The Red Cloud chief., 1884-03-28
Running Trains by Signal.

Aidou Z SuduSCtt ~ thS Iiutt u w
cepting that it is easier now that they
have double tracks where they used &c
have single. No. there's no secret abou,
it; 1 don't mind telling you how
it is done, but I'm afraid you'll find it sc
simple it will not make very interesting
reading matter for your paper: First,
you know, there are divisions of a rail
road. For instance, the main line OF
the old Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
road, where I used to work. is divided
into three ~dispatchers' divisiOns-the
first from Chicago to Mendoza; the sec
Ond from Mendota to Galesburg. and the
third from Galesburg west to Quincy
and Burlington. / used to work at Au-
rora. and we had charge of the first, OF
east division. When a regular train
was ready to leave ChicagoOn its sched-
ule time it started without orders. each
telegraph operator on the line reporting
to US when the train passed his station.
This report we entered ON q sheet kept
| always before US. and at a glance We
could tell where every train on our divi-
sion was ut any time. If a train was
not ready to leave ON or near its
schedule time it lost its right to tho
road, and had to run as an extra. An
extra train always had to have orders
before it could leave the Chicago yard"
"HOw do trains get those Orders:?"
"Well, when Conductor Smith, say,
is ready to pull out of Chicago he goes
to the telegraph Office and asks for his
orders. The operator tells the dispatcher
at Aurora that the train is ready to start,
and the dispatcher sends a regular tcle-
gram to the conductor and engineer of
the train. If the train is TO III wild the
telegram reads:
ITO Conductor and Engineer Train No. Il
flor instance,: Run to Aurora as a wild train
''1his is signed by the chief train dis
patchcr. Then the conductor sends an
answer to the chief dispatcher, thus:
81 understand I am to run to Aurora rs u
THE dispatcher replies thus:
"'TO John Smith, Conductor No. Is: Your
understanding Is correct
1.-THE conductor now delivers a COPY of
the order to the engineer, and the train
is ready to start. OF course. abbrevia-
tons are used in much ofthis telegraph
ing. For instance, the conductors I'M
Outstanding OF his order is sent Over the
line thus; .l3, run to Aurora rs a wild
train'-13 meaning L understand: and
the diSpatcher's reply to this is simply:
TO John Smith. conductor No. Is; o.
K with the dispatcher's initials"
What is n wild train?"
. "a train that has to look ont for moth
ing on the road but regular trains. 1t
keeps put Of the way Of all trains that
have schedule time. that's all"
Suppose there are extra trains on the
road for this No. ID to meet, how do
you give orders them"
simply add where he is to meet
extras. As Run to Aurora as a wild
train. meeting extra, Brown conductor,
at HinSdale, and extra, Jones conduc-
tor, at Naperville.'"
but do you never hold regular trains
for extras?'
''Oh, yes. often. If a wild train can
gain more time than a regular train
would lose WI sometimes hold the regu-
lar train at a station until the wild train
gets there"
''HOw do YOU do that?"
well, suppose Smiths wild train
was coming west and | should see that
it could reach Hinsdale five minutes
later than the regular eastward bound
trains time for leaving therr: ! would
rather delay the regular train five
minutes than have the wild train wait
twenty or thirty minutes at Riverside, so
l send a telegram thus:
"'To the Operator. Hinsdalo: Held train No.
Il until 1850 o'clock for No. H.
''Then to the operator at Riverside l
send thus:
ITO Conductor and Engineer No. Is. River
side: Yon have until lU:55 O'Clock to make
Hinsdale for No. L.
There you see l have one train held
while another train is on the road"
GLOW does the operator at Hinsdale
stop No. T."
''As soon as he receives orders to
hold the train. he shows u green flag or
lantern which always Means that there
are telegr%phic orders for the train"
THAT seems very simple" said the
Daily Ncws representative. but often
there are many accidents attributed to
the d~isp~tchers."
Eyes, but most of the collisions that
are 40 attributed are results of careless
ness on the part of the line operators.
Sometimes al operator receives an or
der to hold Il train and forgets to show
his green signal. II the train does not
happen to stop ut that station regularly
it may go whizzing by and get away
the operator before he can catch
it. That is one cause of accidents. for
of course the other train thinks it has a
clear road and comes right along. An
other cause is the failure Of engineers 10
see the green light. This is not Of very
frequent occurrence, however. for n
are the most watchful men ON
l believe. l often wonder how
they manage to see everything along
the road and keep watch of their ma
chinery and clocks and steam-gauges
and time-cards all ut the same time"
GLOW do di>patchers keep this record
sheet of which YOU speak?'
They have a sheet ruled into squares.
The lines across the sheet Indicate the
on the road and the lines up
and down show the trains. Every time
train is reported as passing Il station
the dispatcher marks The time in the
square that indicates both that train and
that station. Thus, if train No. l.
Riverside at 9:lO the dispatcher
those figures in the square that
is below the number of the train and 10
the right or left OF the nam of hat sta
lion. a glance, therefore. shows him