Omaha daily bee., 1892-02-02
SKETCHES OF RAILROAD LIFE
Story of Train Dispatcher's Fatal Mis-
take.
THRILLING PICTURE OF A WRECK
How the Accident Anectcd One of the Men
About whom Little is Heard "A
Friend of the Readily Rail
to Jerusalem.

after midnight, and all the wires on tho
eastern and western divisions were mo-
mentatily stilled. A depressed feeling
had freighted the atmosphere in the
Office all the evening. 1t had affected
every one. Even the wires appeared TO
suffer from it. When the saunders
began to rattle off ''os, os, os, which
prepared the dispatchers for the report
of some train passing far away station,
they sounded frightfully loud. Several
times Dispatcher DeForest had shud-
dercd ana screwed down the armature
of his instrument so that il would not
make so much noise.
At Il quarter past II the deep stiffness
of the room, only broken by tho slow,
monotonous ticking of the clock by
which the watches of all the employees
OF the road were regulated once II day,
echoed with the words of the telegraph.
The operator at r reported TO De-
spatcher De Forest that Conductor Nc
Gill of extra 100, loaded with fresh beef
bound east, wanted to know if he could
have ten minutes OF the time of No. ]. .
the west-bound night express, to mako
j.
"Old 10 just needs little shaking up,
McGill says, to take the kinks out of
its joints, the operator added.
De Forest cast his eye down upon his
train sheet, which told him at a glance
where every train out upon the road was.
Then he looked at the clock. j was
fifteen miles from r. IF he did not
allow McGill to use ten minutes of the
express trains time the meat train
would surely be delayed for an hour or
moro. All the dispatchers had orders
from the superintendent to give the
meat trains as much show as possible,
the road being bound by n contract to
get them through in specified time.
So De Forest sent the following official
order:
To Conductor and Engineer Extra 100:
Eastbound Extra No. One Hundred
u0O) has until twelve fifty (l2:5o) a. m.
to make j against westbound No.
| One (l). -, Supt.
Conductor McGill signed the order
and the operator at r repeated it
back according to the custom. Dis
patcher De Forest 80. K'd"it A min
said "O's" three times to attract De
Forests attention, and then reported
that Extra 100 had just arrived at 1910
a. m., and departed at l2:lo.
The dispatcher jotted down the time
on the train sheet and then began calling
the operator at t, three stations
east of j, where the extra freight
had orders to run. He wanted to send
the duplicate of the order to the express
train SO that it would wait at j for
the freight. The operator at
T did not answer, and after
a moment or more of steady
calling De Forest stopped. Dispatcher
st. John, VINO worked the second trick
from p. M to II D, IN. was i'll, and his
work had fallen upon his two colleagues.
And then, to make matters worse, Dis
patcher Thatcher had been taken sud
denly ill early in the forenoon and De
Forest was got out of bed to keep the
road from getting clogged up. There
were three other dispatchers in the
office, but they kept the western divi-
sion of the road in operation. They
were not familiar with the eastern dlvi-
sion, and consequently were OF no use.
This necessitated De Forests turn
ing out. He had sat at the
desk since early in the morn
ing, and with the terrible strain of
the position was in no condition for duty
that night. So when he failed to raise
the operator at t, he dropped his
head and stared at the train sheet on
the desk before him He was not asleep,
but there was Il temporary lapse in his
mind. The night express had passed
D., and the operator there had re-
ported it. This made it absolutely
necessary to get the orders to t be-
fore it ran that station. as there was no
other telegraph Office between that
point and j, where the freight was to
meet it, open at night.
Dispatcher De Forest sat motionless
| at his desk. while the big clock ticKed
| off the seconds loudly Finally the cast
| ern wire opened.
"Os, os, os, No. ! passed on time T"
| said the sounder slowly.
De Forest Strengthened up in his
| chair, his face wearing an expression
startling and wild. He reached for the
| key of the instrument, and his fingers
played upon it us he asked the operator
| at L to repeat the report. There had
| been no mistake. Dekorest jumped
| from his chair with cry. Up and
| down the office he walked, wringing his
| hands and sobbing.
My God, what have | done, what
| have | dOne?"
Intuition gave everyone else in the
| Office an IDEA of what had happened.
| None of them asked him, They merely
! gathered around the table and glanced
| at the train sheet and then mt the book
which contained copies of tho train
/ OFueTb, oHo lOOh lOlu IDe SJOIy. lie
| Forest continued to pace the room cry
| ing as If his heart would break, ana
| glancing atthe big clock at each turn.
| The night was thick and black. 1t
was perfectly plain that only miracle
could prevent the heavy meat tain,
running on fast time, and the fying
! night express from clashng together.
! If the operrtor at - had reported Nc
! Gill's departure correctly, the others
in the room heard De Forest arguing
out loud the two trains would meet on
the flats several miles west of j.
| The engineers might catch IA glimpse of
the approaching headlights, which upon
single track are indicative of danger,
in time TO prevent frightful accident.
But the chances were that McGill had
not pulled out OF p for five or ten
minutes after he was reported That
was common thing when the operators
and trainmen were on friendly terms.
! 1t was called stealing time. While
the officials knew that it existed, they
could never charge it, because the train
men protected the operators if they
failed to make their runs quickly
enough, In such an event as that the
| pOnd net or wDul1 re MORT Ia the q SDatc he 4