THE SAFETY SECTION of the American Railway Association will hold its annual meeting at Hotel Statler, Buffalo, N. Y., on May 15, 16 and 17.

COLONEL WILLIAM B. GREELEY, chief of the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, has resigned to accept a position with the West Coast Lumber Manufacturers' Association. He will be succeeded by Major R. Y. Stuart.

A VOTE among the railroads of the United States that are parties to the agreement with the American Railway Express Company indicates a desire to exercise the option which provides for the purchase of the American Railway Express Company in March, 1929. Further action depends upon a future meeting of the company contract committee of the Association of Railway Executives.

THE PACIFIC RAILWAY CLUB will hold its eleventh annual meeting and banquet at the Fairmount Hotel, San Francisco, on March 8. The principal speaker will be R. E. M. Cowie, president of the American Railway Express Company. The election of officers for the ensuing year will take place at the same time. The nominee for president is Thomas Ahearn, assistant general manager of the northern district of the South Pacific.

A SPEED OF 207 MILES AN HOUR is the record made by Captain Malcolm Campbell, an Englishman, in an automobile on the beach at Daytona Beach, Fla., on February 19. Taking a four-mile rolling start, Captain Campbell traversed a mile with the wind at 214.797 miles an hour; and on the return the run was made at 199.667 miles an hour. The average above noted (207) was made up from two records, one with and one against the wind. The best time with the wind for one mile was 16.76 seconds.

First Train Through the Moffat Tunnel

The first train will be run through the Moffat tunnel on February 26, for which a rate of $3.00 for the round trip from Denver has been established. Arrangements to commemorate the event include special tickets which each holder will sign and which, along with news

paper accounts of the trip, will be placed in an iron box in the tunnel, which is scheduled to be opened fifty years hence. The Denver newspapers have presented the officers with gold spikes and these are to be driven by Governor Adams of Colorado and Governor Dern of Utah. George H. Barnes, who was the conductor on the first train that operated over the Moffat road on July 7, 1903, is still with the line and will be the conductor on the first train through the tunnel.

B. & M. Enginemen Advanced 71⁄2 Per Cent

The Boston & Maine has increased the pay of locomotive engineers 71⁄2 per cent. As a result of arbitration awards and otherwise the Boston & Maine, within the last year, for the benefit of about 16,000 employees, has added $2,124,330 to its payrolls, these wage inThe creases averaging 5.33 per cent. enginemen's increase affects more than 900 men and adds $160,000 to the roll. The previous increases have been made for conductors, trainmen, signalmen, mechanics and helpers, stationary engineers and firemen, bridge and building workers. locomotive firemen and hostlers, clerks and station service employees, telegraphers, crossing tenders, supervisors, dining car stewards and track foremen and assistants.

The Responsibilities of an Express Messenger

For an express messenger to be absent from his car for ten minutes is not necessarily a neglect of duty. This is the salient point in a decision which has been handed down by the Supreme Court of Maine (139 Atl. 784) in a suit against the American Railway Express Company. A dog, described as a quiet dog, was in a crate, double-lathed, making a journey by express; and when messenger was absent, the dog, "acting on the impulse of its inherent nature and its irresponsible instinct to escape from bondage", gnawed its way out of the crate and jumped out of the door to the ground. Subsequently, the animal fell a victim to an automobile, though the expressman had chased him on foot

and by automobile from noon until the darkness of night stopped the chase. These being the circumstances, the court held that no negligence of the carrier contributed to the loss of the dog.

Russian Engineers Study American Methods

of

A. A. Lazarevsky, chief engineer the Russian state railroads, and three of his engineers, on February 17 completed a 10-day observation and inspection tour over the lines of the Northern Pacific as guests of Col. B. O. Johnson, assistant to the president. Mr. Lazarevsky is about to begin the construction of 1,000 miles of new line, to be known as the Turkestan-Siberian Railway, and came to America to study equipment and the methods of construction employed here. Colonel Johnson spent five years in Russia as vice-chairman of the Inter-Allied Technical Board, engaged in maintaining the operation of the Trans-Siberian Railway and while there he became a personal friend of Mr. Lazarevsky. The visitors were shown the construction work on the new 62-mile Redwater branch which is being built from a point near Glendive, Mont., to Brockway via Circle, and also were escorted to the electrically operated coal mines of the Northern Pacific at Colstrip, Mont., where an electric shovel excavates and loads 7 tons of coal on a car at each operation. Senate Committee to Investigate Coal Strike Conditions

The Senate on February 16 adopted the resolution proposed by Senator Johnson, of California, providing for an investigation by the Senate committee, on interstate commerce, or a sub-committee, of conditions in the bituminous coal fields "and the reasons for conditions and happenings therein." By a vote of 60 to 15 it rejected an amendment offered by Senator Reed, of Pennsylvania, which would have directed the committee to "investigate the existing rate structure of freight rates on bituminous coal to determine whether there exists injustices and unfairness therein, and whether any mining districts are being unfairly and abnormally stimulated and (Continued on page 472)

the railroads now entering the Central, Grand Central, Dearborn and La Salle Street stations and abandonment of those terminals. The plans were presented to the Baltimore & Ohio, as a representative of the railroads using the Grand Central station, and to the Chicago & Western Indiana and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe for the Dearborn station group, on February 13, the Chicago,

Rock Island & Pacific and the New York Central having previously expressed an unwillingness to move from the La Salle Street station to a location near the lake front.

