will admit of expansion blocks of the proper size being put between the rails to fill up the space left by contraction. Short pieces of splices bolted on the ends of the moving rails, where they come into the head chairs, will assist in making the ends of the rails wear much longer with- out becoming battered; they should also be on the lead and main track rails where they meet the mov- ing rails on the head chair. BATTHKED SWITCH RAILS. 39. Never take out one rail in a stub switch. When it becomes badly battered on the end, always take out at the same time the rails which meet it in the head chair. A good rail put in, and meeting a battered one, will soon be as bad as the one battered. TO STRAIGHTEN RAILS IN TRACK. 40. To straighten a kinky rail or one bent laterally without taking it out of track is not a very difficult matter when a Trackman understands how to do it. Double spike a tie at each end of the bend in the rail and at the same points have one of the men drive a lining bar firmly in the ground and hold it tight against the rail. Then with a chisel nick the flange of 226 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. the rail, on the outside of the bent place to weaken it and you can then straighten the rail perfectly with a few good strong blows from a spike maul. Always strike the flange of the rail oftener than the top of it, as it is the most difficult part to bend, and to prevent cutting off the maul handle, if you strike and miss the flange, slip a piece of a board or plank in between the ties, and let it lay about one-half inch below the base of the rail. This little trick of the trade will save Trackmen much annoyance where they are troubled by kinky rails and enable them to keep a good line and gage on track. TIES UNDER MOVING RAILS. 41. The ties under the moving rails should be oak, sawed ties if possible, and as close together as they can well be tamped. None should be farther apart than 8 inches, and where a switch rod comes the ties should be closed up to within tw,o and one-half or three inches of each other. This will keep switch rods in place. The object in having the ties close together under the moving rails is to keep the rails up to surface, and the cross rods square across the track in place; and in case of the trucks of a car or engine getting off the track at a switch, which happens oftener there than at any other place on a railroad, the ties being close together will support the wheels from sinking between them, and car or engine can more easily and quickly be put back on the track without danger of bending the tie rods. BENT SPLICES. 42. When a Foreman receives old iron or steel for GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 227 repairs he should always examine the splices, espec- ially angle bar splices, and if they are bent in the center he should not use them again without straight- ening them. PUNCH OR BORE THE RAILS. 43. When cutting old iron or steel for repairs, always punch or bore holes for two bolts in the cut ends of the rails. Do not put on splices with bolts only in one end, or with less than the full number used in a joint. LINING DISCONNECTED ' TRACK. 44. Foremen when lining track that has been washed out, or that has been disconnected at one end should never commence lining from the disconnected end. Always commence to line track from the end that is connected, and nearest to line, and work towards the end that is disconnected, and when you have moved it once, begin to line as before. The writer has on several occasions seen Foremen with a large gang of men spend several hours of val- uable time at a washout, in a fruitless attempt to bring into line the tail end of a piece of track, and when the men could not throw it, cut it into rail lengths and carry into place. This could have been avoided if track had been lined in the way stated above. ORDERING TOOLS OR MATERIAL. 45. Track Foremen, when ordering tools or mater- ial for use on the track in their charge, should not make requisition for more than the amount necessary of either kind. A surplus of tools or track material on hand, which there is no prospect of putting in 228 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. service soon, represents their value in cash lying idle or going to waste. KEEP MEN'S TIME CORRECTLY. 46. It is a notable fact that the best Track Fore- men keep the time of their men and other accounts correctly, and do everything, as the saying goes, "in ship shape," while the reverse can only be said of Foremen who are careless or slovenly. The want of an education is only an excuse, and a Foreman, by devoting a little of his time evenings to study, can soon write a good hand, and learn enough of figures to do all that is required of him while in the position of Track Foreman. DUPLICATE TIME BOOKS. 47. All Track Foremen should carry with them a duplicate time book, and note on the same day any loss of time, or time earned by any of the men work- ing under them. Keep a journal of the work per- formed by them each day, always charging the proper number of days labor done by each of them at each separate kind of work. This record of time and work performed should be transferred at the end of each day to the regular time book and journal of work, which is sent to headquarters at the end of each month. By following above instructions, a Foreman will avoid making any mistakes, and will also be able to refer back to the time of his men, the kind of work done, and date of same, whenever called upon for in- formation by his superior officers. TRACK MATERIAL ACCOUNT. 48. When Foremen receive track material of any GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 229 kind, and it is loaded on cars or unloaded from cars by them, they should check over everything carefully and count the pieces, number of rails, ties, etc.; also note the brand or quality of the same, and take the number of the car. Keep this with your other ac- counts, no matter whether you have orders to do so or not, as you may be asked to give information on the subject a month later. PRINTED FORMS. 49. Track Foremen should read and thoroughly understand the printed instructions on all blank forms which the railroad company requires them to use, when making their reports. Many Foremen are too careless in this matter, often omitting to put down the answers to printed questions which it is almost impossible for them to miss seeing when filling out the form. Occasionally a Foreman will put on his work journal the number of ties received during the month, and at the same time fail to give the number of ties used during the month, or the number on hand; while the latter questions are there on the journal, as well as the question, "how many ties received." Then the Headmaster must write him a letter a second time and instruct him what he should do and wait for an answer. It is just likely that the Foreman spoken of above will be changing a rail in a side track, or doing some other kind of work, which could be put off or delayed without danger, for a week or two, when at that time he should have been examining his track after a heavy storm. He has carried a time card in his pocket for months perhaps, and never informed himself that there was a rule on that time card which required himself and 230 THE TBACKMAN'S HELPER. men to be out and examine the track on his section in stormy weather. Foremen of the kind mentioned do not hold a position long under any Roadmaster, because they are not reliable; they need to be watched too closely and instructed too often in their duties. SECTION FOREMEN'S REPORTS. 50. There is hardly a single railway company now in this country which does not furnish^ its Foremen printed blanks for whatever reports they may be call- ed upon to make. These blanks are generally made as simple as consistent with the nature of the report, and the Foreman should study carefully the headings and printed instructions which will enable him to fill them out properly. It is most important that such statements are made at the proper time, that all entries are strictly correct and that they are made as concise as possible and in a legible manner. When such re- ports are completed they should be mailed to the prop- er officer. In regard to monthly statements of tools and materials received and used Foremen will find it greatly to their interests if they retain a copy, of what- ever they reported on hand the last of the month, so as to be able to fill the report for the succeeding month correctly. In fact it is advisable that each Foreman keep a little book wherein he can note down all items of interest occuring on his section pertaining to the operation of the road. Such memoranda have often proven to be of great value to railway companies ; be- sides that it enables Foremen to make out duplicate reports in case the original has been lost or destroyed. SHIPPING TRACK TOOLS. 51. Track Foremen, when shipping tools or send- GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 231 ing them to the repair shops, should always be par- ticular to secure them in a neat package, so that it would not be possible for any of them to be become separated or lost while in transit. The name and address of the repair shop foreman should be written plainly on the face of the shipping tag; on the back of the same tag, the Foreman should write his own name and address, together with a request that the tools be returned to him when repaired. A very convenient arrangement for securing tools together when shipping them, may be made by run- ning a piece of chain through the tools or around them, and locking with a spring key after passing one of the end links through one of the other links of the chain. The key should be flat and just wide enough to fit the links in the manner mentioned. Fine soft wire is superior to twine for securing tools or for tagging them. DISTANCE TO SET OUT DANGER SIGNALS. 