Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 117, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1912 — DISPOSE OF OLD STOCK [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DISPOSE OF OLD STOCK

RELATION OF SECOND-HAND DEALERB WITH RAILROADS. Good Demand for Used Equipment That Still Is of Service —Material Most Frequently Bhipped to Foreign Countries. Many of the railroad cars and engines when they become old are Bold

to second-hand dealers who fix them up and resell them to smaller companies in this or foreign countries. As a railroad company gets new equipment it generally discards some of the old material by storing it up in

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some convenient place and then inviting the second-hand dealer to look it over. There are a number of these second-hand dealers in New York and Chicago who dispose of the old rolling stock to small roads and contractors all over the world* Some little road running through a secluded section of Asia or Africa needs an engine. The second-hand railroad man enters into negotiations with the result that an engine which once pulled a train in this country may still do the same service in some other land on a smaller scale. Mining companies also buy much of the surplus stock from the second hand men for carrying their output to one of the big railroads. One of the largest assortments of this kind of railroad stock ever put into the hands of the second-hand dealer at one time consisted of engines and cars used on the elevated roads in New York before they were electrified. Nine years have passed since the Interborough made the change. There were 340 engines to be got rid of and 134 cars. It wasn’t a very hard matter to dispose of the 340 engines. They were remarkably strong for their size, a special type made for the elevated roads, and proved to be very much In demand as second-hand material. These engines are found In all parts of the world today. There are some of them at present in India, Africa and South America, in mining districts and in many remote parts of the world. 0 It is not difficult to dispose of old rails. They are generally In demand for sidings and new lines In new countries and form a large part of the bußlpess of the second-hand, railroad equipment man. Taken altogether the business of disposing of railroad equipment furnishes quite an industry for the second-hand man.