Directors Given "Concentrated Short Course in Modern Railroading

More than eighty directors of Southern Railway System member lines and the Central of Georgia Railway Company took to the field last month for an up to date look at modern railroading at its best. ..

To rediscover why the truly remarkable growth and change within the two railroads' service areas are demanding that railroading, Southern - style, be nothing but the best.

In the course of their three day working trip, directors of Southern member lines and the Central of Georgia visited yards and shops for an up to date look ath the railwys "muscle."

To catch first hand a broadly representative glimpse of the booming, muscular South served by Southern and Central. Among the directors were executive officers of banking and investment houses, industrial and manufacturing concerns, of raw materfuls producers and processors, of investor owned: public utility companies; there were newspaper executives and owners and operators of retail and wholesale btusinesses, big and small, in towns and cities from New York in the North to New Orleans in the South. In sum, they represented forces of growth and achievement and dedicated concern.

The final day of the inspection trip was spent on the new, wide open CNO&TP. Traveling in open side tour cars between Oakdale, Tenn., and Kings Mountain, Ky., the directors got a close look at the recently completed line improvements on this major artery of economic nourishment for the railways and the South.

They represented acceptance of responsibility, and, as Southern President D. W. Brosnan noted in his welcoming comments, "no better evidence of the seriousness with which all our directors view their responsibilities could be had" than the fact that so many of them arranged time away from their busy, demanding schedules at home to make the three day working trip that started in Atlanta, Ga., and ended in Cincinnati, Ohio. Only the most compelling business or personal reasons prevented a few directors from participating in the event. Not that the trip itself was any less busy or less demanding than the work that was put aside temporarily at home.

D. W. Brosnan, president of Southern Railway System companies and chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Central of Georgia Railway Company, discusses construction of the New River Bridge with a director .

Meetings of the various boards of directors were held where important matters were discussed by these men who affect the destiny of Southern, and, therefore, of its employees and its customers. Interviews were conducted with business and civic leaders at stops along the route.

At Inman Yard in Atlanta, directors visited the assembly area where turnouts for industrial siding and yards are prefabricated for easy installation.

And there were tightly - scheduled visits to shops, yards and other centers of Southern activity which added up to what Mr. Brosnan called "a concentrated short course in modern railroading" that was topped off by a ride in open - side tour cars through the high, wide tunnels and cuts, over the deep fills and across the bridges that make up the new, wide - open CNO&TP division.

The purpose of the working trip was to give these men who have a collective hand in the guidance of our railroads up - dated knowledge of what the various Southern and Central lines are doing to increase their usefulness to customers . . . of how we, in Mr. Brosnan's words, are "furnishing ever better service, trying to save money for our customers and make money for our owners" . . . all of which contributes to a continued ability to provide jobs and remain strong enough to meet the growing demands of a growing South . . . and, for that matter, contributes to our ability to grow along with the area we serve.

Rail grinding operations prove an interesting sight for directors visiting the rail welding plant at Southern Railway System's Inman Yard.

The activity - packed three days began promptly at 9 a.m. October 15 in Atlanta with the directors splitting into groups for day long schedules of board meetings and inspection tours of Central of Georgia industrial districts and Inman Yard's rail welding plant, track fabricating plant, spot freight car repair tracks, Pegram Shop and the hump tower. Included on the tours also was a walk througha display of Southern's precedent setting freight car equipment and a look at the computer center and the hot box detection center - other sides of the Southern Railway's multi faceted effort to serve customers better and lower their total costs of transportation.

W. E. Dillard, left, Central of Georgia president, has some questions answered about the chain-tiedown cars.

The evening hours of that first day were taken up by a dinner meeting where the railway directors and local civic, business and government leaders exchanged points of view about past achievements, present efforts and future plans . . . where informed opinion on the South and its startling evolution into a pace-setting growth area was discussed in the context of Southern's and Central's determination to help fire that growth and stay in step with it.

Directors watch panel track being installed at the Southern's Inman Yard.

At 9 p.m. that first day, 12 hours after its activities had gotten under way, the directors were aboard a train headed north toward Chattanooga, Tenn., and a second day of meetings and inspection tours. The directors had a good deal to discuss during that first night.

In the Accounting Department computer center, directors were brought up to date on how a mass of data about railway operations is processed.

They had seen how Inman Yard can handle more than 3,000 cars on a busy day, breaking up inbound trains and quickly building outbound trains for timesaving, safe passage of a shipper's freight through toward destination.

Directors visiting the hot box detector center in Atlanta examine the record produced by the passage of a train past a track-side detector unit.

They had seen how better car utilization results from the computerized operations of the car location center, where information recorded on magnetic tapes tells on the basis of all available facts - where cars will be needed, when and in what volume.

Directors saw in the hot box detection center how track-side detection units record journal box temperatures on trains moving throughout the system.

They had seen how the Accounting Department's computer center processes a staggering mass of data to keep railroad people fully informed about everything Southern and Central are doing today . . . to the end, that these tasks can be done better tomorrow.

They were able to discuss how reports from 32 major terminal points flow minute - by - minute into the car location center, how these reports, through freight car identification numbers, are programmed onto magnetic tapes so that all available. information about the location and progress of any given shipment can be revealed almost instantly.