52. Danger signals should be set out a distance of not less than three thousand fi% hundred feet in both directions from the point where the track is impassa- ble for trains. This distance can be measured by counting one hundred and seventeen thirty -foot rail lengths, in the direction you are going to set out the signals; or when the telegraph poles are one hundred and fifty feet apart, the signals may be set out twenty- three telegraph poles distant each way from the point of danger. When flagging at obscure places, or in the vicinity of descending grades, w r here it is difficult to stop a train, the distance to set signals must be doubled or the telegraph operator at the next station should be 232 THE TEACKMAN'S HELPER. informed, so trains could be held until track was cleared and safe for their passage. Where there is a sufficient force of men, and it is practicable, the flag- man should remain out with the signals until the track is repaired, or the train is stopped. In all cases during a snow storm, in foggy weather, or at night, the flagman must remain out with the signals until all danger is passed. When the track has been re- paired, and made safe for trains, the flags, torpedoes, or other signals should be removed immediately. ALWAYS KEEP SIGNALS WITH YOU. 53. A Track Foreman should always keep on his hand car, ready for instant use, a full supply of tor- pedoes, red flags, or red lanterns, so that if any accident should render the track unsafe for the pas- sage of trains, he would be prepared to protect them promptly. Flagmen sent out to patrol the track should not be allowed to proceed without having with them all the necessary signals to stop trains. The Fore- man should instruct tJ^m thoroughly in their duties, as he is responsible for them. The first duty of a Track Foreman when he finds a dangerous place in the track, no matter whether it is on his section or not, is to set out stop signals at once; he should then go in the direction from which the next train is expected, and report the trouble at the nearest telegraph office. TIME CARDS AND RULES. 54. A Track Foreman should keep well posted on the time of all regular trains passing over his section. He should also study and understand thoroughly all the rules of the company, for which he*is working, GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 233 that relate to his work; and if in doubt about anything, ask an explanation of it from a superior officer. Read over all the rules on the time card at every time a new card is issued on your road. NOTE OF FLAGS. 55. Whenever it is necessary for a Foreman to use flags, instruct the man who goes to set the flag out, how to place it. Set slow flag on the engineer's side of train coining towards the place for which you are flagging; set the flag slightly leaning so that most of it can easily be seen, and set it just far enough from the rail to clear engine and cars. A slow signal should be set out one-half mile or about ninety 30-feet rail lengths. STOP SIGNALS. 56. When a red flag or red light is used as a signal to stop a train, it should be set in the center of the track. Two torpedoes should be used together with the red signal day or night. The torpedoes should be placed sixty feet apart upon the rail, on the same side of the track, between the' red signal and the approaching train. LOOK OUT FOR SIGNALS. 57. Foremen sh ould always look for signals on all passing trains. Another section of the same train which has passed, or a special, may be following close behind; and the Track Foreman and his men should be fully informed, and keep well posted as to the meaning of all signals displayed on passing trains. OBSTRUCTING THE TRACK. 58. Track Foremen should never attempt to use the track so as to obstruct a regular train. All work 234 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. which would make the track unsafe for trains should be finished, and the track ready before a regular train is due from the nearest station in either direction from where you are working. When working close to a station, Foremen should have the track safe and clear at least fifteen minutes before a train is due. No work, which would make a track unsafe, should be done on the time of a delayed passenger train, except in case of emergency, and then the Foreman himself, or a trusty man, should be out in the direc- tion of the expected train, and take every precaution necessary to protect the train by proper signals Always instruct the man who goes to flag a train in foggy weather, or during a snow storm, that, in case he finds it very difficult to attract the attention of the engineer or firemen on the approaching train, after they have passed his signal, he should, in some other manner, make known to the trainmen the presence of danger, unless an effort has been made to stop the train before it passes him. REPLACE SIGNALS. 59. Trackmen finding danger signals along the track should leave them in the same position as found, and if the signals are injured so as to be unsafe, they should be replaced by good signals of the same kind, or a man should be left to guard the point. It is the duty of a Track Foreman, if he finds danger signals, to go forward and ascertain their cause, and to give assistance with his men, if the trainmen require their services. INJURED SIGNALS. 60. All sign signals placed along the track GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 235 for the guidance of Trackmen or others, (when injured or broken) should be repaired at once, and placed in position by the Trackmen; and if they are destroyed or rendered useless, the Foreman should at once make requisition on the Roadmaster for new ones. COMPLY WITH THE RULES. 61. Section Foremen or others should use all signals strictly in compliance With the rules of the road governing their use. Never set out a danger signal at a shorter distance than that which is speci- fied in the rules of the road as correct, because a serious accident may be the result, if a train cannot be stopped in time. LOCATION OF WHISTLING POSTS AND SIGNS. 62. Station whistling posts should be set one-half mile outside the switches, not from the depot, and'on the engineer's side, the right hand side of the track to one approaching the station. Station mile boards should also be set one mile outside the switches, on the same side of the track as the whistling post. These two signs are used to w r arn the trainmen of the near approach to a station, that they may be able to get the train fully under control before reaching the station. The yard tracks at all railroad stations extend some distance each way from the depot. It will not do to place the signs above mentioned at the distance stated from the depot, for the reason that in big yards they would often be inside the switches. Whistling posts for highway crossings should be set one-fourth of a mile from the crossing, on the engineer's side of the track. Whistling posts or signs 236 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. of any description should never be placed in a cut if it is possible to avoid it. It is always better to in- crease or diminish the distance to get them out of the cut. The distance should always be increased where there is a down grade, or when the law requires cer- tain signs to be placed a specified number of feet or rods. This rule should also apply on sharp curve's. All signs, which have a painted cross board on top of a post, should be set with the cross board at right angles to the track, so that the sign can be plainly seen by the trainmen for whom it was intended. The cross board on highway crossing signs should be parallel with the track, so that persons approaching thetrack from either side on the wagon road can see and read the painted sign. All posts and signs should be set firmly in the ground, and so far from the track, that if knocked down or blown over, they would not fall upon it. Never set any signs in a leaning or twisted position. Highway crossing signs should be set far enough away from the center of the wagon road, so that wagons loaded with bulky material, such as hay or straw, would not strike the sign post or the cross arm at the top of them. TRAIN'S DISRESPECT OF DANGER SIGNALS. 63. Section Foremen should report promptly to the Roadmaster any failure on the part of trainmen to honor danger signals set out by himself or his men. If an engineer fails to whistle for brakes, and runs at a high speed past the point for which you have set out a slow flag or if a train runs past a dangerous place before stopping, for which you set out the necessary stop signals, you must report all the facts GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 237 to the Headmaster without delay, giving the engine and train number, and the time they passed the place where you were working. Foremen should not over- look any neglect of duty by the trainmen in this matter. Always remember that the safety of trains, and the lives of passengers and employes depends in a great measure upon a strict compliance with the company's rules. LOOK OUT FOR TRAINS. 64. Section Foremen should always keep a sharp lookout for trains while working on track, while using hand cars, or while transferring material from one track to another on cars. Never trust too much in this matter to the men, as they are not held responsi- ble for accidents. To be on the safe side, a Foreman should always be expecting a train, then he will be prepared for all extra trains or specials, of which he has no previous notice. ALWAYS BE PREPARED. 65. Whenever it is necessary for a Foreman to go to a wreck or washout, or to assist at any kind of work which calls him away from his own regular work, he should be prepared, having lanterns ready to light, tools all on the car, tape line in his pocket, etc Don't start out half equipped with tools. When you find a place to fix up or repair, and there is need of tools, which you have not with you, you will have to send after them, perhaps delaying trains for an hour or more because of your carelessness. Don't go out on track and discover a broken rail, and at the same time find that everything necessary for repairing it is on hand, except chisels, and they are at your tool house, seven or eight miles away. A Foreman who is 238 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. careless in these matters, is generally so in everything else he does, although he may hold his position for a time. The Headmaster has him marked down as poor material, and will always remove him as soon as he can put a better man in his place. HAND CAR AND TOOL HOUSES. 66. The hand car and tool houses of Track Fore- men should be kept outside the switches at yards, or wherever is the most convenient place. They should be located so that the men can get to and from work without being delayed by trains standing on the tracks. Tool and hand car houses and track supplies of any kind should always be placed a sufficient distance from the track, so that they will not obstruct the view of the trainmen, or be likely in case of accident to fall on or near the track. TELEGRAPH OFFICE REPORT. 