While detailed cost figures on the operation of this lake front terminal, with between 10 and 12 railroads as tenants, were not made public it was announced that the companies named were invited to share in the expenses on a usage basis. Estimates were made of the cost per car handled, enabling the railroads to compare them with present terminal expenses and with estimated expenses for the use of other proposed terminal combinations. F. L. Thompson, vice-president in charge of terminal improvements of the Illinois Central, in transmitting the plans, expressed the conviction that operations can be carried on in this lake front station as economically as in a station built on any other location.

Particular attention has been given to the problem of caring for automobiles; layout also shows in detail the relation of the station location to the lines by which all the railroads involved enter the city, to the business district, to streets and boulevards and to local transportation agencies.

The station plan provides for 22 tracks on a single level and contemplates the construction of additional locomotive terminal and car facilities together with the accompanying mail, baggage and express accommodations. Some of the railroads from the East and South would enter the terminal by utilizing the Illinois Central tracks from a point in the vicinity of Ninety-fifth street. The roads entering from the Southwest and West would be brought into terminal over a connecting line which the Illinois Central is prepared to build in the vicinity of Eighteenth Street. In anticipation of this development, such a railroad was provided for in the city ordinances under which that railroad has been carrying on the project for the improvement and enlargement of its Chicago terminal.

Rebuilt Car Rule Found Unreasonable

the

American Railway Association, Mechanical Division interchange rule 112, in so far as it affects settlements to be made for rebuilt freight cars when badly damaged or destroyed on the lines of railroads other than their owners, was found to be unreasonable in a decision made public by the Interstate Commerce Commission on February 16 on a complaint filed by the Bangor & Aroostook. The complaint was based on an inter

pretation by the arbitration committee under which, if any material in the structure above the trucks is reclaimed, the entire car is depreciated, for settlement purposes, from the date of original construction of the unit from which the re-used part was obtained.

In place of the existing rule the commission prescribes a rule containing some modincations of one that was proposed by a special committee of railway mechanical officers.

The findings of the Commission's report are as follows:

"The freight cars which have been rebuilt under the sanction of the interchange rules and which are now in

service will continue to circulate until their interchange is restricted, irrespective of the character of settlement rule which is applied when such units are destroyed on the lines of railroads other than their owners. Hence, as regards equipment rebuilt in the past, it is unlikely that the establishment or nonestablishment of a rebuilt-car settlement rule will materially affect the matter of safety in railway operation. Under instructions to bring in a rebuilt-car rule, the special committee on rebuilt cars, consisting of 10 prominent railroad mechanical officers, formulated a proposed rule which is apparently designed to effect substantial justice as between car owners and users.

They suggested, in part that as applied to units reconstructed in the past a rebuilt-car settlement rule should be confined to cars in classes A to E-2, and as regards those reconstructed in the future only classes from A to D should be recognized.

"We find that as to past and future, a rebuilt freight car is one which the carrier was, is now, or in the future may be required by the accounting rules of the commission to record in equipmentinvestment account. We further find that for freight cars rebuilt in the future, that portion of the proposed rule formulated by the special committee on rebuilt cars, which contemplates settlement for cars of classes A to D on basis of 80 per cent of reproduction cost new, less depreciation from date rebuilt, will be reasonable if modified to conform with the foregoing definition of what constitutes a rebuilt car.

As to freight

cars reconstructed in the past, we find that the present rule is unreasonable, and that for the future a rule which provides for settlement for cars in classes A to D on basis of 80 per cent of reproduction cost new, less depreciation from date rebuilt, cars of classes E-1 and E-2 on basis of 70 per cent of reproduction cost new less depreciation from date rebuilt, and cars of classes E-3 and E-4 on basis of 60 per cent of reproduction cost new less depreciation from date rebuilt, will be reasonable.

"No order will be entered at this time, but defendants I will be expected to modify their rules to conform with our conclusions herein. If this is not done within a reasonable period, complainants may bring the matter to our attention for appropriate action."

Traffic

The Eastern Kentucky Railway has discontinued the operation of trains into its northern terminus, thus closing a traffic career which has extended over more than 50 years. The line from Webbville, Ky., the southern terminus, northward to Grayson, 13 miles, is to be kept in operation, pending an application before the Interstate Commerce Commission, requesting authority to abandon the line. The last time-table in the Official Guide, dated, 1927, shows one train a day each way from Webbville, northward, to Riverton, 36 miles.

Running Time of California
Trains to Be Cut

The Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe, the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific in conjunction with the Southern Pacific, and the Chicago & North Western in conjunction with the Union Pacific will establish schedules of 61 hr. 15 min. from points in California to Chicago on March 4. The trains which will be affected include the Chief, the Golden State Limited, the Los Angeles Limited, and the San Francisco Overland Limited. Westbound schedules will not be changed from the present 63 hours. The chief purpose of the reduction is to enable eastbound passengers to make early connections at Chicago.

Meat Rates Revised

A revision of freight rates, based on mileage scales, on fresh meats and packing house products, including lard substitutes and vegetable cooking oils, in straight and mixed carloads, between points in the southwest and between the southwest and western trunk line territory, has been prescribed by the Interstate Commerce Commission in lieu of a revision proposed by the railroads, which was found not justified. The suspended schedules were ordered canceled without prejudice to the establishment of rates on the bases found reasonable. Rates on fresh meats and packing house products from points in western trunk line territory to destinations in southwestern territory were found unreasonable in the past and reparation was awarded.

S. P. To Furnish Parking Space for Passengers

The Southern Pacific is preparing plans for the installation of free automobile parking stations for its patrons, adjacent to stations where ground space and facilities permit. Thirty-seven railway stations in California have already been selected for this service and actual preparatory work will be commenced immediately. No charge will be made for the parking, which will be a convenience to patrons. The purpose of this plan is to eliminate any delay or inconvenience to the motorist who drives from his home to the railway station. This innovation will permit