Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-11-20
MAKING TIMETABLES.
A Change of Service Involves Much
Complicated Work.

| A Change of Service Involves Much
Complicated Work.
The making of timetable on rail-
road is one of the most complicated
and at the same time one of the most
simple things that comprise the duties
| of an operating officer. Very few peo-
| pie of the thousands that patronize
the railroads out of New York stop to
consider the PREPARATION, care and nicely
| that must be exercised in arranging a
| schedule for the movement of passen-
ger trains. Yet changes are constantly
occurring in train service, and these
require shifting, as it were, of the
checkerboard, in order to meet public
travel and private facilities. The big
railroad companies usually have as
many changes in their timetables as
there are seasons in the year, and the
preparation for these alterations in pas
senger train service is attended with
great care. Through train service sell
dom changes, except when there is ar
additional train put on. Once in a
while there is change in the hour of
departure or arrival of a through train,
in order to accommodate connections,
but the railroads generally have what
is known as spring, summer, fall and
winter schedules. On eastern and west
srn lines the summer season, partiou-
larly at the beginning and at the close,
is the heaviest, while the southrn lines
do not begin their season until late in
the fall. Local timetables are con-
stantly undergoing changes, in order
to meet varying conditions, and whilO
this class of travel is not generally
profitable, 1t keeps the superintendent
busy in arranging his schedule.
Former Supt. Voorhees,, of the New
York Central, once declared to a Mail
and Express reporter that local trains
were as a rule Improbable, and If that
statement is measured by the trouble
incidental to that character of service,
it is decidedly true. On such systems
as the New York Central and Pennsyl-
vania local train service forms one of
the most important features Of the pas
senger department, and while the ar
rangement of the trains Is effected in
the operating department it devolves
on the general passenger agent to see
that the changes are properly promul
gated. The superintendent is usually |
the maker of the timetable. That is
to say, he has in his Office big frame
on the principle of blackboard, which
is marked by an arrangement of pins
and thread. The stations along the
line are shown, and when there is
change to be made he shifts about the
pins and thread after due deliberation
and computation, keeping in mind, Of
course, the distance between stations
and the other trains on the board. This
system of making schedules is gener-
ally followed on single track roads,
and 1t becomes quite an art to make a
correct showing, because of the pre-
cision necessary to be made for meet
ing, passing and waiting for trains
coming in an opposite direction. On
lines schedule-making is
easy, but it is task which no super
is anxious to assume except
when it becomes absolutely necessary.
From the superintendent Office is is
sued the original schedule, and this
goes to the geners' passenger agents
office, and that omcial notifies the
public of the changes, if any,
in train service.