Page:Hine (1912) Letters from an old railway official.djvu/170

 normally better to locate a division superintendent at such beginning and ending city. He can then handle its terminals and the one or more diverging freight districts. His division should include the terminal at the farther end of such districts, to afford him opportunity both to hold back stuff whose inopportune arrival might congest the more complicated terminals at headquarters and to relieve such terminals promptly by movement outward. In other words, owing to his important terminals this superintendent should have less mileage than his country brother who would be in the middle between the second and third districts.

Some roads try to solve the problem by giving the superintendent the first and second districts with headquarters in the middle. If in such case the general offices happen to be at the initial point they soon ignore the superintendent and do business direct with his terminal subordinates. When this condition becomes intolerable, one of two things usually happens. Perhaps the superintendent’s office is moved to the first terminal where it really belongs. Thereupon he loses full touch with his freight crews on the second district, which is left out in the air. The other attempted