Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 291, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1920 — MORE ENGINES IS RAIL NEED [ARTICLE]

MORE ENGINES IS RAIL NEED

Budget Set Aside $105,000,000 for 1,800, but This Is Short of Requirements. EFFICIENCY CAMPAIGN IS ON Efforts Directed Toward Quicker Repairs and Plans to Prolong Locomotive Life—Falling Off In Production of Engines. New York. —Expenditure of more than $105,000,000 for 1,800 new locomotives for American railroads will not meet urgent transportation needs this year, according to a statement ’ssued by the Assoclatiob of Railway Executives in its bulletin entitled •More Transportation.” Quicker repairs on disabled locomotives and efforts to Increase the years of service of each engine are badly needed. "In the program for utilization of the $300,000,000 revolving loan fund provided for in the Transportation act,” says the bulletin, “there are loans to some thirty-two companies amounting to $29,000,000 to enable them to acquire 636 freight locomotives and 277 switching locomotives, that will cost $58,000,000. Even if this is a maximum possible program for increase of motive power at this time, pending the availability of new locomotives, more service must be obtained from the locomotives we have. Heavier Loading Needed. "An immediate reduction in the number of locomotives now unfit for service is obviously an essential part of the “more transportation” program. Heavier loading .may be achieved, car movement may be increased, but adequate means to haul the traffic is indispensable. “On Sept 15, of all locomotives, 17.1 per cent were out of service for repairs requiring over 24 hours, and 6.4 per cent for repairs requiring less

than 24 hours. As a basis for comparison, although the repairs were kept on a different basis at that time, in September, 1917, 13.5 per cent of freight locomotives wereiin shops for repairs, or awaiting repairs. “It must be agreed that the number of locomotives out of service for repairs is too many. It is too many even if there were in service all the locomotives needed. But since there is a shortage of locomotives it Is all the more necessary that the last ounce of effort should be exhausted to reduce the percentage of locomotives out of service. / “The average number of locomotives acquired yearly by Class 1 roads in the four years ended June 30, 1916, was 2,554, and the average number retired 2,071, showing an average annual increase in the number in service of 483. In 1917 and 1918 the locomotives acquired totaled 4,951. In the same years 2,400 locomotives were retired. This shows an Increase in the number of locomotives in service of 1,275 a year, but this apparent increase was due to reduction in the rate of retirement. ' Drop In Production. “In 1919 the three largest locomotive building companies constructed only 946 locomotives for. standard gauge roads in the United States. This compares with an average of 2,008 locomotives built annually by these companies for the roads during the preceding eleven years. The’ companies In question supply three-quarters of all locomotives used by Class 1 roads.” Telling of the success of the other features of the “more transportation” program ,the bulletin says: “Average dally movement of freight cars has been increased from 22.3 miles in February to 26.1 miles in July, and incomplete statistics for August indicate a still further improvement. Average loading per freight car has also been largely Increased. The average for all roads for July was 29.6 tons, but for later months the average is not yet available. With respect to car repairs, the utmost efforts have been made. Improvement in this respect will be accelerated by the efforts to Increase the number of cars and on owner roads. For the week ended October 9 American railroads handled 1,009,787 cars, as compared with 982,171 in the corresponding week of 1919 and 959,722 in the corresponding week of 1918. This is the first time that car loading has exceeded the milllon-car mark this year.”