The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-06-25
A PECULIAR OCCUPATION.
WALKING RAILROAD TRACKS FOR
A LIVING.
Faithful Pedestrians Who Coutin-
ualIy Patrol the Track IN Search
of ObstruCtions-Thei Outfits.

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 service of which
the "track walker belongs. They are
the safeguard of travel which the public
knows least about. They prevent hun
dreds of accidents, but their good deeds
are rarely if ever rewarded, as is the
case with the faithful engineer or flag
man. And it is peculiar fact that there
is no line Of promotion, consequently no
great incentive to careful work.
A New York Sun reporter got some
ideas about their duties from Thomas
Sesnan, now foreman of section of
trackmen in the yard of the Grand Cen
tral Station in that city. Sesnan has been
employed on the track work of the Har-
lem Railroad for forty-two years, and is
now looked upon as "A patriarch among
the trackmen. lie has had charge of a
gang for the last eighteen years; before
that he was a trackman himself. lie says
that he helped to lay the second trac k
of the Harlem 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
to four miles, if double A foreman
with gang of five or six men keeps
each section in order. All but one are
trackmen, who are kept busy making
repairs. That one is the track walker
who patrols the track all day long with
an eye out for weak points and obstruc-
tions that might cause accidents. OF
course there is Il second walker at night
| who does the same work.
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 or three
miles an hour. A man might hurry over
| the entire ground inside of an hour, but
| he couldn't look at every bolt and rail
connection. as his duties require. If it's
Il doublc-track road he walks on the
track facing the direction from which the
| train is coming and examines only one
track at Il time. He takes the other
track on the way back, \ track walker
gets over the ground, as far as he is able,
Just before the trains pass over his sec
tion. But he keeps at work all day long,
and if he has Il double track divided into
three mile sections, he ought to make
about three round trips a day over each
track This would make day 5 average
of twenty-four miles.
IAN experienced track walker can tell 4
loose bolt at glance. Sometimes it will
be caused by Il broken rail, and he will
see tina. the joints do not fit. Generally
a loose joint will be indicated by dis
turbance of the earth, causing Il crevice
between the sleeper and the rail. In this
case the track walker props the rail with
thin piece Of wood, which he must car,
ry 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 cant handle, the track
walker puts torpedoes on the tracks and
uses his red flag to warn passing train.
Then he leaves his patrol and informs the
foreman and trackman rs soon as possible.
In emergency cases at night the track
walker wraps his red flag about the ian
| nj Il
also
II never heard of a track walkers be-
ing promoted to better paying position.
Once track walker always track
walker
Anybody can get such job, then, y
suggested the reporter.
"Not bit of it," retorted the patri-
arch "You couldn't, for instance. I'd
lie to see you bolt one of those angle
plates; and you'd have TO do it in case OF
emergency. A man must have experience
as trackman first. The foreman picks
his track walker out of the trackmen.
Their pay is all the same-about 81, ,35 a
day. But if there is any promoting be-
ing 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 tc
get up in the world.
"As a rule, track walkers keep at it all
their lives. A man who worked under
me on the section between Philmont and
Craryyille, on the Harlem road, a strip
six miles long, made two round trips a
day. He started out at Philmont at >
A. M, and by the end Of the first round
trip Of twelve miles it was noon aud he
got dinner. Another trip and he gave
way to another man at > =. NJ. This man,
Michael McGrath, kept up his twenty
! four miles walk about every day in the
year for eighteen years. Reckoning 300
days to the year, this makes more than
155, 900 miles Many track walkers
have kept it up longer A man on the
Erie says he has walked more than 2OO,'
600 miles.
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