Semaphore - February 1953

Semaphore [image: logo of railroad] FEBRUARY 1953 The Magazine of the Piedmont & Northern and Durham & Southern Railways

[image: rail worker riding caboose]

IN THIS ISSUE . . . Tail-end Car

REGULATION OR STRANGULATION

Although railroads in recent years have invested substantially in modernization, they are still losing more ground than they are gaining. Their equipment is becoming obsolete faster than they can replace it -- not because they do not foresee the danger of obsolescence but because, as an industry, they are financially anemic. Their earnings are not sufficient to attract the investment capital needed to pay for new locomotives, freight cars, tracks, signals, and the like.

During the 15-year period between 1936 and 1950 the railroads earned an average of 3.6% per year on their net assets. The average for the manufacturing industry was 11.6%; mining and quarrying 9.6%; wholesale and retail trade 12.8%; public utilities 7.2%; service and construction 10.2%; finance 7.8%. Is it any wonder that investors stay clear of the 3.6% railroads?

Increasing operating costs, unprofitable branches, and moneylosing passenger service have taken their toll of railroad funds. But these things, like inadequate freight rates, are not the basic trouble. They are merely the side effects. The real trouble is that over-regulation delays and frequently prevents the railroads from curing their own illnesses. They are helpless to act without government authority and if that authority is forthcoming at all it is unduly delayed.

The railroads are being strangled by regulations imposed many years ago when they had a virtual monopoly on transportation. Since then the age of the truck and the air plane has eliminated almost every semblance of a monopoly. Yet the regulations remain substantially the same.

Our own financial situation may not be as uncomfortable as that of many of our fellow railroads. We know, however, that our interests will be best served by a strong railroad industry that has the vigor, the capital, and the freedom to compete equally with other forms of transportation.

We know, too, that these conditions will best serve the interests of our nation, for if sensible and fair regulation doesn't soon replace strangulation the bankrupt railroads will some day be the easy prey of socialism. Would other industries be far behind?

Semaphore

FEBRUARY 1953 VOLUME 9 NUMBER 2

Magazine of the Piedmont & Northern and Durham & Southern Railways

EDITOR THOMAS G. LYNCH Director of Industrial Development and Public Relations

CORRESPONDENTS

Elizabeth N. Watt	Anderson	Delia H. Brown	Greenville
Lennie Featherstone	Belmont	Evelyn Williams	Greenville
Elsie K. Walker	Charlotte	Sarah Y. Stroud	Greenwood
Dora A. Whitaker	Durham	Lucille M. Dameron	Mt. Holly
Gladys M. Bottoms	Durham	H. W. Kay	Spartanburg
Jean Greene	Gastonia	Katherine Brown	Varina

SEMAPHORE is a monthly publication dedicated to the promotion of mutual understanding and cooperation between the employees, the patrons, and the management of the Piedmont and Northern and Durham and Southern Railway Companies. Suggestions and material for the magazine are solicited from its readers. Unsued material will be returned upon request, but no responsibility for its handling is assumed. Address all communications to Editor, SEMAPHORE, Box 480, Charlotte 1, N. C.

IN THIS ISSUE . . .

Keeping Track	4
Tail-End Car	5
Zonolite Plus Vermiculite	8
Traffic Promotions	10
The Land Grant Myth	12
Square-Dancing Dispatcher	15
Shippers News	17
Pipe Lines On Wheels	18
Along the Line	20

THIS MONTH'S COVER . . .

For nearly a hundred years American railraods have been ending their freight trains with a box-like little car that is variously referred to in railroad slang as a "crummy," a "doghouse," and "bird cage," a "bone-breaker," or a "cigar box." The P & N's X-24, pictured on the cover, is one of approximately 25,000 cabooses in service on American railroads. It is a modern steel car which was built at the Greenville Shops several years ago. See page 5 for the story about these wheeled offices and living quarters.

KEEPING TRACK... THE UNITED STATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE has come up with a new way to illustrate the fabulous national budget and its resulting high tax rates. "In 1953," says the Chamber, "you won't start working for yourself until April 22. Taxes will equal all wages, salaries, rents, interest and dividends received by the American people from January 1 through April 22, 1953." In short, taxes are equivalent to 30 per cent of the yearly national income. * * * * * THE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT EISENHOWER proved how versatile railroad cars can be. Some 600 extra Pullman sleeping cars were needed to haul visitors to Washington and about 480 of these were parked in rail yards and maintained as living quarters for 9,600 people. Thirty steam locomotives kept the Pullman city supplied with heat and water, gas-driven generators supplied the electricity, and sanitation facilities were installed under the supervision of the Washington Health Department. There were even telephone booths. Maybe Rome wasn't built in a day, but Pullman City came mighty close to it. * * * * * PIEDMONT & NORTHERN LOCOMOTIVES traveled a combined distance of 552,704 miles during 1952-enough mileage to have gotten them to the moon and back with room to spare. The S. C. Division accounted for 392,182 miles and the N.C. Division for 160,522. * * * * * PHOTOGRAPHING THE P & N at work is not always the easiest job in the world. Sometimes the weather and hard luck combine to make it a pretty tough pursuit. In order to prevent long tie-ups of vehicle traffic at grade crossings in South Carolina most of railroad's heaviest tonnage is handled at night. That means the day-time trains are usually shorter and therefore not so photogenic...but they are only ones the cmaera can see. Last month we went out to try to get a good picture of a double-headed diesel freight. First of all, the weather (it was raining pitchforks) all but drowned us out as we headed for rendezvous with a freight train at an overpass near Williamston. Fortunately the rain stopped just in time, some pictures were made, and everybody was happy. But when the pictures were developed the happiness ended. Without knowing it we had photographed a disesel which had only one side of its pilot striped in the familiar black and white diagonal lines- the other side had just undergone repairs and the paint had not yet been replaced. The lopsidedness of the engine's paint job had finished what the weather had started out to do. We haven't given up yet, though. * * * * * CITIZENS OF GASTONIA were militantly indignant when TV Cameras at the inaugural parade looked elsewhere as the colorful American Legion drum & bugle corps, the town's pride and joy, paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue. Their pride was so wounded that they demanded retribution from Tarheel-born Edward R. Murrow. The CBS commentator sent a camera man down, filmed the drum and bugle corps in action on home grounds, and televised it to the nation on his program "See It Now." Afterward Gastonia magnanimously forgave CBS. One of the star performers in the corps: P&N's T. V. McIntosh, lately of Gastonia, now commercial agent in Charlotte.

4 SEMAPHORE

[image: Caboose car] TAIL END CAR... it always comes in last

AFTER an eternity of always coming in last you'd think a caboose would develop a crushing inferiority complex.

It hasn't, though, and for good reasons. Cabooses, as a class, have always been cocky little cars that seem to know that bringing up the rear is as important as any other job. Then, too, they have always enjoyed the affection and curiosity of the public. Poems, books, and songs by the score have praised the little red cabooses.

P&N cabooses are certainly no exception. They are just as red and cockylooking as those of the Pennsy, the Santa Fe, or the New York Central.

[image: Conductor D. M. Campbell] HOTBOXES can be spotted by Conductor D. M. Campbell from his perch in the caboose's cupola.

FEBRUARY, 1953 5