The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-10-05
TIME CARD MAKING.
How This Important Detailed Work
is Accomplished.

The work of stringing the new Santa
F'e time card was commenced today.
The majority of the division superin-
tendents and trainmasters are here, and
the card will probably be completed by
the first of the week.
Few people outside of the operating
departments of railroads know how
railroad time cards are made. 1t is one
of the details of railroading, which, al
though of the greatest Importance, is
not familiar to the public at large.
The trainmaSterS are usually the men
actively engaged in stringing the card,
as the time of the superintendent is
taken up in directing the work.
In the time card room at the Santa Fe
general offices there are several large
charts, representing the various divi-
siOnS and branches, and both sides are
ruled off into small squares. The spaces
between the vertical lines represent
each five minutes of the running day of
tWenty-fOur hours; those between the
horizontal lines represent the stations
at which any train may stop.
In the operations connected with ar
ranging a card the trainmaster must
work with a. thorough knowledge of the
road. He must be intimately acquaint-
ed with every inch of it, its roaGbed,
grades, switches, stations and in fact,
everything that has any possible reIa-
ton to the speed or safety of a. train.
The purpose he has in view in making
his time table is to so arrange the runs
of each engine and train on the road
that there will be no waste of time and
no confusion. He knows that certain
trains must be given the right of way
over all other trains.
train is to leave station A, for ex-
ample, at 1905 o'clock. to arrive at sta
ton x at o'clock. The trainmaster
takes a thread and tackS one end of it
in the space at the upper part of the
sheet, which is marked in large figures
1906, and on a line with station A The
other end he draws along to the side
of the sheet and attaches it in the space
under the figure 4 and on a line with
the station marked Y.
All intermediate stations touched by
the passing train are also indicated by
a tack placed in its appropriate square,
with the thread wound around it, and
the result is in many cases a. zigzag
line, for the distances between stations
are often unequal, and besides, a train
will go faster on one part of the road
than upon another, by reason of grades,
etc. The same process is carried on
with all the other trains.
Where trains have a clear road the
trainmaster has a simple enough job
of it. His real hard work comes in
when trains meet each other. This
must be provided for in the time table
and many weary hours are spent in so
placing a train that it may switch at
a given moment, to permit the other to
| pass by. Having finished with his pas
| senger trains to his satisfaction, the
| maker of the time table proceeds to get
| his freights out of the way.
/ These present problem of no mean
|
| few minutes, and somehow they must
! give way to the express and other pas
! senger trains.
/ Sometimes it requires days for the
! trainmaster to get all straight. The
! times of these freights, like the more
/ important passenger trains, are fixed
/ by means of strings, and when the
/ trainmaster is through the sheet looks
| like a, piece of crazy lace work.
The only thing remaining then to be
done is the copying of the sheet for the
! printer-a simple operation, for the time
| and station designated by each tack
! along the string is written out in full
Every road has a number of trains
| running along its line that never find
! a place upon a time table. These are
| the extras the emergency freights;
and the management of these devolves
/ wholly upon the conductor who stud
les the time table and takes what time
| he can get between the runs of other
/ trains. This method of validating
/ is common and it is cause for wonder
that so few accidents result from it.