A Few Hours' Talk with a Railroad Man (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...At this time there are practically but three freight classifications in use throughout the United States; namely, the Official classification, the Southern Railway and Steamship Association classification, and the Western classification. The application of these are as follows: First: --The official classification is used almost exclusively throughout the territory east of Lake Michigan, Chicago, and the Mississippi River, and north of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers to the Atlantic sea-board. Second: --The Southern Railway and Steamship Association classification is applied generally to roads south of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi River to the seaboard. Third: --The Western classification governs the territory north and west of Chicago, west of a line drawn from Chicago to St. Louis, and west of the Mississippi River, St. Louis to New Orleans. In each of the three divisions of territory described exceptions to these particular classifications are made to some extent by state commissions, and by individual roads for state or local traffic. Traffic carried between different points in the sections above described is usually taken at either one or the other of these leading classifications. For example, the classified traffic from the Atlantic sea-board to the Pacific coast is carried under the Western classification; traffic from Chicago to Atlanta, Ga., is carried under the Southern Railway and Steamship Association classification. The territory throughout which the official classification is shown to govern is the largest both in point of tonnage and communities served. At the date of the passage of the act to regulate commerce, one hundred and thirty one (131) railroad companies within the territory defined above as governed by the official