Word: ballasted
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...this severe cut may be a blessing in disguise. The decisions may mean the difference between profits and bankruptcy for many a railroad after the war. With capitalizations cut to the ballast, fixed charges down to a minimum and strong-boxes bulging with leftover wartime cash, all well-managed roads now should not merely be alive but should also be in first-class shape to fight truckers, shippers and airline operators for postwar business. For the whole U.S. economy this was good news...
Three hundred newspapers in seven western States are carrying this help-wanted ad to lure white collar men to the railroads-to tamp ballast, replace ties, hoist the heavy rails. As war cargoes ride the rails and troopships wait at the railheads, workers on the roadbeds are needed more and more. But before it advertised for white-collar hands, Southern Pacific cautiously experimented...
Below, the cabin had suddenly become a welter of men, clothes, dishes, gear. Water pouring down her hatch had hurled the skipper bodily out of the chartroom and into the galley. Around the cabin, like dice in a box, skittered 50-lb. chunks of lead ballast. A potbellied stove, torn from its moorings, crushed the ribs of Seaman James T. Watson. There were five other men below. They tried to lash things down and ladle the water out. The men on deck tried to clear the wreckage of the mizzenmast. The 3070 lurched wildly...
...Brien and disgraced, re-enlisted Sailor George Murphy so predictably that by the picture's end they are brothers-in-law (with the help of Nurse Jane Wyatt). It also comes through at the seams, so abundantly that it is sometimes hard to see the ballast for the bilge...
Both these period novels trick out huzzy-ish heroines and irresistible, blackguardly heroes in hoop skirts and heelstrapped pants. Both ballast the light fantastic course of love with a few tons of lore from the national past. Both are light heavyweights in length (593 and 652 pages, respectively). Both are fun to read. Drivin' Woman has already run to 150,000 copies (including the Literary Guild), brought its author $75,000 from M.G.M...