67. Where a Section Foreman's headquarters is located at a station, he should report at the telegraph office for orders and inquire for messages before going out to work every morning, and immediately after working hours in the evening. REMOVING HAND CARS FROM CROSSINGS. 68. No material of any kind should ever be piled or placed on a highway where it crosses the track. Section Foremen or others should never take off their hand or push cars and leave them on the highway or private wagon crossings unless it is absolutely neces- sary to do so to get out of the way of a passing train. The car should then be immediately put back on the track, and removed to a proper distance from the high- way. Section Foremen should provide places along GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 239 their sections, at convenient distances not less than 100 feet from highways or crossings, where they can take off their hand or push cars, and leave them when necessary. Obstructing highways by leaving thereon track material, hand cars, etc., has been the cause of numerous accidents, and claims for damages against railroad companies. THROWING SWITCHES. 69. Track Foremen should not be in the habit of throwing switches for trivial reasons. Although it is the custom on most railroads to allow Section Fore- men to carry a switch key, they should not abuse this right by unlocking and throwing switches to move a hand or push car without a load from one track to another, or to accommodate trainmen who should do this work themselves. Hand cars and push cars, with a light load, can as well be moved from one track to another, where the rails come close together, without throwing the switch. Men employed on the section should not be trusted to throw a switch, except in the presence of the Foreman. When a switch has been thrown on a side track, the person throwing it should not leave it until after throwiny the switch back again on the main track and locking it. Any Foreman who would throw, or allow others to throw a switch from the main track, and leave it in that position while performing a piece of work, or until it suited his convenience to throw it back, should be discharged; and he would be criminally liable if any accident should happen through his carelessness. Those intrusted with the operation of switches cannot be too careful. 240 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. LEAVING HAND CARS ON TRACK. 70. Some Track Foremen have a habit of leaving hand or push cars on the track, while cutting weeds or doing other work which requires frequent moving from place to place. This should not be done. The main track should be kept clear at all times, except when Trackmen must occupy it to do necessary re- pairs; at such times or when moving loads of material on cars, Foremen should protect themselves with proper danger signals. Foremen should not leave hand cars on side tracks as they are liable to be smashed by trains switching, and cause a wreck at the same time- LOANING TOOLS, CARS, ETC. 71. Track Foremen should never loan to persons outside of the company's service any tools, hand car, velocipede car, push car, or track material of any kind which is intrusted to their care, without per- mission of their superior officers. Foremen them- selves or their men should not use hand cars, veloci- pede cars, etc., on the track outside of regular work- ing hours, unless in the company's service, or with permission from the Roadmaster. Foremen who adhere strictly to this rule are very seldom requested by outside parties to grant them any privileges, and thereby save themselves an- noyance. Track Foremen should remember that company material of any kind, no matter how value- less it may appear to them, is still the company's property \ and that they have no right to appropriate it for their own use, or to sell it to others, without authority from their superior officers. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 241 DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF TIES. 72. On a railroad where different varieties of ties are used in the track, the softer kind of wood should be used in straight track, and the hard wood ties should be used in the curves, and in sags between heavy grades where the speed of trains is very fast. If hard wood ties can be procured for a curve track they should not be mixed with soft wood ties in the same track, because the rails will in the course of time cut a bed in the soft wood ties, and thereby affect the surface of the track*. At the end of bridges and under switches are also good places to use hard wood ties, where they can be furnished for that pur- pose. White cedar is the best soft wood tie; white oak the best hard wood tie. CARE OF TOOLS. 73. The following instructions in regard to the proper care and handling of shovels, claw bars, cold chisels, etc., are only given to bring to the notice of Track Foremen the necessity of looking after all of their tools, either in or out of service, and to see that they are not needlessly damaged or destroyed. Care- less workmen are liable to injure track tools in numerous ways not mentioned in these pages, but which an intelligent Foreman can see in time and prevent. HAND CARS, ETC. 74. Hand cars, push cars, and velocipedes, should be oiled regularly, the axle and other boxes kept tight and care should be taken to have them ready for service at any time when needed. A good, light, easy running hand car savas labor, and Foremen should 242 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER* not injure their hand cars by hauling loads of rails on them. It may sometimes be necessary to take one or two rails on a hand car to save time, in case of a broken rail or wreck. In such a case, balance the rail lengthway on the car, and keep it as close as possible to the side of the car. SHOVELS. 75. Shovels, more than all other track tools used on a railroad, figure as a large item in the expense of general track repair. Track Foremen should be very particular to instruct their men not to hold up the ends of ties with a shovel, nor to space ties in track with it, nor to stick the corners of a shovel blade in a tie to pull it under the rails, etc., and, in fact, not to use the shovels in any way that will strain or break them. The greater number of the old shovels which are thrown away as useless, could have been made to do good service a much longer time if handled properly. COLD CHISELS. 76. Cold chisels, when first dressed by the black- smith, are not always of a good temper at the point. Track Foremen should handle a cold chisel carefully when cutting the first rail with it. If it gets slightly blunted at the point, or a chip comes off from it, put it on the grind stone and grind it true, after which a chisel, which was hard before the grinding, will often cut a large number of rails before it is necessary to send it to the shop again. USE OF CLAW B^ES. 77. Claw bars should not be used between the bottom of the rails and track ties to spring up the rails or raise track. Using c?aw bars the above way, GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 243 especially in frosty weather, frequently breaks off the claws on the end used for pulling spikes. Such breaks are difficult to repair, and if that end of the bar is a combination of iron and steel it is likely that enough of the steel will break off to render the bar useless. LINING BAKS. 78. Lining bars should be made as light as possi- ble; just so strong that one man can not either bend or break a bar when pulling track to line. Foremen should not allow the men to use the small end of a lining bar in the ground when pulling track, and when not using them the men should stand up all bars with one end in the ground in hot weather, or keep them in the shade. This keeps the bars cool so that men can comfortably handle them; it also does away with the necessity of hunting through the grass for bars, when they are wanted to use or to take home. RAIL PUNCHES. 79. If rail punches are used to make bolt holes in a rail, the work can be done quicker and as well with the punch alone, as with the aid of the cold chisel if it is possible, always punch the bolt holes in a rali before cutting it, as old rails which are cut first, and punched afterwards, are liable to split under the ball of the rail. When a rail drill can be procured to bore the holes in a rail, never use a rail punch, and bore all the holes necessary to full bolt the joint. THE PLACE FOR TOOLS. 80. Foremen should bring home every night and put in the tool house all tools which they have been 244 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. using on track during the day. Never leave tools out on the section. Unscrupulous persons who live near the track or who may pass along there are very apt to appropriate any tools which they find along the track. Any loss of track tools should be reported by Fore- men to the Roadmaster. CUTTING STEEL. 81. Whenever it is necessary to cut steel rails, Track Foremen should instruct the men how to do it properly. All steel or iron rails should be cut as accurately as possible as to length, and allowance for expansion should be deducted from the length of the rail. No careless work should ever be allowed, such as cutting the rail one -inch or more short of the proper length. The line of the chisel cut around the rail should be continuous and square across the rail. Iron rails, as a general rule, need to be cut deeper than steel before they will break off. Hard steel, if cut deep, is liable to become tough at the cut, and will sometimes break off on either side of the cut, leaving a bad unshapely end on the rail. To break off a rail at the cut, lift up the rail at the end nearest to the cut, and let the cut place fall over a piece of rail laid on a tie, or some- thing solid across the track rails. Short pieces to be cut from rails may be broken off with the sledge. When cutting rails or punching them, Trackmen should not use a spike maul to strike the chisel or punch, because this destroys the face of the spike maul, and splits pieces from the head of steel tools, making them worthless in a short time. A good sledge made on purpose for striking hard steel tools should be one of the tools on every section, and should GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 245 be taken in preference to any other tool of the kind whenever necessity requires its use. THE BALLAST IN YARDS. 