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National Geographic : 1936 Nov
Contents
TRAINS OF TODAY-AND TOMORROW any agent except the "tin can." It means more in the daily life of the individual than all the air-conditioned passenger cars. Now precooling in plants has given way to precooling within the cars. This is ac complished by placing ice and salt in tanks on the cars and forcing air circulation by portable fans. After precooling the fans are removed, the ice and salt renewed, and they are replaced as needed along the 3,000-mile run (page 563). THE RAILROADS TAKE TO SEA Because Manhattan is an island, the twelve railroads serving New York City must take to the sea with most of their freight (page 540). Even the New York Central, which has the only direct rail freight connection with lower Manhattan, maintains a fleet of har bor craft for handling import and export goods, and for coastwise traffic. All in all, the railroads' fleets number 150 tugs, more than 1,000 lighters and barges, 323 car floats, and various other vessels, representing an investment of $50, 000,000 and employing 3,400 men. Aboard the tug flagship of the Pennsyl vania Railroad's harbor fleet I heard the Commodore, or marine superintendent, giv ing orders to shore stations and to various vessels of his 258 craft by wireless tele phone. A railroad committee worked with the Bell Telephone Company experts for many months to develop this communication sys tem for the railway's floating units. Carload lots ride the 3-rail floats, some of them carrying 22 cars, and a tug between propels two of the floats at a time. The car floats move on schedule, just as the trains do. At terminals a towerman, oper ating an array of levers, levels the tracks and a jackknife apron clamps land rail to float rail. In a single recent month 76,099 freight cars were floated between rail terminals across the waters that surround Manhat tan and Long Island. As many as 2,075 cars have been floated from Greenville to Bay Ridge in 24 hours. Moreover, in the same month more than 83,000 freight cars were floated to pier sta tions to unload for delivery or transfer in New York City. At the pier stations floats anchor, and cars aboard are loaded or unloaded as they would be at any freight station. One of these piers has 12 acres of floor space and 200 cars can be anchored at one time. Over the rails came to New York last year 5,556 carloads of apples, 3,882 of cab bages, 3,416 of peaches, 7,531 of oranges, and 15,258 of "hardware," the trainmen's parlance for potatoes. It took 350 cars to bring in the artichokes the city consumed. If you prefer your statistics in tons, mul tiply such items as 355 carloads of snap beans by 12, but double the multiple for heavier vegetables and fruits. Then there is the lighterage service. That is the pickup and delivery of the harbor. However, the run is between ship and pier, rather than from farm or factory to station. While the car floats run on schedule, the lighters engaged in collection and delivery do not. They must be directed by a single supervisor, a sort of marine train dis patcher, and that is where the radiotele phone helps. In the lighterage service are huge derrick barges that can swing upwards of 65 tons of machinery or structural steel from their decks to steamer holds, swift little power lighters for express service, and mammoth, tug-drawn barges for grain, timber, coal. There are 140 refrigerator barges, to protect livestock, fresh meats and other perishables from spoiling in hot weather, also provided with stoves in winter to keep them from freezing. MAKING OUT 18,000 BILLS A DAY "The bookkeeping for all this freight must be an auditor's nightmare," I sug gested. Each road, of course, handles its own ac counts. I was taken through the New York Zone Billing Bureau of the Pennsyl vania Railroad. Nearly 200 employees there are engaged in sending out some 18,000 bills a day and handling remittances that aggregate $6,000,000 a month. There are 217 freight stations in this one zone, which extends from Bridesburg, Penn sylvania, up to Montauk Point, Long Island. Waybills are speeded by passenger trains and by motorized messenger service. One whole floor is given over to records of all transactions in this area for three years. If you loaded freight cars to capacity with all the freight the entire Pennsylvania System hauls on an average day, the en-
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