Railroads and Foresters 



of constant tie replacement, naturally 

 became one of the first organizations 

 in the country to establish wood pres- 

 ervation plants whose function was to 

 impregnate wood with chemicals which 

 guarded them against decay, length- 

 ened their useful life, and reduced the 

 volume of wood needed. 



The companies that supply the rail- 

 roads conduct research to find better 

 ways to use wood; the railroads them- 

 selves are continually making tests to 

 prove or disprove the adaptability of 

 new products, to find superior mate- 

 rials and to improve old methods, and 

 further the forest-products research. A 

 typical example of increasing the life 

 of the forest products is that of treating 

 cross ties with creosote. 



In 1937, Glass I railroads required 

 in maintenance of their tracks 9,594,- 

 370 untreated cross ties and 35,554,782 

 treated cross ties. In 1946 the number 

 of untreated ties dropped to 1,840,765, 

 with the treated ties used for replace- 

 ment totaling 35,429,179. The greater 

 use of treated ties has had a direct 

 bearing on replacement; within this 

 10-year period, 7,879,208 fewer ties 

 were placed in service. An indication 

 of the amount of money involved is the 

 outlay of $64,274,000 the first 8 months 

 of 1947 by Glass I railroads for cross 

 ties. Another example: One railroad, 

 the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Com- 

 pany, in 1946 alone, purchased 997,- 

 000 cross ties, 5,083,000 board feet of 

 treated and untreated switch ties, 12,- 

 419,000 board feet of lumber, and 337,- 

 000 feet of piling for its 4,000 miles. 



Railroads, which are among the 

 largest users of forest products, have 

 an enormous stake in the future tim- 

 ber supply. No satisfactory substitute 

 has been developed for the wood ties. 



The railroads derive millions of dol- 

 lars in revenue from forest products 

 in their many forms which they trans- 

 port, such as logs, lumber, shingles, 

 lath, pulpwood, rosin and turpentine, 

 printing paper, paper bags, wrapping 

 paper, paperboard, pulpboard, wall- 

 board, and wood pulp. 



In the southern district (those States 



east of the Mississippi, and south of the 

 Ohio and Potomac Rivers, including 

 Virginia, North and South Carolina, 

 Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennes- 

 see, Alabama and Mississippi), Class 

 I railroads, with a total mileage of 

 35,000, loaded 741,716 cars with for- 

 est products in 1944 and 823,146 cars 

 in 1947. 



In turn, the railroads spend large 

 sums to develop equipment to facili- 

 tate the movement of this class of ton- 

 nage, to lower costs, and to provide 

 more safely for the loads. One of the re- 

 sults of this endeavor is the woodrack 

 car, which is used in hauling pulpwood. 

 When the pulp and paper industry be- 

 gan its initial construction in the 

 South, low-side gondolas, high-side 

 gondolas, and box cars were used to 

 move pulpwood. The woodrack car 

 has effected cost savings in both load- 

 ing and unloading pulpwood. The 

 Seaboard Air Line Railroad has in con- 

 struction enough woodrack cars to 

 serve all paper mills along its lines. 

 More than 2,000 such cars are in use. 



Because railroads recognize the im- 

 portance of forest products as a source 

 of income and of material for opera- 

 tion and maintenance, they are inter- 

 ested in the management of forests. 

 Some of the earliest hand-plantings of 

 trees were made by railroads. The em- 

 ployment of foresters by railroads dates 

 from the turn of the century, largely, 

 at first, in the fields of wood utiliza- 

 tion, preservation, and purchasing. 

 Now railroads employ foresters to man- 

 age company-owned lands, assist land- 

 owners, youth groups, and others with 

 their woodland problems, and to fur- 

 ther the work of conservation of timber 

 resources, planning in reforestation, 

 and fire prevention. 



Fourteen railroads now employ 24 

 foresters. They are the Atlantic Coast 

 Line Railroad; Central of Georgia 

 Railway Company; Chicago and 

 North Western Railway; Erie Rail- 

 road; Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Rail- 

 road; Illinois Central Railroad; New 

 York Central System; New York, New 

 Haven and Hartford Railroad Com- 