82. The yard track at all stations inside the switch- es should be dressed off level with the top of the ties, both inside and outside of the track rails. When there is enough ballast the shoulder should be level and of sufficient width to allow trainmen or passeng- ers room to walk along outside the ties. Where yard tracks are close together no rubbish, or obstructions of any kind, should be placed on the space between them, or allowed to remain there. EXECUTE PROMPTLY. 83. When the Foreman receives an order from the Roadmaster to do any special piece of work, he should do it at once, and finish it up in the manner in which he is instructed. It is of the greatest importance that Track Foremen adhere strictly to this rule. Never let work wait to suit your convenience, nor do any work in a way contrary to that in which you are ordered to do it. PROTECT AGAINST FIRES. 84. In the fall of the year when the weeds and grass along the right of way have become dead and dry, Section Foremen should take every precaution to protect the company's property, and that of per- sons living near the track, from damage by fire. Fire started by sparks from locomotives, or from other unknown sources should be looked after at once and extinguished. Do not cease your efforts until you are sure all danger is past. All wooden structures, bridges, culverts, etc., should be examined as often as 246 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. you pass them and any combustible matter which may be close to the timbers should be removed. Be particular, when burning rubbish or grass along the right of way, to always work with a favorable wind. Run no risks, and if you see a doubtful smoke along the track, take your men, go to it at once, and find out what has caused it. THE CURVING HOOK. 85. Where curving machines are not furnished, the curving hook is a very handy tool, and there should be one kept on every section. With it and a track level, a Foreman can straighten rails or curve them, and also remove a surface bend from a rail weighing less than 65 pounds per yard. The following is the manner of using it: Place two ties across the track nearly a rail apart, lay the rail upon the two ties, attach your curving hook to the track rail between two of the track ties, place the end of the lever in the curving hook, and press it down on the rail to be curved or straightened. A third tie or block is used to put under the rail to be curved, when the bend is short. The tie on either end is moved up closer to take out a kink without affecting the balance of the rail. To remove a surface bend from a rail, the rail should be placed work- way on the top of the ties above mentioned, and under the lever, just as when a rail is being curved. REPORT STOCK KILLED. 86. All stock killed or injured, and found lying on the right of way by the Foreman, should be reported promptly to the Headmaster. Section Foremen should always report the stock killed or injured, whether GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 247 they were struck by a passing train or died from natural causes. It is the duty of Foremen to make an examination of the body of the animal found, find the owner if possible, and get the age and cash value of the animal. If it was struck by a train, give engine number, train number and time of the accident, if you know it. In your report give all other informa- tion which is likely to be of any value to the com- pany you are working for. If the owner of a dead animal does not remove it from the right of way, the Section Foreman should take his men and bury the carcass after investigating the cause of acci- dent, etc. Foremen have no right to appropriate to their own use (or to allow others to do so) the carcass or hide of any animal killed along the track. DAMAGE BY FIRE. 87. When property along the right of way has been destroyed or damaged by fire, the Section Fore- man should go to such place at once, examine the ground thoroughly, measure the distance from the center of the track to where the fire started, find the value of the property destroyed, make out an itemized estimate in his report; and also state the direction of the wind when the fire was burning, and give a true account of everything as far as he knows. Do not accept the statement of others until you know them to be correct. BE CAREFUL OF MATERIAL. 88. When a Track Foreman lays or extends a piece of track, as soon as he has finished the job he should have every loose spike, bolt splice, etc., picked 248 THE TKACKMAN'S HELPER. up and taken care of. Track material lying around where a gang of men have been working, is very good evidence that the Foreman is careless about his work and wasteful of the company's property. If loose bolts or spikes were picked up and taken care of until used, many thousands of dollars would be saved for the company in a year. PICK UP SCATTERED MATERIAL. 89. Never allow old iron taken out of track, old ties, broken brakes, links, pins, etc., to accumulate on your section. Bring them into the station and ship to the points designated by the Roadmaster, all except what is needed for use on your section. DO FIRST WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. 90. A Track Foreman should always have his work planned ahead. By giving close attention to the track, as he passes over it daily each way, a Foreman will always be able to see what needs to be repaired most, and it is hardly necessary to say here that such work should be done at once. Do not ride over the same low joint every day, a joint one-half inch out of gage or line, or pass the same broken joint tie or bolt hanging loose in the splices expecting to fix such places the next week or waiting until the Headmaster calls your attention to these things. The longer you wait, the more these little odd jobs increase in num- ber, and at about the time you have set to do them you are called off to some place else. The work still increases during your absence, and in this manner things go on the year round. You are always behind, always worried; you think the Roadmaster hard because he urges you to hurry; you make excuses for GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 249 yourself, as for instance, that you were putting up a nice piece of track some where else on the section. But always remember that if you had ten miles of the best track in the country, all good track except one rail length, and that rail was dangerous, the balance of your section, no matter how good, would not save a train from getting wreck* d, nor you from the blame that would justly fall upon you. In no other line of business does the old saying apply with greater force than on a railroad: "Never put off till tomorrow what should be done today." HOW TO DO WORK. 91. Experience will teach a Foreman that the sec- ret of keeping a good track on his section lies in doing all work well. Slight no work. Do not surface up track to make a big show for the present, but surface it as fast as it can be done to make track that will remain good a long time. Very smooth track, well lined and gaged, will stay good sometimes for years without much repairing. On the other hand, track that might be called good, with an occasional slight dip in the surface, if there is much traffic over it, will soon be bad track; because, where quarters or joints are only one quarter of an inch low after the track is surfaced, the weight of an engine or loaded cars strike such low places with great force, and gradually in- crease the depression until the track becomes very rough and dangerous. If not cared for, low places in track knock out of gage and line besides getting low. The same method of doing work will not answer always. Foremen should adopt a method of doing work that will give the best resnilts with the kind of material furnished. 250 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. If there is only dirt for ballast, don't always be telling what good track you could have with gravel or rock, but see how good a track can be made with dirt for a ballast. FOREMEN ON DUTY. 92. When on duty, the Foreman should always be with his men and assist them in doing the work. It is his duty also to instruct his men by word and ex- ample as to the proper manner of performing all the different kinds of work in which they are together engaged. ADOPT THE BEST METHOD. 93. If you can improve on the old method of doing any kind of work, when you are not satisfied with the results of a trial, adopt a new plan. When you do any kind of work on track, and it does not give satisfaction, always try to find the remedy for its defects. Do not say it can't be done, but remember that a man who finds himself in a difficult position, if he has good judgment and a lively brain, can work out some of the most difficult problems without any previous knowlege of them. Never take a slow method to do any kind of work that you can do as well in a quicker way. Don't forget that the world moves, but move with it. Try to learn something from the experience of others who are successful in the same profession as yours. A trifle of time gained soon amounts to a day, month or year, if multiplied many times. Take for example two men spiking track, one strikes across the rail when his partner tacks the spike in the tie, then both finish driving their own spikes. Another man tacks his spike, and does all the driving on it himself without striking across the rail. On GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 251 every spike he drives, the first man gains two motions which the second man loses, and at the end of a hard day's work the first spiker will be a long distance ahead of the second man, and with considerable less labor; although to the inexperienced onlooker there would be no perceptible difference in their methods of working. Take for another instance the case of two Foremen putting new ties in the track. One removes all the dirt or ballast from the center of the track to the out- side of the rails in order to get a number of ties into track at once; the other Foreman moves the material in the center of track back upon the new ties as fast as he putsintwo or three; and by that method the latter Foreman saves himself and his men the labor of shov- eling many yards of ballast from outside the track rails to fill the center of the track. To bring a sec- tion of track up to anything like perfection, the Fore- man in charge of it must look closely after all the work in its minutest details, and allow nothing to go undone which would contribute towards improving