Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-06-06
WALKING A TRACK ron 4 LIVING.
Eta Useful Though Not a Pleasant ocs
patton, as Many Men Know.


patton, as Many Men Know.
Some of the old railroad track walkers
can boast of records equal to that of loco
motives in the point Of miles which they
have covered. Engineers sometimes claim
that they have ridden 100000 miles or SO,
but the men who have walked that far are
not often heard Of Still there are plenty
of them in the branch of the railroad serv-
ice of which the track walker" belongs.
They are the safeguard of travel which the
public knows least about. They prevent
hundreds OF accidents but their good deeds
are rarely, If ever, rewarded, as is the case
with the faithful engineer or 1agman.
And it is peculiar fact that there is no
line of promotion, consequently no great
incentive TO careful work
A reporter got some ideas about their
duties from Thomas Sesnan, now foreman
of a section Of tfacgmen in the yard of the
Grand Central station. Sesnan has been
employed on the track work of the Harlem
railroad for forty-two years, and is now
looked upon as a patriarch among the
trackmen. He has had charge Of gang
for the last eighteen years; before that he
was trackman himself. He says that he
helped to lay the second track of the Har-
lem road in 1913, over which the New
Haven road first entered the city.
"Every piece of railroad" he said, sis
divided into sections of from five to seven
miles, If it is single track, and from three
30 four miles, If double. a foreman with
gang of five or six men keeps each sec
ton in order. All but one are trackmen,
who are kept busy making repairs. That
one is the track walker, who patrols the
tracks all day long with an eye out for
weak points and distractions which might
cause accidents. OF course there is sec
ond track walker at night who does the
same work.
1.-THE track walkers outfit includes a
hammer, wrench, lantern, red flag few
torpedoes, bolts and spikes. No, he doesn't
walk at pedestrian speed. His gait
shouldn't be more than two to three miles
an hour. A man might hurry over the en-
tire ground inside of an hour, but he
couldn't look at every bolt and rail connec-
ton as his duties require. If it's a double
track road he walks on the track facing
the direction from which the train is com
ing and examines only one track at a time
He takes the other track on the way back
A track walker gets over the ground, as
far as he is able, just before the trains pass
over his section. But he keeps at work all
day long, and if he has a double track, di-
vided into three mile sections, he ought to
make about three round trips day over
each track. This would make days av
erage of twenty-four miles.
"An experienced track walker can tell a
loose bolt at Il glance. Sometimes it will
be caused by q broken rail, and he will see
that the joints do not fit. Generally a
loose joint will be indicated by disturb
ance of the earth, causing a creYice be-
tween the sleeper and the rail. In this
case the track walker props the rail with
thin piece of wood, which he must carry
in his outfit Fish plates and angle plates
are distributed along the line, and the
track walker sometimes has to replace
broken plates if there isn't time for the
section gang to come up before train is
due. In case Of broken rail or obstruc-
tions which he can't handle, the track
walker puts torpedocs on the tracks and
uses his red flag to warn a passing train.
Then he leaves his patrol and informs the
foreman and trackman as soon us possible.
IN emergency cases at night the track
walker wraps his red flag about the Ian
tern as n signal. Torpedoes are used also.
~ never heard of track walkers being
promoted TO better paying position. Once
Anybody can get such job, then, sug-
gested the reporter.
"Not bit of it," retorted the patriarch.
"You couldn't, for instance. I'd like to
see you bolt on one OF those angle plates;
and you'd have to do it in case of emer-
gency. A man must have experience as
brakeman first. The foreman picks his
track walker out of the trackmen. Their
pay is all the same-about 81 .35 day. But
if there is any promoting being DONE the
track walker is never the lucky one Some
trackman gets the raise. The track walker
must go back to the section gang again if
he expects TO get up in the world.
"As u rule, track walkers keep at it all
their lives A man who worked under me
on the section between Philmont and Crazy
VILE on the Harlem road, a trip six miles
long, made two round trips a day. lie
started from Philmont ut 3 q. m, and by
the end OF the first round trip of twelve
miles it was noon and he got dinner. An
other trip and he gave way to another man
nt5p. IN. This man, Michael McGrath,
kept up his twenty-fCur miles walk about
every day in the year for eighteen years.
Reckoning 800 days to the year, this makes
more that 5000 miles. Many track walk
ers have kept it up longer. A man on the
erie says he has walked more than 100000
miles.
"The unpleasant part comes in rainy or
wintry weather OF course if the snow is
six inches deep on the tracks, the track
walker can't see the rails, let alone the
loose bolts, and this il the only time he gets
n holiday But the chances are that lie
win have to turn in with the rest Of the
section gang aud help clear the road."--
New York Sun.