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FIG. 37.-JAPANESE-BUILT SUPERHEATER LOCOMOTIVE.

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FIG. 38.-SECTION OF GOODS TRAIN ON JAPANESE GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS.

made in Germany, with the result that the present equipment consists of American, British, German, and Japanese locomotives, with a mixture of the corresponding national practices. The Japanesebuilt engines follow rather closely the general British practice.

PASSENGER CARS.

As already mentioned, passenger-car equipment is built on the widest limits consistent with stability on track of 3-foot 6-inch gauge, even with the moderate speed of the Japanese railways. This equipment includes all the classes of cars needed to handle the three classes of passengers traveling, including sleeping and dining cars. The maximum permissible height is 12 feet 6 inches and the maximum outside width 8 feet 10 inches; and the present maximum length is approximately 56 feet between buffer faces and 36 feet between kingpins of trucks (bogies). Ball screw couplings of the British type are used with side buffers. Figure 36, facing page 269, shows multiple electrical equipment used in the Tokyo suburban service and illustrates the ball couplers and buffers used. The passenger rolling stock except that in this electrical district is equipped with vacuum brakes. The freight equipment, however, is generally only provided with hand brakes operated by side levers as illustrated by figure 38.

GOODS WAGONS.

The term "goods wagons" is used for the reason that a very large portion of the freight equipment consists of four-wheeled open and covered wagons, as illustrated by the assorted outfit of cars shown in figure 38.

Wheels on all equipment, except a small amount of American equipment, represent the typical British practice of tired wheels with wrought iron or steel centers. The wheels under passenger equipment usually follow the British standard of 42 inches, but there is a considerable variety of wheels under the goods wagons, these being in some cases as small as 24 inches in diameter.

SERVICE CARS.

On March 31, 1916, there was a total of 942 service cars of all classes, of which 867 were construction cars-mostly of the grading type to shovel on and plow or shovel off. Twenty-three were snow plows, 8 were accident cars, and all of the others were gas or water tank cars. There is very little equipment in the way of wrecking or special work outfits along the lines of recent American practice, particularly as regards steam wrecking outfits.

WORKSHOPS.

There are 23 workshops, in which, for the year ended March 31, 1916, there were 13,560 workshop employees, comprising 12,352 workmen, 820 laborers, and 338 coolies. The average daily wage for the above year was 35.34 cents.

During the above year, after some two years of centralized control, this was abandoned and the shop control was decentralized by being returned to the jurisdiction of the several divisions. That is the present arrangement.

The most important, or what might be called the main division, workshops in the order of their importance are as follows: Omiya, 16 miles north of Tokyo; Takatori, a short distance west of Kobe; Kokura, a short distance west of Moji; O-i, in one of the districts of Tokyo; and Naebo, near Sapparo on the North Island. The principal function of the railway workshops is to make all classes of repairs to all classes of rolling stock, although, as stated, some manufacturing of goods wagons and passenger cars is done at certain of these shops, particularly the O-i workshop, and there is also a considerable tendency in all of the larger shops toward the manufacturing of track materials.

PERSONNEL.

A directory of the general staff and division staffs is given on page 269. Particular attention is called to the inspection bureau in the Metropolitan Life Building, New York City, which is specially maintained in connection with the purchasing of materials in the United States.

The designations "engineer" and "secretary" are among the distinguishing features of the organization of the Imperial Government Railways of Japan, and the men thus designated are promoted along their particular lines, engineers in general administrative duties and secretaries along secretarial lines of work.

STORES AND PURCHASES.

In 1913 a centralized system of stores, with a controller of general stores, was put into effect, but in 1915, after two years' trial, this was found unsatisfactory, and a decentralized arrangement was adopted by which the business was placed largely under the control of divisions. Requisitions for stores to be bought are prepared by the divisions and submitted to the general office in Tokyo, which handles purchasing as a section of the financial bureau.

