The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-01-06
How RAILROAD Men Time Trains.

Every railroad issues TWO tliue usschc"
whenever the running time OF trans Is
changed, one table for the public ana
one for the guidance of engineers anu
trainmen. The main difference between
the two is that the schedule for the en-
ployes contains the time OF every tram
ut every station on its route, whereas
the schedule for the public only gives
the time at places where the trains stop
Dots and daSgers and letters alongside
of the time figures explain to the epgl-
neer and conductor at what points and
why he is to stop. The absence OF these
show that the train is not to stop at all.
There is naturally nothing about the
conduct of railroad on which more time
and care are spent than these time
tables, and the growth of railroadlng
between the period not many years ago,
when the Philadelphia express was held
at Newark or elsewhere for some regular
passenger who had been belated, and the
present time, when trains that run dist
ances of 500 miles can be relied on to be
at any point on their route on schedule
time, is shown most clearly in the equal
growth of the timetable. The half
minute appears for the first time in the
schedule about to be issued for the New
York division of the Pennsylvania Rail
road. Minutes has been fine enough di-
visions of time before. 1t is explained
that the half minute has forced itself into
recognition Modern railroading is SO
fast, stations have grown so close to-
gether, and the movement of trains has
become so regular that this fine division
of time not only can be but has to he
made. Nothing greater than half o
minute will apply to train running at
the rate of sixty miles an hour between
New Brunswick and East Brunswick
stations, which are just half a mile apart.
The time table in question has many
other new features. II is to govern the
movements of 226 passenger trains ev-
cry day. 1t is no longer an unhandy
chart three feet long by two feet wide,
like its predecessors, but thin, narrow
book, such as some other railroads long
ago saw the wisdom of issuing. Its
novel features are that its type is kept
standing, and when any trains time is
changed, instead of the change being
published, as has always been done, on
separate sheet, apt to be mislaid or
lost, the page on which it occurs will be
corrected and reprinted, to be pasted
into all the books by a man whose spe-
cial duty that will be, and who will stamp
the back of each corrected book before
returning it. The Sunday trains are on
yellow leaves, to distinguish them from
the others, which are on white paper.
Bound with the time table is collection
of diagrams, showing the position of the
tracks and signals at the principal juno
tions and points where the switches are
complicated. 1t is said that engineers
learn by heart the switches on certain
tracks upon which they are accustomed
to run, and master thoroughly the
switches governing those, but they are
thoroughly at sea when, by reason of a
blockade caused by wreck or other If
regularity, they receive telegraphic or
used to. The diagrams give them the
fullest information by means of picture
which admits of no misunderstanding
Heretofore when special train was
to start a calculation of about what speed
it was to run at was made, according to
the condition of the road at the time
warranted. If it was at night when the
road is lined with freight trains, a high
rate of speed was not considered as safe
as in the daytime, but whenever it was
the engineer received his orders to run at
the rate determined upon. If he hap
pened to be very intelligent and self
possessed man, used to irregular per-
formances, he would keep up an even
rate of speed, but the chances were great
that he would run like lightning half the
time, then loaf the rest OF the way. In
all cases the fact that he was coming
would have been telegraphed ahead all
over the line and every freight engineer
along the line would be uneasy and anx-
ious to seek siding until the extra
rumbled by and the danger was past.
The signal men and the operators in the
despateher's Office were also on tcnter-
hooks trying to determine his where
abouts and the time of his arrival at
points ahead, Now, with the new sched-
ule, all are to be informed that an extra
leaving at such time will run at suchsa
rate, and every man interested can sat
iSfy himself by reference to the tables
Just where the extra is or will be at any
given moment. In cases where a train
from the west is behind hand two, three,
or four hours, as is sometimes the case
when a wreck blocks the road, it is to be
by telegraph. The schedule is
to be of use again in governing trains
run as second sections of regular trains.
Now they are indicated by a flag carried
ahead of the engine of the regular, but
that entails their being run on the same
time, which may be faster than is neces-
sary. Hereafter they will be run on one
of the new schedules, and announced
ahead over the wires. Railroad men
who have considered this invention say
that it is wonder that railroad could
ever have been run without them. A
man, who was trying to think
up all the possible uses of the new sched-
ule, said that there is millionaire cattle
dealer in Princeton who frequently
orders special train, as well as young
New Yorker who engages one whenever
he is on lark.
''He always has friend with him."
said he, land he seems to think that
the thing to do is to have a train all to
The other day he came-it
was the third or fourth time-and said
he wanted to go to Philadelphia as quick
as possible. He was told it would cost