OCR Text |
Show Scraps Are Worth Money s . ' J In the successful management of the railways of the country there aro many aeciulngly Inslgnlllcant matters that require constant attention. Thousands Thou-sands of dollars are saved to the companies com-panies each year by detailing men to look after and euro for their scrap, the duces of Iron and steel that fall off moving cars, thul comet from abandoned aban-doned machinery or from broken plecea of equipment. Almost all the big transportation conipuniea In thu I'nltod Statoa maintain main-tain what they call scrap departments. At two or three points on the road, generally where tliero are any construction con-struction or extensive repair shops, this scrap Is gathered from all parts of the system. One of thn duties of the trackwalkers trackwalk-ers and repair gangs it to pick up and throw Into little heaps along the track all bits of Iron and steel that may ba found along the right of way or that msy be left whenever any pleco of work Is completed. At Irregular Intervals a scrap train Is sent over I ttio road for the purpose of gathering up these oclels and ends. They ar taken to tho gathering point and there carefully scried. Some Ingenious mrchnnlro have devised de-vised machinery to separate and handle these scraps. After being roa tbrougli a sort of hopper that dlvidea the small and tho large from the other oth-er different sizes men aru put to work to pick out from the vsrkms h.ups wl.nl may again be utilized, lie, Its, nuts, bars, couplings and tba Ilka which may he used ugaln are worked over for further use. Tho refuse, amounting to thousands of pounds, is shipped to bo mo Iron works that has a contract with tha company for using all thia waato treat and steel. This plan of systematically caring for tho wasto Iron of rallroada In of recent origin. It is one really of akjw growth. Of course, pieces of Iron and steel waste material or the rofuae of I shops or wrecks has been takon cara I of for years, but only In a desultory, f haphazard way. |