Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/183

 Minute Men of the Rails

���Much of the fascination of railroading centers around the wrecking crew and the im- portant and ofttimes gruesome work of clearing wreckage and keeping the lines oi>en

��WRECKING-TRAINS arc located on every division of important railroads, standing idle in theyard, waiting for calamity. A crane-car, with sufficient power to lift a freight-car "as a child lifts a toy; a supply-car, contain- ing rope, cables, chains, jacks, crow-bars, tools, lanterns, fire apparatus, dynamite, rails, ties; a caboose for the wrecking- crew.

When the word comes over the wire that the express and the fast freight have tried to see which could butt the other off the track, the wrecking-crew assembles in a hurry. They are i)icked men — these minute men of the rails — each with his six'cialty. Mechanics, track-men, men skilled in explosives, strong men, slender men, at least one small but muscular man, they come from roundhouse and shop, freight yard and office, at the 'supreme call. The wrecking-boss takes command, the best engine available backs down, and with a clear track the wrecking-train gets to the disaster, often ahead of the special containing doctors and nurses.

There is only one order to be obeyed when the wrecking-crew gets in action —

��"Save life." But once the victims are extricated — and they are taken out in a remarkably short time — the order changes. It is not, as might be e.xpected, "Save property." It is "Clear the lines." It makes no difference that five jumbled freight-cars contain expensive automobiles, or pianos, or phonographs, or fruit, which might be savcfl by careful work. If the contents cannot be saved in less than an hour, there is only one thing to do. The big steam crane is backed down to the mess, a long, tentacle-like hook descends, chains and ropes are brought into play, and slowly, surely, almost daintily, the crane swings the wrecked freight-car and its contents to one side.

Sometimes the easiest way to clear the lines is to burn the wreck or blow it up. Track can be cjuickly relaid, if damaged, but nothing can replace lost time. The price of a cargo of auto- mobiles is nothing against a five-hour ilelay. F"or the price of delay mounts in stunning geometrical progression. .A few hundred dollars for the first hour, it may be many thousands ot dollars in the second or third hour. A stoppage

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