the track. None but careless Foremen will line up one side of a track well and then leave it without tak- ing the kinks out of the gage side at the same time. A careless Foreman will put a new tie into track without taking up to surface a low joint close to it. He will cut weeds past a joint with a bolt broken out of it without putting in a new bolt. He will make a trip over the section, and never notice a break in a fence, or if he does note it, will wait until he is notified by the Headmaster to fix it. It is likely that you will find the same Foreman surfacing *a piece of track without using a spirit level on it. Such a man is not fit to make a good laborer much 252 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. less a Foreman; and the piece of road in his charge will soon run down if he be not discharged, and re- placed by a Foreman who has a desire to improve the track whenever he does work on it. The work of a careless Foreman puts the Roadmaster to watching him, because he informs on himself every day, while the careful, industrious Foreman makes a good, per- manent job wherever he works, and the result is a first class track where recently may have been a very rough section. WRECKING. CHAPTEK IX. 1, Wrecking 2, On the Ground 3, To Square a Car Truck 4, When a Center Pin Cannot be Used 5, Without an Engine 6, Cars Off on Ties 7, Oil the Rail 8, Broken Switches 9, Car Trucks in the Ditch 10, To Con- nect Broken Chains 11, To Turn a Car Truck on Soft Ground 12. To Put a Wrecked Gravel Plow Back on Cars 13, Sliding a Car on a Tie 14, Loaded Wrecked Cars 15, Broken Center Pins 16, Pulling on a Chain or Rope 17, A Dead Man 18, Wrecked Engines 19, How to Work at a Wreck. 1. The first duty of a track Foreman when he receives a notice that there has been an accident, and he is wanted there, is to collect his men and take his hand car, and all his portable tools, even those which he thinks he is not ilkely to use. He should not go- short of tools expecting that the other Foreman there will have enough . The other Foreman may think the same, and valuable time will be lost by the want of forethought of both. ON THE GROUND. 2. When a Track Foreman arrives at the scene of accident, he should proceed immediately to do what- ever work, in his judgment, would contribute most to putting the track in a passable condition for other trains, notwithstanding the absence of his superior officers, who may not be able to reach the wreck for several hours. If the track is torn up, and the cars do not interfere, put in ties enough to carry a train 254 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. safely over where you can. If the rails are bent out of shape secure some from near by, if it is possible. If this cannot be done, get as many as possible of the damaged rails to their proper shape, and spike down in the track. If a small bridge or culvert has given away, crib it with ties until you can cross it with track. If you cannot procure ties along your section, and many are not needed, remove a part of the ties from the track where it is full tied, and where it will leave a suffi- cient number in the track to make it safe for the pas- sage of trains. In the same manner, if you are short of bolts and spikes and too much time would be lost by going after them, borrow some from track where they can be spared and fix track to let trains pass. TO SQUARE A CAR TRUCK. 3. If one or both trucks beneath a car should leave the track at once and turn across it, as is often the case, uncouple from the car and hitch a switch rope to the corner of the truck and to the draw head of the car next to the one which is off the track. Then pull the truck into a position parallel to the track, after which it can be put on the rails with the wrecking frogs. If the car should be loaded very heavily, it might be advisable to raise the end with jacks before squar- ing the truck. If the right man undertakes this job, the train need not be delayed over thirty minutes. WHEN A CENTER PIN CANNOT BE USED. 4. Sometimes when a car leaves the track, the cen- ter pin breaks, or is so badly bent that it cannot be WRECKING. 255 used again. This often happens on the road when there is nothing at hand to remove the crooked pin. In such a case, if the car is empty, or not heavily loaded, it is best to roll the truck from beneath the car off the track, and haul the car into the station carefully supported on that end by the regular coup- ling pin and link. When the ends of a broken center pin do not pro- ject, the end of a car can be jacked up, the truck placed in position, and the end of the car again allowed to rest in its place on the truck, after which, if watched carefully, the car can be hauled a long distance. WITHOUT AN ENGINE. 5. It often happens that a car gets off the track in such a place that it is impossible to get the help of an engine to pull it on again without considerable delay When a case of this kind occurs, and there are other cars on the track near by, take the car nearest to the one off the track, and couple the two together with a chain, or a rope long enough to give plenty of slack. Then get together what men are available, and push the car which is 011 the track close to the wrecked car. When you are ready to pull the wrecked car upon the track, start the car which is coupled to it away from it as fast as the men can push it. The jerk, when the slack of the line is taken up, will pull the car on the track as well as an engine can do it. If you have men enough, use for the motive power two or more cars, if necessary. This is what is called "slacking a car onto track." CARS OFF ON TIES. 6. When cars have got off the track, and are still 256 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. on the ties, it is best to put blocks or ties between those in the track to keep the wheels from sinking between the ties. By doing this at once, before attempting to put the cars back on the track, will generally save considerable time and labor. OIL THE RAIL. 7. If an engine or car mounts the outside rail of a sharp curve, and persist in running off the track, oil the rails thoroughly where the most trouble is expe- rienced. This will generally allow the engine or car to go around the curve without leaving the track. Very rusty rails on a curve track, which has not been used for some time, often causes the wheel to mount the outside rail of a curve, the surface not being smooth enough to allow the wheels to slide. BROKEN SWITCHES. 8. If at any time, you find the connecting rod of a stub switch broken, or you want to use the 'switch and have no switch stand, slip a car link between the ends of the lead rails, allowing enough of it to project to hold the ends of the moving rails in place, or take a piece of plank of the right shape, and use it in the same way as the link. This is better CAR TRUCKS IN THE DITCH. 9. When the car trucks are thrown some distance from the track in a wreck, the quickest method of putting them on the track again, if you have no derrick car, is to take bars and turn them almost parallel to the track, but with one end a little the closest to the track. Hitch a rope to this end of the truck, and to the engine, or the nearest car which is coupled to- the engine, and the truck will pull onto WKECKING. 257 the track easily, if there is nothing to obstruct its passage. TO CONNECT BROKEN CHAINS. 10 A link made of iron or steel, and fashioned after the pattern shown in Fig. 31, is very handy to have when at a wreck, pulling cars or engines with a chain. If a chain breaks the two broken ends can be brought together, and fixed in this link as if held with a grab hook. FIG. 31. TO TUKN A CAB TRUCK ON SOFT GROUND. 11. When car trucks are sunk in soft ground at a wreck, and thfre is no derrick car or other lifting ap- paratus at hand, a good way to handle them is to place a tie cross way in the ground, about four or five feet from the truck, then place two more long ties or timbers, with their centers resting across the first tie, and their ends in front of the truck wheels. The truck can then be pushed up on top of the long ties as if on a track. When it is centered over the bottom tie, the truck can be easily turned to run in any di- rection. TO PUT A WRECKED GRAVEL PLOW BACK ON CARS 12. Trackmen in charge of a ballasting outfit if they are new at the business, are often at a loss to know the quickest way to put a plow back on the cars, if it should accidentally be pulled off on the ground. The best way to do in such a case is to roll the plow or 258 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. pull it with the engine and cable into the same position on the track that it would occupy on the cars ; then raise up the snout of the plow until you can back the end of r car under it, hook the end of the cable to the plow, block the car wheels and pull the plow on to the car with the engine. SLIDING A CAR ON A TIE. 13. If the hind truck of any kind of a car should by accident be derailed, broken, or rendered useless, the car could be taken to the next station by uncoup- ling it from the cars behind it. Remove the disabled truck from the track ; then take the caboose jacks and raise the body of the car enough to slip a tie under it across the track rails ; let the car down upon the tie, and by running carefully the car can be hauled to the station or side track, sliding on the tie. If sliding the disabled car on a tie is not practical, it is often a good way to block up both ends of the car on ties and move the forward truck under the other end of car and haul it to station with one end resting on the coupling; or put another truck under the forward end, that being the most convenient way in some cases. LOADED WRECKED CARS. 14. It is always best, when a wrecked car is loaded, to remove the load, or transfer it to another car on the good track. Outfits starting to go to a wreck should provide themselves with all tools and appliances nec- essary for this purpose. BROKEN CENTER PINS. 15. Car-truck center pins, which have been twisted or broken in a wreck, may be removed by going WRECKING. 