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January, 1926 Freight Handling Costs (Continued from Page 27) heavy crated machinery and the like. Three classifleations are made “Albany” “Delaware & Hudson off of Albany” and “Troy”. Separate trains of trailers are made upon this division but in loading no effort is made to keep to- gether single consignments consisting of several pieces. As soon as a train is made up by a man whose job it is to do this and nothing else, a tractor driver takes hold and moves. the trailers directly onto the boat. There TRAIN STARTING FROM RECEIVING BULK- HEAD FOR SHIP ALONGSIDE DOCK AT FARTHER END the trailers may or may not be un- loaded depending upon the size and shape of the merchandise carried. Heavy pieces as well as small pack- ages are ordinarily shipped on trailers to eliminate needless rehandling. Packages of medium weight that can readily be handled by one man are ordinarily taken off and stowed. In unloading at New York this procedure is exactly reversed. Hand truckers take out shipments that are to be stored on the pier near the gangway. Trailers on board are usually moved directly to a storage area where the load remains until called for by con- signee. Shipments that are to be moved a considerable distance up the pier are loaded onto trailers in the boat and are moved to point of storage in train. Volume Handled Runs High Approximately 1300 tons of miscel- laneous cargo is ordinarily handled on every working day at the New York pier; about 1000 tons passes over the Albany dock while at Troy 800 tons represents a day’s average. The tide is felt as far north as Troy NAR DN ERE V1 EW. but at that point seasonal high and low water creates the most telling variation in the grade of the ramp leading from dock level to the boat. Probably at no points are the advant- ages of power handling equipment over the hand truck more pronounced than in working freight either on the boat or off against a grade. At Albany, for instance, where there is always a grade of 6 per cent or more, a river man who has watched the development of the tractor trailer method from its infancy recently stated that ‘thirty men would be 35 between 6 and 9 o’clock in the morn- ing. Both tractors are kept rushing during this period. Freight off the boat is classified by consignment in sections marked A to Z at the north end of the dock, where it is stored free of charge for 72 hours. Delaware and Hudson shipments are transferred directly to cars. Frequently 36 cars are loaded and an equal number un- loaded in a day. Tractors Assist Hand Truckers The performance of the tractors at Albany as far as actual transfer work is concerned is much the same as at New York except that hauls are longer because of the long dock. At extreme low water there are times when both of the tractors are used in pulling up heavy trailer trains. Again the handling of heavy machinery is frequently accelerated by using the tractors to snake it into place. When hand trucks are used the tractor fre- quently ‘stands by’ at the gang plank to give the truckers a lift up the grade. The last job of the day at all three points is pulling in the gang- EMPTY TRAIN LEAVING THE SHIP AT THE FORWARD GANGPLANK required to do what our two tractors are regularly doing.’ The dock at Albany is long (1400 feet) and narrow (40 feet) being situated alongside the river. This ar- rangement is obviously not ideal from the point of view of economical han- dling by manual methods. On the other hand the physical conditions to be met are such that no other layout is possible. An 18 car siding of the Delaware and Hudson railroad has been provided adjacent to the pier to facilitate handling of the large amount of freight that either originates on this line or is consigned to points thereon. The up-boat is usually unloaded planks—apparently a strenuous under- taking but very simply accomplished by the mechanical mule. The Troy dock of the company, while handling less freight is probably better laid out for the work to be done than either of the other two. Two ramps, each about 40 feet long, with an average drop in that distance of 12 feet run from the dock down to each of two gangways that are worked. The dock proper is 150 feet long and 200 feet wide. In building this dock levels were arranged so that there would be a drop of one foot, either from the front or from the back of the dock to (Continued on Page 48)