What Railroads do in 1 hour of any day!

Railway operations are so vast and railway statistics are so astronomical as to be almost beyond comprehension. However, we may gain some idea of the operations and performance of the railroads by considering some of the things the railroads do in an hour's time.
For each hour of the day and night more than 1,000 passenger and freight trains depart from their starting terminals and an equal number arrive at their destinations. Each hour of the day and night the railroads receive for shipment around 4,200 carloads of freight and deliver the same number of carloads of freight to destinations. They perform the equivalent of transporting 60 million tons of freight one mile and 4 million passengers one mile. They receive for
handling nearly 17 thousand express shipments and 1,300,000 pounds of United States mail.
For each hour of the day and night the railroads pay out about $100,000 for federal,nstate and local taxes; more than $200,000 for fuel, materials and supplies, and more than $500,000 in wages.