The sign (B) is used when a car is left at a station for repairs, while in transit. The sign (T) denotes that the lading was transferred to another car, a transfer record being kept showing to what car transferred; the sign (R), when a car is on hand at a station or yard for repairs. Shops are assigned numbers with an O prefix; the upper and lower spaces being used to show delivery to, or receipt from the shop, similar to the interchange record. For convenience the twenty-four hour system is used for recording time, and is shown in quarter-hours; thus, 10, 12^1, 18^2, 21^3, representing 10 A.M., 12.15 P.M., 6.30 P.M., and 9.45 P.M. This, used in the movement record, shows the running time on each division, or detention at train terminals. The "transfer" column shows the station at which the car was reported on the last day of the previous month, and the _arriving date_; also from what road received, with date. HOW TO FEED A RAILWAY. BY BENJAMIN NORTON. The Many Necessities of a Modern Railway--The Purchasing and Supply Departments--Comparison with the Commissary Department of an Army--Financial Importance--Immense Expenditures--The General Storehouse--Duties of the Purchasing Agent--The Best Material the Cheapest--Profits from the Scrap-heap--Old Rails Worked over into New Implements--Yearly Contracts for Staple Articles--Economy in Fuel--Tests by the Best Engineers and Firemen--The Stationery Supply--Aggregate Annual Cost of Envelopes, Tickets, and Time-tables--The Average Life of Rails--Durability of Cross-ties--What it Costs per Mile to Run an Engine--The Paymaster's Duties--Scenes during the Trip of a Pay-car. The commissary or supply department of a railroad is not unlike that of a large army. Like a vast army, its necessities are many, and the various departments which make up the whole system must be provided with their necessary requirements in order to accomplish the end for which it is operated. If, again, we regard a railroad as a huge animal, the quantity of supplies needed to fill its capacious maw is something overwhelming. It is always hungry, and the daily bill of fare (which includes pretty much everything known to trade) is gone through with an appetite as vigorous and healthy at the end as it exhibits in the beginning. Yet how few there are who realize the important part this one feature plays in the operation of the thousands of miles of railroad throughout the world! Upon the proper conduct of this department depends very largely the success of any road, so far as its relation to the stockholders is concerned; for while, as has been the case in the past, combinations and pools have aided in maintaining rates, and have served to increase the income, and attention has been paid to securing additional business in every possible way, the "out-goes" have often been overlooked, to the detriment of dividends and the general welfare of the property.