The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-06-17
NEW HAVEN MORNING JouRNAL coURER


 the following accident that occurred re- gently: A train ran past danger sig nal which indicated that second train had passed the signal station without having cleared the next signal office. The forward train had a derailing acci- dent and came to a stop. According to the orders which had been dinned into him for years, it's conductor should \ have sent a man with a flag back at once. Instead of doing this, he first set the crew at work at the derailed cars. The replacing took longer than was anticipated and finally the train | following blundered around the curve at full speed. The result was a collis- | ion that blocked the track for several hours First, there was the engineers | mistake of running past the danger | signal, an error not corrected by his l conductor; second, the unusal accident | to the forward train, and, third the 1 neglect of the conductor of the derail- | ed train to obey orders, a combination | that would threaten the efficiency of any system. The signal operator re- | ported the occurrence at once, and, for purposes of comparison, it may be 1 stated that in two hours the wreckers were at work. Forty-fiye years ago there was wreck at the same place at about I o'clock in the evening" The local agent for the company waited until morning and took the news to head l quarters on horseback. It was night fall when he reached the town, and the wreckers, evidently being ayerse to | travelling by night, waited until the next morning before settling out on the relief journey.
 It is only when a train does not per- form it's functions that the real work of the despatcher begins. The delayed train interferes with another, which in turn flinders third, and on a busy road the confusion shortly becomes l widespread One night in the fall of | 1897 the reporter sat in the office of | the chief night train depatcher on enc of the big trunk lines. For two weeks every man, car, and engine in the ser vice of the road had been working night and day to dispose of business that threatened to blockade traffic. One after another trains of freight dragged themselves out on the division. The condition was so serious that the de- patcher was on the alert to prevent the least delay. Now here, nov there, he 'nagged an unlucky conductor. Che of the trains continued to offend, and was finally deprived of it's right to the road,
 being sidetracked until time should arrive when every moment was not so
 vital. The orders that went from the office did not mean much to an outsid-
 CT; everything appeared well in hand.
 Suddenly a message came from the
 conductor of an east-bound freight,
 stating that his train had broken and
 that the wreckers would be needed to replace some derailed trucks. The de- patcher did about one line of loud talk
 ing, and then he and his subordinates settled grimly down in their chairs. Af-
 ter much trouble an engine and crew
 were found to take out the wrecking train. Dodging from the east bound to
 the west bound track and back again,
 the wrecking train finally wriggled to , the scene of the accident. In four short
 hours from the time the message was first received the east-bound freight
 train was ready to resume. In the
 meantime the west-bound track was
 being operated by the despatcher as a
 single-track road. The situation was , this: The east-bound track paralyzed for seven miles, on road already scarcely adequate for moving the giv- en number of cars; on both sides train , after train coming to stop, until the effects were felt for hundred miles
 in one direction and forty in another;
 scattered here and there along the road
 were trains of such value that the road would lose money and prestige through , their delay. The problem was to move , the whole, not only as quickly as pos
 sible, but also in a way to avoid acci-
 dent and absolute blockade.
 , The superintendent came down to the office and the two men sat down to an
 intricate game--a game requiring in
 finite patience, unerring judgment, a perfect memory, and, above all, cool
 head. They sat at table in the in- !, ner office, keeping tally on sheets o1 paper. The train-sheet was constantly before them, and operators sat near , taking down message after message i, As fast as they were written the mes-