, 1890-02-04
TRAIN D~ISPATcRERs.
Ono az Their Number Tells Something
About Ais Duties.

NN"oo Isle 6omeNhIuk
About His Duties.
Tell me something about the train
dispatcher's work" said the young
man from The Herald to the hand
some, brown bearded young train dis
patcher of the Ftchburg road the other
day.
There is nothing to be told, " the
train dispatcher said, modestly.
Nothing than an outline of
the details of the work" he added.
You see, there have been SO man
queer stories told about the experien-
ces that We fellows meet that every
body is disappointed in the truthful
account of our actual duties. We are
not heroes. you know, or anything
like that, and we do our part Of the
work thoroughly, I know, and unos-
t~entatiously, I hope. A train dis
patcher must be quite a perfect work
man or he is totally valueless. 1t isn't
a business where a man may make a
mistake and then rectify it and go
ahead. The excus of didn't know
doesn't go at all, and the plea of
never do it again can't be considered
for an instant. One mistake is fatal.
Therefore, a train dispatcher is kept so
busy thinking all the time that he
neve gets a chance to be romantic or
sentimental. There is a certain ex-
hilaration of conscious glory, I sup
pose, in the position of the man who
holds his hand on the lever and peers
steadily into the darkness, whittier his
engine is plunging, but it is the least
exciting kind of work to sit quietly at
a little desk in a stuffy room, and lis
ten to the dreary monotone of the
clicking telegraph"
Despite this d~iscouraging prelude,
The Herald man found much to inter
est him in what he learned of train
dispatchers and their work. The office
where these useful servants of the
railroad company sit is never empty,
and the sound of the telegraph instru-
ment is never still there. At any hour
of the day or night somebody may be
found in the room with a pencil in
his hand and paper before him. The
train dispatcher records each train and
its position as fast as the information
in over the wire. The train
sheet is the record. 1t is a great sheet
of paper with blanks for the names of
the engineers and conductors, and the
number Of the engines and cars on the
road at any given time. This train
sheet is made up of the reports that
each station operator sends in. At any
time of the day that a train passes the
operator the number of the engine
and the number of the cars are tsle-
graphed Immediately to the train dis
patcher, with the names of the con-
ductor and engineer. By this means
h train dispatcher manages to keep
every train located and to know its
precise situation and the persons re-
sponsible for it.
TO give you an idea of the work"
said the train dispatcher, 'flet me sub
NIT some illustrations. The rule of the
road is that freight trains must keep
ten minutes away from passenger
trains. II they get nearer than ten
minutes ahead of passenger trains
they must lay off IN to the side track.
Sometimes the calculation Of the
freight conductor is wrong, because
the train behind him is late. he would
have to keep the train shunted, never
theless, if it were not for the train dis
patcher, who disadvantages what might
be serious snarls. With his knowledge
of the situation of each train, he can
provide for the relief of the freight.
The train d~ispatcher's functions are an
omalous. Whereas nearly every other
employe follows orders literally in all
things, the train dispatcher is called
upon every hour of the day to exer-
else his individual Judgment And
there is hardly an employee on the
road about whom the public. has so
vague and inadequate an impression.
While the details of his work are In
Vulnerable, they are details that are
self born every day and that cannot be
foreseen Boston Herald.