Page:Hine (1912) Letters from an old railway official.djvu/168



Los Angeles, Cal., July 15, 1911. My Dear Boy:—How many miles of road should one division superintendent handle? Like the old lady’s recipe for pie crust, it all depends. Some superintendents in the east with two hundred miles handle as much business as do their western brothers with a thousand. As a matter of fact mileage has little to do with the question. On the ideal division the superintendent is in the middle with territory extending one freight district in each direction. If he happens to be at a hub he can comfortably handle several freight district spokes, which will increase his mileage accordingly. Under such a condition the advantages of a seemingly large mileage are numerous. The superintendent can run his power wherever most needed. He can hold back at the farther end of one district cars that he knows the connecting district cannot possibly load or unload for several days. He can preserve a