Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-01
MEN WHO CONTROL TRAINS
DISPATCHERS ARE PERFECT AUTO
Gratis ,eIN THE TOWERS.
No One May Interfere with Schedules,
No Matter What His Position
Hairbreadth Escapes.

From the Chicago Chronicle.
The duties Of the railway train dispatcher
these days are not what they were before
the block system was introduced and when
q railway meant a single track. with sta
lions and intermediate side tracks. The
dispatcher has to be just as vigilant now
as then, but the running of trains has been
so systematfzed In recent years that IN
eldents' to make dispatchers hair turn
gray or stand on end are few and far be-
tween nowadays. Few people know what
an important and maybe autocratic person
sge railway train dispatcher Is. No one
from president down to track walker has
the right to enter his office and give him
orders. The time schedule of the several
trains Is his supreme authority. and II
the president or any other official wishes
to change the running time OF train he
must indicate such change on the schedule
And not only that but simultaneous with
any change the time card in effect must be
abrogated.
The dispatcher sits In his Office eight
hours, three Of them being necessary to
round out the twenty-four hours. and while
ne ne Is at his table he is supposed to 1--we the
life OF hermit. That is. he will permit
no one to converse with him, though. of
course. the general manager may venture
20 ask MIN a question concerning things
ooWu tHe FOdQ. Inc OlSpaICneT udS Oo-
fore him while on duty a long strip of
paper on which he indicates in ink the time
OF the arrival and departure OF all trains
AT all stations. This makes his official
report OF his eight hours Of duty, but. In
fact, when he sits down to the telegraph
Key the road and all its stations and inter-
mediate turn-outs'' are q mental picture,
and 1t Is his minds eye that locates all
trains at every minute. In other words,
the road is mental panorama and the
trains ny up and down IT, passing. waiting
or following, as the case may be. II one
or more trains are delayed or for some
reason have to take another schedule the
dispatcher adjusts their running to those
on schedule time For this reason 1t would
be impossible to have any kind Of col
lision II his orders were obeyed. and 1t ts
because his orders are not strictly obeyed
tnat collisions sometimes occur.
Trouble i'm the Old Days.
In the early days Of railroading, when all
trains used the same track, the train dis
patcher's office had records of more hair
breadth escapes of trains and passengers
than the public had any idea Of. In those
days discipline was not what 1t is now, nor
do engineers try these days to have their
trains pass at full speed on the same track.
But now that double tracks and block sig
mails have reduced the danger Of collisions.
If not eliminated 1t altogether from train
movements, stories of narrow escapes Of the
long ago are not likely to disturb the most
timid. 1t Is that which happens that hor-
rifles people, but it Is those things in oper-
atfng railway trains which come within
an ace OF happening that make the train
dispatcher's hair turn gray in minute for.
strange as 1t may seem, what are called
providential escapes nearly always hap
pen to trains that are crowded and damned
with people. and the escape at a place
the road where an accident would have
caused the death of every one on the train
trains. - IS
Provfdential Escapes.
An old train dispatcher on Chicago road
tells of one of the "providential escapes"
1t was many years ago, when it was SIN
gle-trask line and when the whistle down
brakes meant that the brakeman should
hurry and set the brakes by hand. The
night was very dark and stormy. The south
bound train was belated and the dispatcher
ordered the depot keeper of a flag station
to signal the train to stop and have it take
the side track until the nOrthbound train
had passed, it then being at a station twelve
miles below. The station keeper, being in
his cups, neglected ito throw out the green
light. though he repeated the order to the
diSpa tcher, which was required of him. In
a few minutes the train, composed of nine
coaches damned full of people, went thun-
dering by. That sobered the keeper and
horror-stricken he rushed to the keyboard
to notify the station below what had hap
pened and to hold the nOrthbound train,
but it was too late. The train had gone.
The president. general manager and general
superintendent had arrived the north
bound train to examine lot of new sidings
the next morning and were in the Office
when the warning from the drunken keeper
came in. mo railway officials were got as
close to the borderiand of insanity without
crossing over" said the station agent after
ward. But two trains, carrying total Of
go passengers, rushing into collision at
a speed of thirty mise an hour, without an
mi haaV To Uarff he n
aster, was enough to make almost any man
crazy. The dispatcher at Chicago knew
what was going on, of course, but, said he,
while 1 felt like turning gray and going
crazy, 1 had to be calm and COOL for there
were other trains, both freight and passen-
ger, to watch lest they should go piling
into the wreck. My orders were disobeyed.
and it was no fault of the drunken agent
that hundreds of people were not xii ed
A Wreck Averted.
But there was no collision. The dis
patcher figured that the trains would come
together near water tank situated in a
hollow at the foot of a north-up and a
south-down grade of more than mile each.
Before reaching the tank the engineer of
the north bound train concluded TO stop for
water-an unusual thing. Upon leaving the
tank he struck the up grade and the long
and heavy train made the engine exhaust
with great force. At this moment the
same grade. Why, nobody knew, but the
fireman Of the down engine went forward
to oil the cups, but In second he rushed
back into the cab and said hastily to the
engineer: There Is something wrong. l
hear an engine exhausting heavily down
the road" In flash the eng ineer reversed
his engine and sent his train back over the
road as fast as ever he could and reached
the station where he should have stopped
for the up train, thus averting what might
have been one of the most disastrous
wrecks in the history Of railroadng I'm
those days." said the old dispa teher "a To-
connective headlight was not much of an i'm
provement on the hand lantern and the
storm Of sleet and snow and rain made 1t
of little use ten yards away. So you see
the greatest accidents, the greatest slaugh-
ter of people and the most frightfuI wreck
scenes do not occur at all. 1t Is just such
mental strains as these that used to make
dispatchers gray-headed i'm an hour, but
double tracks and the block system relieves
US Of all worry of that kind
Example of Other Accidents.
What I have said. continued the old
dispatcher. "about the two trains that
came SO near coming in collision is merely
a sample. so to speak. of hundreds of acct
dents that never occurred, and but for the
negligence of llthe idispatchers, their cool
ness and the positive character Of their