Mention has already been made of the proportion of foreign and domestic purchases, but in this connection it seems proper to quote from the 1915 annual report as follows:

In consequence of the policy of encouraging the purchase of articles of home manufacture pursued consistently by the Imperial Government Railways with the idea of supporting domestic industry, the value of orders placed in Japan has steadily risen for these several years, with the corresponding shrinkage of foreign purchase.

The foreign purchase for 1915-16 indicates a setback to the downward tendency of the preceding years, which is accounted for by the falling-off in the amount of domestic purchase on the one hand and on the other the abnormal appreciation of prices of imported articles due to the exigencies of the war.

As referred to under the caption of "The War and Rolling Stock Materials," the war seriously interfered with the supply of raw materials and finished articles from abroad, particularly in regard to steel, iron, and other metals, which, with the outbreak of the war, jumped to practically double the pre-war level. In the 1914-15 year, however, the rise in the quotations of these items did not affect materially the average cost per piece of the supplies, because no inconsiderable amount of stores had been contracted for before the war. In the following year, 1915-16, a gain of more than 50 per cent was shown in the average cost. The difficulty was further aggravated by the increased restriction on the supply, which, as stated above, operated to hamper the execution of the programs. Notwithstanding the heavy rise in the price of iron, steel, and other metals, the market of other supplies remained comparatively dull down to 1915, but the general level of quotations which took place thereafter resulted in the advance of 30 to 100 per cent in the price of coal, oils, cement, brick, timber, and other staple railway materials. The changed conditions might, indeed, have brought about serious derangement in the railway finances, were it not for the fact that before the war

orders had been placed for the whole stock of coal and oils, the bulk of the cement and brick, and a part of the timber.

Sleepers, too, rose in price as they were restricted in supply, but the railways managed to obtain them at the pre-war price under the convenient arrangements for securing them from the producers direct according to the practice in operation for several years.

Dr. Y. Shima, chief of the machinery and rolling-stock bureau, made a trip to America the latter part of 1917 and the early part of 1918 in connection with the purchasing of railway materials. One subject to which Dr. Shima gave special attention was the matter of axles and wheels and other parts required for the proposed widening of the gauge.

V. PRIVATE RAILWAYS AND LIGHT RAILWAYS.

INTRODUCTION.

It is not easy to decide how much space should be devoted to a consideration of private railways and light railways. While a study of these feeder railways, which have been built for the development of the various districts that they serve, would doubtless be interesting, it is not felt that any extensive reference would be justified on account of the small amount of business that they may be expected to supply (at least directly) to American manufacturers. At times, however, considerable business might come through the class of Japanese concerns already mentioned (see p. 141). The lines are all short. In no case is there as much as 100 miles of all tracks for any group of these roads, and they are generally under the control of local Japanese interests and management. A considerable part of the requirements in the past has been supplied by the Japanese Government Railways in the shape of light, second-hand materials or equipment. All purchases of new articles must conform to the specifications of the general administration bureau of the Imperial Government Railways. Many of the lines are built through very rough country, with heavy grades and sharp curves, generally using light rail, some of which is second hand from the Government Railways. The gauge of a great part of these lines is 3 feet 6 inches, although there is a very considerable amount of 2-foot 6-inch line, as well as some other widths, including a very small amount of 4-foot 81-inch.

CONSTRUCTION COST AND CAPITALIZATION.

The private railways, which are all of 3-foot 6-inch gauge, had cost on March 31, 1916, an average of approximately $55,500 gold per mile of line. The 3-foot 6-inch light railways cost approximately $31,500, the 2-foot 6-inch railways $17,700, and the average cost of all lines was $30,530. The aggregate construction cost of all these lines is shown as approximately $53,231,440, against which there is outstanding share capital, bonds, and floating debts of $74,739,555, or an average of $42,866 per mile of line.

OPERATING RESULTS AND PROFITS.

The following table shows the performance statistics of all the private railways and light railways in Japan, treated as one system, for the years ended March 31, 1912, 1914, and 1916:

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