Excellent email John! Yes, many of us younger folks are not aware of how
?self-contained? most railroads were.
I do need to make a minor correction, though. The Burlington did have at
least one hospital that I?m aware of ? the one at Burlington in the late
19th century.
Dave Lotz
Pooler, GA
-----Original Message-----
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of cbqrr47
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 10:22 PM
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CBQ] Railroad Operations
The question about painting depots got me to thinking and I realized a lot
of those on this list and the younger fellows especially don't understand
how the railroads operated. Most major railroads, the Q included were self
contained, self suffient machines. After the Civil War when railroads really
began to grow, there was only one model for large organizations in America.
That was the military. This is not always efficient, as any of us who have
served in the military can atest. The railroads not only built much of their
physical plant but they maintained it as well. The same can be said for
equipment. They built most of it and maintained all of it including cleaning
up wrecks. They maintained huge stores departments and transported their
supplies. They maintained and operated their own telephone and telegraph
system. They had their own mail system. They housed, fed and tranported many
of their employees. Many railroads ( not the Q however) had their own
hospitals. The Q did have an employee health insurance plan, the Burlington
Relief. BTW on the railroad, the word "employee" was spelled "employe". Much
of the way the railroad was run was reflected in the working agreement rules
for the various crafts. The railroad had it own police force and at many
terminals there were fire brigades. Steam switch engines carried fire hoses.
The company had water systems many places and at a few points generated
their own electrical power. They had their own sales force (the traffic
department). They even had their own real estate agents. On the Q, there
were baseball/softball teams, shop bands, and in the general office in
Chicago there was a choral club. Many railroads had social clubs. On the Q,
they were called Burlington Boosters. So you see it was a lot more than just
running trains!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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