At Inman and Citico yards, the directors saw how cars are quickly and safely handled in getting a customer's freight to destination.

They had seen how Southern's hot box detection center operates to help insure safe, trouble - free movement of trains over many thousands of miles of track.They had watched panel track being assembled and welded rail being produced; they had visited the spot car-repair shop where freight cars needing repair attention get it promptly to put cars back where they belong moving over the railway, loaded with freight.

They had seen on that long, busy first day a lot of railroaders making intelligent use of the best machinery and techniques. that are available to serve customers well. And they saw more of the same on the second day of their trip when they visited Citico Yard in Chattanooga. There they watched preventive maintenance and routine inspection being done on the diesels that move our trains, work skillfully done on motive power that receives much better care than the average person's automobile.

From the hump tower at Inman Yard, the directors watched inbound trains broken up for classification of cars into outbound trains.

They saw that what needs fixing or replacing on Southern diesels is fixed or replaced from readily available stocks of materials and parts including entire engines. They also saw at Citico Yard, as the day before at Inman Yard, how modern technology is utilized to give expeditious, safe handling to thousands of freight cars daily so that more customers will "get ever better service on Southern and Central, hence will ship over these railroads the greater volumes of freight which mean more jobs for railroaders.

In spot car repair shops, directors saw how freight cars needing repair are quickly returned to the big job of hauling freight.

A heavy percentage of the cars handled in Citico Yard arrives in Chattanooga over the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway Conrpany, which Southern operates as its CNO&TP division.

The directors spent the third and final day of their inspection trip on the CNO&TP, taking a close look at the recently completed line relocation which contemporary history has marked down as the biggest railroad construction project in this country in half a century or more. In Tennessee's brisk morning air, the directors took seats in open - side tourfcars attached to the rear of the special train at Oakdale, Tenn., the southernmost point on the CNO&TP line relocation.

In Citico Yard's diesel shop, directors were told how preventive maintenanCe and routine inspection mean better care for the railways' motive power than most private autos get.

Equipment displays which included this Southern Railway "Big Boy" car gave directors a good idea of how the determination to do a better job of hauling more at less total cost of transportation is returning more freight to the rails.

Upon arrival in Chattanooga, the directors were asked by local newspaper photographers to pose for this formal shot.

Chattanooga, these directors leave Citico Yard Diesel Shop, where they saw that the sign above the doorway means what it says it can be done.

Riding in open-side tour cars, directors get a good look at the high and wide tunnel portal of a new CNO&TP tunnel.

At Oakdale, Tenn., rai' way directors, wearing topcoaf against the autumn chill, boar open-side tour cars for the il1 spection run up the CNO&TJ

There, Southern's Chief Engineer I. F. Beaver took microphone in hand and began his narration of the story of how men and machines had been committed to the monumental and ambitious task of changing the very face of nature between Oakdale and Kings Mountain, Ky.; how this ambition was pursued for 18 months, working around the clock when and where circumstance permitted; and how, when the job was done, Southern had built almost 25 miles of new railroad, had built one of the highest railroad bridges in America, had changed the natural course of a river so it would not interfere with operation of the line in years to come . . . how Southern had opened up tht CNO&TP and consigned "the rathole division" to tht past in order to make room for the present and for the future on a new, high, wide and handsome railroad. Travelers on the tour train saw heavy-tonnage freights rolling easily and swiftly over the reduced grades and gentler curves of this new railroad without any restriction through the cuts and tunnels that are now high enough and wide enough to accommodate all the freight which Southern can forsee being carried on the rising tide of commerce that will flow between Cincinnati and the South.

In auditorium car as the tour train sped north, President Brosnan addressed Interstate and NO&NE directors.

A stop at the New River Bridge gave directors time to study the structure, which is 307 feet, 5 inches high.

The north-bound inspection train crosses the New River Bridge-third highest railroad bridge in the United States.

High rock walls tower above the tour train TollIng out of Kings Mountain cut, northernmost CNO&TP project.

At 5 p.m. that third day, the train bearing the directors pulled into Cincinnati Union Terminal. Except for a dinner meeting with civic and business leaders in Cincinnati, that evrning, the trip was ended.

In Southern's yards and shops, the directors had seen the railway's muscle; in the electronic circuitry of computer operations, the directors had seen the railway's nerve pathways; they had traveled along one of the major arteries which in the traffic it bears carries a significant amount of economic nourishment for the Southern and the South.

They had seen some of the new freight cars that daily roll along Southern's rails - the "Big Johns," the "Big Boys," the tri-level auto carriers, the "All-Door" cars, S:le chain-tiedown lumber cars with their high bulkhead ends, and others. They had seen some of the new industries that have grown up alongside the Southern tracks which serve them; they had seen the beginnings of other industries, they had seen room for much more growth, and they had seen healthy signs of prosperity in the communities that depend on Southern and Central for volume movement of freight at the lowest prices consistent with the need to make a profit from work done.

The "concentrated short course in modern railroading" had shown them beyond doubt that, as Mr. Brosnan had said at the start, Southern and Central are indeed working "to increase our usefulness furnishing ever better service, trying to save money for our customers and make money for our owners." .

And: Jobs Follow the Freight! .