Show railroads and wood preservation the recent action by the board of directors of the american railway engineering and maintenance of way association in appointing a committee of seventeen to investigate and report upon the subject of wood pre preservation has shown that the practical railroad men of the country recognize tile the importance of taking steps to con serve the rapidly dimi diminishing timber supply of the ibe united states timber i is s oneff the principal binate materials rials purchased by the railroads and its economical use is is a subject of far reaching importance pa rt atice more than cross ties are used annually by the different railroad companies and their average life it in this country is not more that than six or seven years from a study of european methods and the knowledge of wood preservation under conditions in this countey timber testing engineers say it is reasonably certain that an average life of from I 1 15 r to 20 years may be see secured tired by treating the tie with a good preservative and the use itse of improved devices for the prevention t I 1 on of mechanical abr abrasion asior thus to a large degree diminishing the drain upon the timber supply while the quantity of timber used for ties is deiy great and the problem of it a future su supply lIY is a set segious ious one yet this class of timber is not the only one which should receive consideration A greater length of service from froin timber now used by railroads for bridges trestles piles fences and transmission poles is greatly to be desired A L kuehn engineer of track and roadway cleveland cincinnati chicago st louis rail railway xay is chairman of this cial wood preservation com cittee and 0 G L crawford awford Ur specialist in wood preservation united states forest service Se ivice ia Is 0 its vice chairman the first firs meeting was held ill m chicago in in the early eaily part of last mouth for the purpose of organizing and s deciding upon it a plan of 0 work the file committee was divided in i it VS f to four sub committees to tako take up tile the following lines of work statistics ond and economics 0 chaunce Cli Ch aunte consulting engineer Chic ligo illinois chairman preservatives and specify apeci fi cat ions H von con 1 suiting timber engineer st louis Mh missouri chairman adaptability of woods an and A their theirl preparation reparation WK W K hatt halt A civil E engineer tig ineer forest servie service lafayette indiana Ob chairman airman treating processes C G crawford specialist in iii wood preservation forest service washington D C chairman 41 this american railway en maintenance of i way association now consists 9 of about members representing miles of railroad track and including among its membership the leading rail road engineers of the country tile the object of the association is the advancement of knowledge A pertaining to the sc scientific i and maintenance of railto railroads ads ta the h method employed aliis T information is through stand s tan d ing committees appoint od by board of directors each COWA corna cittee is appointed to invest in vesti gate gale it a special subject and to report at each annual meeting 9 representing representing represent in 9 the results of its investigation followed by re commendations which are pub tt dished in tile the manual of recommended om mended practice after the they y have been adopted bw the asa as I 1 |