259 inside the car, and cutting away with a hammer and cold chisel the iron ring which forms the head and shoulder of the pin. The pin may then be driven down through the bottom of the car. There should always be a man on hand at a wreck to look efter such jobs, and promptly remove all bro- ken break-beams, hanging irons, etc., so as not to de- lay the work after the cars are picked up, or ready to be put upon the track. PULLING ON A CHAIN OR ROPE. 16. When pulling on a chain or rope with a loco- motive at a wreck, care should be taken not to have too much slack, as chains break easily. The same is true of switch ropes, but when they are new or not much worn, they will stand a greater slack strain than a chain will. Wire cables are preferable to either a chain or a rope, for pulling, and they will stand a much greater slack strain, if not allowed to become twisted out of shape. There is always danger of chains or switch ropes breaking when engines are pulling on them at a wreck, and those working near should not be allowed to stand too close to them. A DEAD MAN. 17. What is generally termed "a dead man" is a device sometimes used to anchor a guy or stay ropej where wrecking cars, engines or derricks have to do very heavy hoisting or pulling. It is made by digging a trench five or six feet deep, at a proper distance from the track and parallel to it. A narrow cross trench is then dug, slanting upward from the bottom and middle of the first trench, to the surface of the 260 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. ground. A good track tie or heavy timber is then buried in the first trench, and the rope is passed down through the cross trench and secured to the timber WRECKED ENGINES.* 18. The first thing to do with a wrecked engine, if the frame is good, is to take jacks and put the en- gine in an upright position, such as it would occupy if standing on the main track. It may then be blocked up and raised sufficiently to place under it rails and ties, forming a temporary track. The main track should then be cut at a rail joint, and lined out in an easy curve until the ends of the rails are in line with the temporary track. The tracks should then be con- nected and the engine pulled upon the main track. If the engine stands at such an angle as to require a very sharp curve in the track over which it is pulled, put plenty of oil on the track rails, and elevate the outside rail of the curve. If the engine is only off the rails, and still on the track ties, additional rails may be spiked down to the ties in front of the wheels like a switch lead, and con- nected with a pair of the track rails. The engine may be pulled on again over this lead and the main track closed. This method is quicker and better, for putting a derailed engine . on the track when more than one truck is off the rails, than using frogs or blocking. HOW TO WORK AT A WRECK. 19. The first thing to do at any wreck of import- * When there is a wreck of any giv at importance, such as is liable to delay traffic on a line for a considerable period, if it is possible, a track should be laid around the wreck, and should it be difficult to secure the necetsary material for such purpose within a reasonable time, it might be well to take up the nearest side track and use the material for the purpose mentioned. WKECKING. 261 ance, where cars block the main track, is to use the first locomotive which can be put into service, and with switch ropes pull clear of the tracks all cars, trucks, or other wreckage which cannot be readily put back on the track with the facilities at hand for doing such work. Proper care should be taken, in doing this part of the work, not to injure freight in the cars. When necessary, remove it from the wrecked cars to a place of safety, and pull the cars and trucks into a position alongside the track, where it will be handy for the wrecking car to pick them up after it arrives. The moment the track is clear of wreckage, the track force should go to work and repair it, and quickly put it in good condition for trains. Track Foremen should not allow their men to become confused or mixed up with the other gangs of men which are present at a wreck, except when it is necessary for more than one gang of men to work together ; even then the Foreman should keep his own men as much together as possible, so as to always be able to control their actions and work them to the best advantage. No matter what- part of the work at a wreck a Fore- man is called upon to do, he should act promptly, and work with a will to get the wreck cleared up, and the track ready for the passage of trains with as little delay as possible. MISCELLANEOUS. CHAPTEK X. 1, Work Train Service 2, To Whom Responsible 3, Track Inspection 1, Longer Rails 5, Hints to Section Foremen 6, Section Record 7, Aver- age Day's Work for One Man 8, Track Bolts 9, Spikes 10, Number of Spikes 11, Tons of Rails Required for One Mile of Track -12, Number of Cross Ties Required for Each Mile of Track 13, Length of Rail and Nnmber of Joints, Jsplices, and Bolts, for Each Mile of Track 14, Weight per Yard, per 30 Foot Rail, and Tons per Mile 15, Lumber Table 16, Standards of Weights and Measures 17, Speed Table for Trains 18, Table of Wages on a Basis of 10 Hours per Day 19, Table of Wages, 1 cent to $2.00 for any part of 30 days. WORK TRAIN SERVICE. 1. Trackmen who are in charge of work train gangs should make it their business to keep the men em- ployed whenever the train is delayed in the regular work. There is always plenty of work along the track at any point. A good Foreman will have his work laid out ahead, so there will not be any delays, except those which are unavoidable. When possible, it is always best to put a good prac- tical workman in charge of a gang of men on a work train. It is poor economy to have an inexperienced trainman in charge of a work train and a large crew of men, as is often the case. When the position of Foreman over the men and Conductor of the work- train is held by one person, the preference should be given to a Trackman if competent to run the train, or MISCELLANEOUS. 263 to a man who has some experience in both branches of the service. TO WHOM RESPONSIBLE. 2. Work train Conductors and Foremen of gravel pits, or of steam shovel outfits, should receive their working orders from, and be strictly responsible to the Roadmaster, on whatever division of the road they are working at the time. Work train Conductors should report daily to the Roadmaster on blank forms furnished for that purpose, and, if required, they should also report to the Division Superintendent. They should also make a lay up report to the Train Dispatcher every evening after quitting for the day, and inform him where the train will work the follow- ing day. Work trains should always lay up over night at a telegraph station. Conductors of work trains should see that the axle boxes of all the cars in their trains are properly packed, and oiled as often as necessary, and that all defects in rolling stock or track, where the train is working, are repaired. All accidents to cars, and any- thing which would interfere with or delay the work should be reported promptly to the Roadmaster or Superintendent, so that they may be quickly reme- died. TRACK INSPECTION. 3. There should be a well organized system of track inspection in force on every railroad, and it should be made efficient in proportion to the amount of traffic arid the condition of the track. , On roads where only ten trains a day or less pass over track, an arrangement could be made to have 264 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. the Section Foreman, on days on which his work would not call him to the end of his section, send a man over to examine the track from whatever point the gang were working and whenever there would be economy in it, the hand car could be run to the end of the section in preference to sending a man over on foot. The writer does not believe it is good policy to force the Section Foreman to go over all his track daily, on long sections, during the summer months, when there is but few trains and plenty of work for him to do with a small crew of men. But in case of storms all track should be examined day or night. When a railroad is double tracked, or there is a large number of trains daily over a single track, a regular track-walker should be employed, whose busi- ness would be to go over the whole section once a day in each direction, and to be required to report to the Section Foreman, and also to the station agent or ope- rator, when there is a depot at both ends of section. The track-walker should so time his passage over the section as to be able to see all the track or at least the most dangerous points, a short time ahead of pass- enger trains; and when most of the trains run at night, his examination of tracks should be made alto- gether at night, the section crew or another track- walker looking after it in the daytime. During the winter months, when the ground is frozen solid, a rule obligating the Section Foreman to see all his section daily, should be strictly enforced, because at that time of year the danger of accidents is greater, and the amount of general track work that can be done is much less than at other seasons of the year. MISCELLANEOUS. 265 During extremely cold or stormy weather is just the time that track most needs to be examined, and in order to insure inspection of track at least once a day, I would recommend that, when it is not possible to run a hand car, the Section Foreman with one of his men be allowed to ride one way on trains, against the storm to the next station or to the end of his section and return back over the track on foot carrying what signals and tools would be necessary in case of an emergency. The conditions are so varied on different railroads and sometimes on small divisions of a railroad that the writer believes each company can best organize a system of track inspection which in the judgment of its officers would be best suited to its wants. The fore- going methods are only offered as suggestions from which something more useful might be designed. LONGER RAILS. 