Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-08-27


eyes, sir, don't mind telling YOU why
it is" answered the conductor Of one Of
the accommodation trains running out of
the city, in response tOsa reporters in
quiry as to why his hair was so streaked
with gray, while his face indicated
young man scarcely over thirty. sat
twenty my hair was as black as coal.
Those streaks Of gray were caused by my
three or four years experience as
train dispatcher on great
trunk line running out of Chicago.
''PeOple who climb on passenger train
when she is two or three hours late, little
imagine what endless planning and man.
agement it takes to get her through safely
Let freight get behind time, and we can
handle her by running on another trans
time, but passenger breaks up every
thing on the road. A train-dispatcher
must be familiar with every circumstance
and every possible combination of cir
cumstances. He must know Just on what
portions of the road fast time can be made
and give orders accordingly. He must
never give an order for certain time to be
made unless he is positively certain that
the grade and condition Of the weather
will permit of such time being made
To-day ! may order a train to run from
station a to station b, and another for a
train to run from to a, when the same
order tomorrow would precipitate col
lisiOn.
You have got to know all the men on
the line. Why, on that road that |
worked on there would be engineers and
conductors that could never get a train
through on time. Then there were others
that would never be late except in case of
accident. Why, sometimes during my
eight hours of duty, | would give $50 train
orders. just think of that moment.
Here is a passenger train four hours late,
and freight train side-tracked at almost
| every station. OF course that puts every
train behind time. First / have to order
the operator to put out his flag and hold
the train for orders, and then | have to
send the order and wait for it to be
repeated back. AT the same time a
train may be passing a station five miles
away, when ] want to hold and side-track
her. All this time | must not only keep
clear track for the passenger train, but
musu unnecessarily detain the freights.
sometimes, right in the middle of a rush
of business like this, the wire will break.
or some operator will leave his kew
open. Then everything is to pay. For
tunately, the train dispatcher's order is
the law. Every employee is bound to
obey 1t. So we do not have to worry about
that.
Did L ever have an accident? No: but
I've come mighty near it. Once / left the
ant, and when | returned | found that he
had two trains running toward each other
on single track, and only a station be-
tween them. Fortunately | got message
to the station in time to flag the first train
that got there, but if one of them had
happened to pass there would have been a
fearful accident. 1t was very natural
mistake. My assistant had been with me
two years. He had everything side-tracked
all right, but he had forgotten the 'unwrit-
ten law of the road prohibiting two trains
on single track. On another occasion |
lost train"
"LOst a tramp
Eyes, sir; lost it completely. 1t was a
little late. 1t left +. twenty minutes be-
hind time. when 1t was ordered to a side
track for No. 3, fast express. f. and NJ.
were eleven miles apart, and No. 3 could
not leave +. until the local was reported
at NJ. Well, / waited an hour, and then
called NJ, who had the message for the
locals, and asked him where the freight
was. He didn't know. In the meantime
the express was at F., and the passengers
were getting mad. Thirty minutes more
and still no train. Then | ordered No. 3
to run cautiously to NJ. She did so. but
found no local. To say that we were
paralyzed is putting it mildly. Ten min
utes later, W., a little station near the
city, reported the local there. She had
got by NJ. in some way without disturb
ing the operator. Diogenes never hunted
so diligently for an honest man in the de-
generate days in which he lived as we did
for that train.'
"Whv did you leave the business?"
because l was growing a year older
every week. / had the work of ten men
on my shoulders. You often hear of the
brave engineer clinging with firm resolve
and calm resignation to the throttle while
the engine is plunging on toward inevi-
table destruction. His responsibility is
nothing. He has only a single train. and
he has no duty only to obey rules. The
train dispatcher has a hundred trains
under his finger that presses upon the
key. A moments delay to passenger
train, trifiing accident to a freight, and
the dispatcher is 'cussed.' The eight
hours you put in bending over your KEYS
seem like week. Your head swims and
grows dizzy beneath its awful response
bility. No more train dispatching for me.
if YOU please. L was offered that position
on this road at comfortable salary, but
told them all wanted was a tram. All
those gray hairs that you notice were
caused by my short experience as train
dispatcher
BATTLE CREEK, MICH, Jan. 81, 1879.