The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-17
BRAINS OF THE TRAINS.
(continuer from Fourth page.)

eu nearly all or the Dig companies OF |
the United States, which carry nearly |
one-third of the worlds passengers. On |
Illinois Day at the Worlds Fair III Chi |
caso, for example, the Illinois Central |
Railroad handled million passengers |
without accident, delay or cessation of |
its regular freight traffic. These pas |
sengers were carried distances averag- |
ing from ten to one hundred miles. |
When any such feat is accomplished by
foreign railroad it will be time to dis
cuss whether the train dispatcher
earns his salary
The dispatcher as an individual is
sure Of his place solong as preserves
his infallibility. In other trades and
professions there are men who have
made mistakes of the first class and
have remained in the same business,
perhaps better men and better work
men for the experience. 1t is not so of
an erring Dispatcher. For him there
is no living it down. Discharge is the
universal and memorable law of the
railroad, and it is accepted by the de-
Spatcher who makes mistake without
question and without remonstrance
There may be other things open to him,
but he has had his final turn at de-
spatch1ng. 1t is grim thing to see the
despatcherS search the train-sheet on
receiving word of wreck. Men who
live in continual excitement are apt to
be cool, but there is something strained
and breathless about them now. They
follow the course of the Inflated trains
and finally turn away-all but one. This
one goes over and over the records, at
the last putting them down to so. He
may have served in that room for
years; he may have been on continu-
GUS duty for twenty-four hours; there
may be other mitigating circumstances.
But the soldier who sleeps at his post
in time of war has more chance than
the depatcher who makes mistake.
1t is a case requiring a victim.
The book system has been described
as the space system. 1t merely con-
sists of subdividing the track into
| spaces of from one-half to two and
half miles in length, varying accord
| ing to the amount of travel. With a
| telegraph Office at either end of these
| spaces, it is a comparative easy thing
| for the dispatcher to control the road.
| The system is of English origin, but in
| some modified or mechanically improv-
ed form has been adopted by most
American roads. Each of the signal
stations is little squat tower close to
the main line tracks. AT little dis
| lance semaphore signal, which is OPP
Grated by a lever in the tower, controls
each approach.
| 1t was long fashion among writer's
of railroad stories to develop startling
| heroic possibilities among the young
| Once upon a time 1t might have hap
| pened that the signamans little daugh-
ter saved the night express, and the
same remote possibility exists of the
engineers little son having tagged the
/ Chicago limited. But on the whole
little more knowledge of practical rail-
reading would have resulted in tre-
mendous saving of suitably inscribed
| gold watches to the grateful railroad
presidents of fiction. If, however, there
are any minors capable of successfully
running railroads they are to be found
among the boys of the block signal SER
vice. They are all young, many of
them being still under age There are
| at least two to each station, and one Of
them is on duty day and night, the
tower never being left alone. They are
the messengers of the despatchers, and
as surely as the latter are the brains
and the telegraph wires are the nerves,
these operators are the eyes and ears
of the railroad Primarily, the duty of
/ the towerman is to prevent trains from
following each other too closely. No
train is allowed to pass the tower when
another train is in his block--his block
| meaning the space between his own
| tower and the tower to the right or to
the left On single track roads the de-
tails are usually directed by the de-
| spatcher. The operator further furnish
es the despatcher's Office with inforua-
tion for the train-sheet, and keeps for
himself a table with a brief description
and the exact time of every passing
train. If any orders from the de-
patchers come through his hands he re-
tanr copy.
The telegraph wire is hung from
tower to tower and ends in the de-
| sratcher's Office. Between adjacent
towers there is sometimes in use an
electric bell, and all of the ordinary in
formation regarding trains is conveyed
back and forth by means of a code.
When the telegraph is used at all they
talk strangely in letters and figures
with the despatcher's office. "Ex792WI3
X12KO1' is the usual formula for stat
ing that west-bound freight train
with engine No. 1872, displaying white
flags or white lights (the sign of an
extra), passed block tower Blk at 1901
Some of the towers are in the middle OF
city and some are all alone on bleak
side hills, two miles from the little
farmhouse where the operator and his
Opposite" board. When there are three
to a tower they work in eight-houl
shifts; with two operators to a tower
they usually take week and week turns
at night duty. The hours are long anc
the work combining, but when things
run smoothly the hardest thing to do il
to stay awake, which is quite a neces.
sary thing for the eyes and ears of the
railroad to do. The best Of the sigma
! operators are recruited from among thu
boys of all work in the dispatcher
office, where they pick up telegraphS
and gradually come to know the mean
! ing Of things from the dispatcher!
standpoint. Others are recommended
by the dispatcher and go to certain
towers to be instructed in the bell code
and the other practical workings of The
system. Almost every tower in thu