4. Why should the length of a track rail be only 30 feet if it can be demonstrated that there is econo- my in using a rail 36 feet in length or longer? A rail 12 yards long, 80 pounds to the yard, weighs less than 1,000 pounds, and as it does not require to be handled a second time until it has laid in the track a number of years, I think there can be but little objec- tion to the increase in the weight of a rail with regard to the handling; and further, when such a rail is taken out of the track after long service, to have the bat- tered ends sawed off, it would still make a good, long rail; far ahead of the cut steel rails which are used second hand nowadays. The use of rails 12 yards long will take one-sixth of the joints out of track, which means one hundred 266 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. miles of joints out of a track six hundred miles in length. This is no small item to consider, saving, as it does, 3,500 Ibs. of angle bar splices to the mile, and 360 bolts, not including those bolts used to replace broken ones during the life of the rails. There are also 360 nut locks saved per mile besides the labor required to put on these fastenings and keep the track in repair at the joints. Taking all things into account I think a big saving could be effected annually in the cost of maintaining any ordinary main track, and the amount which could be saved in the first cost would be more than a million dollars in laying all the tracks of one of the largest railroads. Every track- man knows that the rail joint requires more labor than any other part of the track, and for this reason alone I would advise making their number less. I think when considering the question, whether it is advisa- ble to use a longer track rail, the only objection of any consequence that could be raised, would be on account of expansion and contraction, and the extremes of temperature of the locality in which the rails are to be laid will determine to a great extent what should be the limit to the length of the track rail if used with the present joint fastenings. Investigation should be made to find out what is the greatest possible length of rail that may be used with- out injuriously affecting the track. I am of the opin- ion that a rail thirty-six feet long can be used with the joint fastenings now in use, in more than half of the United States, and where the extremes of temper- ature are within a range of one hundred degrees, a much longer rail may be used; for instance, below the frost line in the Southern States. MISCELLANEOUS. 267 The theory of a continuous track with the joints welded by electricity, and the expansion and contrac- tion controlled by split rails put in at intervals along the track, has many objections, as have also some other new methods which were proposed as a means of lessening the number of joints in tracks, while but few, if any, objections of any consequence can be brought against the method advocated in this book, and it seems to me there can be no question that such a rail will make a smoother riding and a safer track than one thirty feet long, and effect a great saving in first cost, labor and maintenance. HINTS TO SECTION FOREMEN. 5. Track Foremen should be respectful to his superior officers without being servile, and when talking or writing to them he should show a confi- dence in himself without making too mach of an exhibition of self conceit or stubbornness, either of which will only be awarded with their ridicule or con- tempt. A man who is placed over other men should have a will power strong enough to control them and maintain his authority without being either abusive or profane. To bulldoze an inferior is not the way to either instruct him or gain his respect. Foremen who can keep good men, and secure more men when wanted, are more valuable to a railroad company than those who frequently discharge men and who seldom have help when it is needed. Try to gain the respect of your men and you will have faithful workers. To do this it is not necessary that you be too familiar with them. If you have a man working for you who will not do the work as you instruct him, discharge him and get 268 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. some man who will. But do not work along in a groove, and think you have learned it all, and if any of your men suggest something which you know to be an improvement do not be ashamed to adopt it. Track Foremen should learn the habit of studying out the best method of doing each piece of work on which they are engaged, and when practicable have the work planned out before hand. The mind can often do more than the hands. A good Track Foreman will have a keen interest in his work, and be ambitious to show good results as well the last day he works for a company, as when he was first promoted from the shovel. Foremen who are not prompt in executing the orders of the Roadmaster, and who often do work in a way contrary to that in which they have been instructed, seldom hold a position long on any road. This kind of men, together with that class which frequent saloons and get drunk occasionally, consti- tute about nine-tenths of the Section Foremen who are discharged for cause. Headmasters very seldom discharge a Foreman for his want of knowledge about some particular piece of work, and they are always willing to give information as to the best method of doing work when asked for it. Whenever a Track Foreman begins to think his work is too hard and his pay is too small, or that the officers of the road are not using him right, he becomes careless and loses all interest in the work. That man should quit at once and go hunt a job in some other place where he might be better satisfied and appreciated. Every Track Foreman should make a continued effort to elevate his profession and make it respectable. Be MISCELLANEOUS. 269 sober, honest and industrious and you will be successful. SECTION RECORD. 6. I would like to call the attention of Trackmen generally, and especially Section Foremen, to the importance of keeping a record of everything con- nected with the piece of track in their charge. Every Foreman should know the length of his section, the amount of straight and curve track, the degree of every curve, the different brands of steel or iron rail, how much of each and -when laid. He should also know the number of cuts on his section and the amount of snow fence, if any, on each cut; the bridge and culverts numbers and highway or railroad cross- ings, and the distance they are from his headquarters; and many other facts of importance which are very valuable to assist, a man in organizing work, and making comparisons, also that he may be in a position to answer questions of his superior officers as to location of places and things without the necessity of making special examinations when the time cannot well be spared. The following example illustrates a simple form for condensing the information referred to, and is a handy way for Foremen to write it out on the pocket memorandum: 270 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. SECTION NO. 10. Length of Section 6 miles, 1,000 feet. " " north side track 1,600 " house track 1,800 " " south track.., . 1.000 " BRIDGE NO. NO. OF BENTS. LENGTH OF SPAN. DISTANCE FROM STATION. 50 51 52 3 8 Iron 30 feet 100 " 120 " 2 miles 2^ " 3M CULVERT NO. BOX. STONE. IRON PIPE. DISTANCE FROM STATION. 186 187 188 1 "Y" '.'.'.'.'.'. " 1 " 1% miles IM " 2^ " CUTS, LENGTH IN FEET. HEIGHT ABOVE RAIL. PANELS OF SNOW FENCE. DISTANCE FROM STATION. One 352 " 488 " 1260 4 feet 8 " 9 " 22 30^ 89 3 miles 1* :: STEEL BAIL, AMOUNT. WHEN LAID. BRAND. EXTENDS FROM STATION. 4 miles, 500 ft. Iron. 2 miles, 500 ft. 1886 1875 N. C. R. M. Co. Crawshaw West From Steel to End of Section. AVERAGE DAY'S WORK FOR ONE MAN. 7. The amount of labor given below can each be performed by one good man in one day, and will serve to show comparatively the relation existing between the labor of one man, and that of a large gang of men, at any of the different kinds of work specified: ONE MAN CAN Lay to place on a grade one-eighth of a mile of ties; Spike one- tenth of a mile of track laid on soft ties ; MISCELLANEOUS. 271 Spike one-fourteenth of a mile of track laid on hard ties ; Splice and bolt one-sixth of a mile of track ; Clean with a shovel oue-eighth of a mile, average weeds; Unload 10 cars of gravel ; Unload 8 cars of dirt; Load upon cars eighteen to twenty -four yards of gravel; Load upon cars twenty to twenty-five yarda of dirt, Load coal into buckets for engines, 15 to 80 tons ; Unload coal cars into shed, 35 to 30 tons; Put in a dirt ballast track twenty new ties; Put in a gravel ballast track fifteen new ties; Put in a stone ballnst track eight to ten new ties; Do labor equal to ballasting sixty feet gravel track; Do labor equal to ballasting thirty-five feet stone track; Chop two cords four-foot wood; Make fifteen to twenty-five hard wood ties; Make thirty-five to forty soft wood ties; Sixty men can lay one mile of track in a day. TRACK BOLTS. 8. The number of bolts in a 200 pound keg of track bolts, Hex. nuts If x 2, is as follows: SIZE OF BOLT. NO. PER KEG. NO. OF BOLTS REQUIRED FOR ONE MILE OF TRACK. 4 BOLTS TO JOINT. 6 BOLTS TO JOINT. 3^xM 3% x% 4 x% 240 227 218 6 Kegs 61 " 6i " 84 Kegs 9* 9| Bolts of the size here given are the ones now most generally in use on standard gage railroads. SPIKES. 9. Owing to the difference in the shape of the heads and the general form of the body of the spikes manufactured by the different companies who furnish railroad supplies, it is not possible to make a table which would show the correct number of spikes, of all sizes, per keg of 150 or 200 pounds weight. The 272 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. spikes most commonly used to spike narrow gage and standard gage tracks are as follows: SIZE AVERAGE NO. PEK WEIGHT PBK TAKD NO. OF KEG OF 200 LBS. OF KAILS USED. KEGS PEK MILB. 4 x X 600 25 18 41^ x X 525 35 21 5 x X 448 35 to 45 24 378 45 to 75 28 To ascertain the number of spikes in a keg, for any size of spike not mentioned in the table: Divide the full weight of a keg of spikes, less the keg, by the weight of one spike, and the quotient will be the number of spikes contained in the keg. NUMBER OP SPIKES. 10. A 200 pound keg contains on an average 378 spikes, 5^ x 9-16. The following table shows the number of ties, 30 foot rails, and feet of track that can be spiked in full, by different numbers of kegs of spikes, 5^ x 9-16 inches: NO. OP KEGSS^X ft. NO. OF TIES. 30 FOOT KAILS. FEET OF TRACK I... 94^ 6 I 190 2 3 189 283^ 12! 184! 380 570 4 378 354 760 5 472J^ 31 J 945 6 567 37 f 1135 7 661^ 44 A 1330(}4m) 14 1323 88 t 2640(^m) 28 2646 176 5280(lm) There is no allowance made in the above table for broken spikes. The number is often larger when laying new track, and Foremen may find it necessary to order one or more kegs than the amount given in this table. MISCELLANEOUS. 273 TONS OF RAILS REQUIRED FOR ONE MILE OF TRACK. 11. RULE: To find the number of tons (2240) of rails to the mile: Divide the weight per yard by 7, and multiply the quotient by 11. Thus for 56 pound rail, 56 divided 7 equals 8, multiplied by 11, equals 88 tons of rails to one mile of single track. Weight of Rail Per Yard. Tons Per Mile. Weight of Rail Per Yard. Tons per mile. Pounds. Tons. Pounds. Pounds. Tons. Pounds. 