Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-19
RAILROAD TIME TABLES
Much Depends on the Accuracy Of Their
Make-Up
Important and Difficult WOrk-Vast
Number of Details Has to
he Considered.


From the Worcester Gazette.
Everybody is more or less acquainted with
the general working of the railroad busi-
ness, but there are a number OF details
which, though of great Importance, are not
quite so familiar. The construction OF rail-
road time table may be taken as an ex-
ample.
The necessity and value of time table
are unquestioned, for there is no COM
position that is more studied ana upon
which more depends than this little folded
strip of paper with its apparently unln-
teresting figures, and nearly everybody has
wondered at some time or other how the
wonderful accuracy and harmony OF the
whole have been attained.
The time table familiar to every patron
of a railroad is not at all complete one
for only a small proportion of the trains
that are run on any road are Indicated
uron the folder for distribution. There are
many trains running at all times that the
traveller knows or cares nothing about, but
these, like the passenger trains must nave
their scheduled running time.
Every railroad division has special
time table for the use of its engineers and
trainmen, and this consists of a large card
of perhaps four feet in length and two in
width Upon this card is given all the in
formation necessary regarding the move
ments of every engine and train, so ar
ranged as to be seen at a glance.
The work of getting up a time table re-
quires some time, and it is not exactly the
work of any one man. At the head of every
railroad division there is a passenger agent,
who has charge of all through trains and
all trains running through onto roads not
in his division. He knows when these
trains are to start. when they should reach
their destinations. and what connections
they will make upon his own or other di-
visions.
This is the beginning of the time table.
A e-pha dahl ye- do ,ffh dot md
soon as 1t is found that all Is in working
order the schedule, which contains only in
formation about the regular and more i'm
portant trains Is given to the trainmaster.
who at once proceeds to make it complete.
This is arduous task and requires
considerable time. The trafnmaster takes
a large board seven or eight feet long and
about four feet wide, and tacks a sheet of
paper over it. The sheet of paper is then
ruled off into little squares with heavy
lines.
The spaces between the vertical lines rep
resent 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 which follow the train
master must work with a thorough knowl
edge of the road. He must be intimately
acquainted with every inch Of it, it's road
bed, grades, switches, stations. and, in fact
everything that has any possible relation
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
fusion. He knows from his schedule re-
ceived from the passenger agent that GER
tain trains must be given the right of way
over all other trains.
A train is to leave station A. for example
at 1905 o'clock, to arrive at station X at
o'clock. The trafnmaster takes a thread
and lacks one end of it in the space at the
upper part of the sheet which is marked in
mr. IN a i'm with ct
ton A The other end he draws along to
the side of the sheet and attaches it in the
space under the figure and on a line with
the station marked X.
All intermediate stations touched by the
passing train are also designated 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 dis
tances between stations are often unequal,
and besides a train viii go faster on one
part of a road than upon another by reason
of grades etc. This same process is car
ried on with all the other trains
Where trains have a clear road the train
master has a simple enough job of it. His
real hard work comes in when trains meet
each other. especially on single track roads
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 passenger
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 pro-
portions for on a large road they come and
go every few minutes, and somehow they
must give way to the express and other
passenger trains.
Sometimes it requires days for the train
master to get all straight The times of
these freights like the more important pas
senger trains, are fixed by means of strings
and when the trainmaster is through the
sheet looks like piece of crazy lace work.
The only thing remaining then to be done
Is the copying of the sheet for the printer
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 run
ming along its line that never find a place
upon a time table. These are the extras
the emergency freights, and the manage
ment of these devolves wholly upon the
conductor,who studies the time table and
takes what time he can get between the
runs of other trains. This method of wild
eating is common. and it Is cause for won
der that so few accidents result from it.