12 12 920 64 100 1280 14 22 65 102 320 16 25 320 68 106 1920 18 28 640 70 110 20 31 960 72 113 320 22 34 1280 75 117 1920 25 39 640 76 119 960 26 40 1920 77 121 27 42 960 78 122 1280 28 44 79 124 320 30 47 320 80 125 1600 33 51 1920 81 12. 640 35 55 82 128 1920 40 62 1920 83 IhO 930 45 70 1600 84 132 48 75 960 85 133 1280 50 78 1280 86 135 320 52 81 1610 87 136 1600 56 88 88 138 640 57 89 1280 89 139 1920 60 94 640 90 141 960 62 97- 960 91 143 12. NUMBER OF CROSS-TIES REQUIRED FOR EACH MILE OF TRACK. DISTANCE PROM CENTRE TO CENTRE. 1 foot 6 inches. . . 1 foot 9 inches.. . 2 feet 2 feet 3 inches... 2 feet 6 inches... 2 feet 9 inches... 3 feet NO. OF TIES. 3520 3017 2640 2348 2113 1921 1761 274 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 13. LENGTH OF RAIL AND NUMBER OF JOINTS, SPLI- CES, AND BOLTS, FOR EACH MILE OF TRACK. LENGTH OF KAIL. NO. OF BAILS OR JOINTS. NO. OF SPLICES. NO. OF BOLTS 4 PEB" JOINT 20 feet 528 1056 2112 21 " 503 1006 2012 22 " 480 960 1920 23 " 459 918 1836 24 " 440 8SO 1760 25 " 422 844 1688 26 " 406 812 1624 27 " 391 782 1564 28 " 377 754 1508 29 " 364 728 1456 30 " 352 704 1408 31 " 340 680 1360 32 " 330 660 1320 33 " 320 640 1280 34 " 310 620 1240 35 " 302 604 1208 36 " 292 584 1168 14. WEIGHT PER YARD, PER 30 FOOT RAIL, AND TONS PER MILE. No. Ibs- per yar d of rail- Weight of a 30-foot Rail. Tons of Iron or Steel per Mile of Track. No. Ibs per yard of rail. Weight of a 30-foot Rail. Tons of Iron or Steel per Mile of Track. Tons. Ibs. Tons. Ibs. 5 50 8 1600 69 690 121 880 30 300 52 1600 70 700 123 400 35 350 61 1200 71 710 124 1900 40 400 70 800 72 720 126 1440 45 450 79 400 73 730 128 960 50 500 88 74 740 130 480 51 510 89 1520 75 750 132 52 520 91 1040 76 760 133 1520 58 530 93 560 77 770 135 1040 54 540 95 80 78 780 137 560 55 550 96 1600 79 790 139 80 56 560 98 1120 80 800 140 1600 57 570 100 640 81 810 142 1120 58 580 102 160 82 820 144 640 59 590 103 1680 83 830 146 1160 60 600 105 1200 84 840 147 1680 61 610 107 720 85 850 149 1200 62 620 109 640 86 860 151 720 63 633 110 1760 87 870 153 240 64 640 112 1280 88 880 154 1760 65 650 114 800 89 890 156 1280 66 660 116 820 90 900 158 800 67 670 117 1840 100 1000 176 68 680 119 1305 MISCELLANEOUS. 275 One pound more or less in weight per yard of rail makes a difference of one ton and 1,520 pounds in the weight per mile. The table No. 14 will enable any Track Foreman to see at a glance the exact amount of iron or steel required per mile of track, if he knows the weight per yard of rail which he is using, or about to order for his division. For smaller amounts than one mile (if using 30 foot rails) multiply the number of rails required by the weight of rail given in second column, and divide by 2,000 Ibs. to reduce to tons. 15. LUMBER TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OP FEET, BOARD MEASURE, CONTAINED IN A PIECE OF JOIST, SCANTLING OR TIMBER OF THE SIZES GIVEN. SIZE IN INCHES. LKNQTH IN FEET OF JOISTS, SCANTLING AND TIMBER. 12 14 16 18J20 22 24 2(5 28 30 42 44 45 2x 4 2x 6 2x 8... 2x10 2x12 8 12 16 20 24 12 18 24 30 9 14 19 23 28 14 21 28 35 42 19 28 37 47 56 42 5(5 70 84 <5 93 112 117 140 168 196 22', 11 16 21 27 32 16 24 32 40 48 21 32 43 53 64 48 64 80 96 85 107 128 133 160 192 221 2(51 12 18 24 30 36 18 27 3(5 45 54 24 36 48 60 72 54 79 90 108 96 120 144 150 180 2it; 252 294 13 20 27 33 40 20 30 40 50 60 27 40 53 67 80 60 80 100 120 107 133 160 167 200 210 2SO 327 15 22 29 37 44 22 33 44 55 66 29 44 59 73 88 66 88 lie 132 117 147 176 183 220 204 30S 359 1(5 2i 32 40 48 24 36 48 60 72 32 48 64 80 96 72 96 120 144 128 160 192 200 240 28S 336 392 17 2(5 35 43 52 26 39 52 65 78 35 52 69 87 104 78 104 130 156 139 173 208 217 260 312 364 425 19 28 37 47 56 28 42 56 70 84 37 56 75 93 112 84 112 140 168 149 187 224 233 280 330 392 457 20 30 40 50 60 30 45 60 75 90 40 60 80 100 120 90 120 150 180 160 200 240 250 300 360 420 490 28 42 53 70 84 42 (53 84 105 126 56 84 112 140 1(58 126 168 210 250 224 2SO 336 :JT>O 420 504 58h 68f 29 44 58 74 88 44 6(5 fS 110 132 58 88 118 146 176 132 176 220 265 234 291 352 366 440 52S oir 716 30 45 60 75 90 45 68 90 113 135 60 90 120 1.50 180 135 180 225 270 240 300 360 375 450 500 630 735 3x 4 3x 6 3x 8 3x10 3x12 4x 4 4x 6 4x 8. 36 16 24 32 40 48 36 48 60 72 64 80 96 WO 120 144 lOb 196 4x10 4x12 6x 6 6x 8 6x10 6x12 8x 8 8x10 8x12 10x10 10x12 12x12 12x14. 14x14 276 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 16. STANDARDS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. CUBIC MEASURE. 1,728 cubic inches, one cubic foot ; 27 cubic feet one yard. A perch of masonry is 25 cubic feet. A cord of masonry is generally figured at 100 cubic feet. Three bushels of lime and one yard of sand will lay a cord of stone. Two cubic feet of sound, dry corn will make one bushel shelled corn. There are twenty common bricks to a cubic foot of wall when laid. Thickness of wall one brick average number per square foot = 14. A cubic foot of ice weighs 58 pounds. ADout 500 cubic feet of hay in a mow will weigh a ton. 422 cubic feet well settled hay weighs a ton. 7% cubic yards of hay and about 12 cubic yards of dry clover measured from stacks will weigh a ton. A cord of wood is 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long, or equal to 128 cubic feet. SQUARE MEASURE. 144 square Inches 1 square foot, 9 square feet 1 square yard, 30J4 square yards 1 square rod, 40 square rods 1 rood, 40 roods 1 acre. SURVEYOR'S MEASURE. 7.92 inches 1 link, 25 links 1 rod, 4 rods 1 chain, 10 square chains or 160 square rods 1 acre, 640 acres 1 square mile. LONG MEASURE. 3 barleycorns 1 inch, 12 inches 1 foot, 3 feet 1 yard, 5J4 yards 1 rod, 40 rods 1 furlong, 8 furlongs 1 mile. DRY MEASURE. 2 pints make 1 quart, 8 quarts 1 peck, 4 pecks make i bushel. LIQUID OR WINE MEASURE. 4 gills make 1 pint, 2 pints make 1 quart, 4 quarts make 1 gallon, 31>4 gal- lons make 1 barrel, 2 barrels make 1 hogshead. AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHT. 16 drachms make 1 ounce, 16 ounces make 1 pound, 25 pounds make 1 quarter, 4 quarters make 100 weight, 2,000 pounds make 1 ton. CIRCULAR MEASURE. 60 seconds make 1 minute, 60 minutes make 1 degree, 30 degrees, make 1 sign, 90 degrees make 1 quadrant, 4 quadrants or 360 degrees make 1 circle. TIME MEASURE. 60 seconds make 1 minute, 60 minutes make 1 hour, 24 hours make 1 day. 7 days 1 week, 4 weeks 1 lunar month ; 28, 29, 30 or 31 days make 1 calendar month (30 days make 1 month in computing interest) ; 52 weeks and 1 day or 12 calendar months make 1 year. MISCELLANEOUS. 277 17. SPEED TABLE FOR TRAINS. Speed Per Hour. Time of Performing. Speed Per Hour. Time of Performing. Miles. % Mile. 1 Mile. Mile-. % Mile. | 1 Mile. Min. Sec. Min. Sec. Min. Seo. Min. Sec. 5 6 12 29 1 02 2 04 6 5 10 30 1 2 7 4 17 8 34 31 58 1 56 8 3 45 7 30 32 56 1 52 9 3 20 6 40 33 54 1 49 10 3 6 34 53 1 46 11 2 43 5 27 35 51 1 43 12 2 30 5 36 50 1 40 13 2 18 4 37 37 48 1 37 14 2 08 ' 4 17 88 47 1 34 15 2 4 39 46 1 82 16 52 3 45 40 45 1 30 17 46 3 31 41 43 1 27 18 40 3 20 42 42 1 25 19 34 3 09 43 41 1 23 20 80 3 44 40 1 21 21 25 2 51 45 40 1 20 22 21 2 43 46 89 18 23 18 2 36 47 88 16 24 15 2 30 48 87% 15 25 12 2 24 49 86% 13% 26 09 2 18 50 36 12 27 06 2 13 55 32% 05% 28 04 2 08 60 30 1 The speed per hour which any train is making may be ascertained by simply counting the number of rail joints which the train passes over in 20 seconds of time. If the track rails are 30 feet long, the number of joints passed in 20 seconds, is always very nearly the speed in miles per hour. 278 THE TRACKMAN S HELPER. CO 1 i-t : I S ( I a? I co 8 i SS ii-iG d rut and make a!l improvements we can. as rapicllv as possible, get the benefit of all new ideas, and teach our boys so they will not have to teach us as they grow up I would advise all who wish to keep pace with this electric age to subscribe for THE ROADMASTEB AND DENVER, TEXAS .V FORT WORTH RAILWAY. "THE ROADMASTEB AND FOREMAN is a very artistic and neat journal, and contains much va uab e and instructive information, which can but prove of great value to all who peruse its columns. Letters from different officials of our great railway systems of this country, expressing their views of doing work, must Be of incalculable value to trackmen." J. B. Shea. Address ROADMASTER AND FOREMAN, 91 -93 Jefferson St., Chicago. ADVERTISEMENTS. 305 LOCATION OF FACTORIES. The name of the CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY has long been identified with practical measures for the general upbuilding of its territory and the promo- tion of its commerce, hence manufactm-ers have an assur- ance that they will find themselves at home on the com- pany's lines. The CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY COMPANY owns and operates 6,150 miles (9,900 kilomet- ers) of railway, exclusive of second track or sidings. The eight states traversed by the company, Illinois, Wisconsin, Northern Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota, possesses in addition to the advantages of raw material and proximity to markets, that which is the prime factor in the industrial success of a territory a people who form one live and thriving com- munity of business men in whose midst it is safe and profit- able to settle. Many towns on the line are prepared to treat very favorably with manufacturers who would locate in their vicinity. Mines of coal, iron, copper, lead and zinc, forests of soft and hard wood, quarries, clays of all kinds, tan-bark, flax and other raw materials exist in its territory in addition to the vast agricultural resources. A number of new factories have been induced to locate largely through the instrumentality of this company at towns on its lines. The central position of the states trav- ersed by the CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAIL- WAY, makes it possible to command all the markets of the United States. The trend of manufacturing is Westward. Nothing should delay enterprising manufacturers from investigating. Confidential inqunes are treated as such. The information furnished a particular industry is reliable. Adddress, Louis JACKSON, Industrial Com'r., C., M. & St. P. R. R., 425 Old Colony BPd., Chicago, 111. 306 THE TRACKMAN'S HELPRE. giliiii "HUM *!t!!H UJ g * g go-g -.3; a** Jwo II -H| illl DUX University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. mi mil mil mil in A 001 318917 o . ^ Jt *'^' ''" Itl 'ygp-tif '*i!m mm Univer Soul Lit