The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-16
TRAINING The ELEVATED MEN
DOSTON,S ELABORATE SCHOOL
FOR RAILROAD EMPLOYEES.
II Turned Out Green Men VINO Operated
. Highly Technical Electric system
without an Accident on Its Opening
Day-Thoroughncss OF the Instruction.

Dhy- NV " '"N b''N y"
On the Second avenue elevated railroad,
where the Manhattan Railway Company IL
running it's first electric trains the c~ompany's
engineers are taking daily trips In turn and
learning TO run an electric motor instead OF
a steam locomotive in preparation for the
time when they will all be needed to man
age the company's new trains.
After the engineers have all become pro-
fcient, the fremen will rave their turn,
for at least a third more motormen than
there now are engineers will be needed by
! the company and tho fremen, one and all.
are anxious not to be left out In the cold
when the change takes place. The oom-
pany is said TO have promised that they
shall not be.
1t Ia a simple but a practical school for the
new men. As a school, though, II is Tar
inferior TO and much less elaborate than
that established in Boston when hat city
adopted metropolitan Ideas and took TO
itself not only a subway but an elevated rail-
road as well through and over which the
electric rains now run swiftly, alternately
diving under the streets and mounting
above them to the level of the second story
windows.
Boston's training school for motormen'
guards and brakemen has no moving trains
but Il has a stationary one. full sized, set
| on posts instead Of wheels. That Is the
difference.
The cars have real gates. real bells. air
whistle and headlights, air compressors' res
ervoirs and brakes and all the valves, pipes
| and electrical machinery that an elevated
train has. Besides that the school contains
| s~emaphores and signals in miniature, all
49, --t-1. r. 81. l,afr,,lti. ion Of tho
employees.
When the Hub opened its elevated rail-
| road it had to have ready for business a
trained force OF employees. This school.
with its elaborate apparatus. was established
TO provide them.
How we'll It did It's work was seen In the
fact that on the first day on which the rail-
| road carried passengers not a single person
In all the great crowd that rushed to try the
new means of transit was hurt; not a single
accident occurred, though cars, machinery
and signals were all new, though the under
ground section OF the route had never been
constructed with a view To carrying trains,
and though the men had never run trains
| for the public under such conditions before.
The school Is still maintained for the ex-
animation and the instruction Of new men.
IL Is a iOHR HdiiO" AONih NN
Square terminus.
A writer for the Boston Transcript Wis
| tied the school a few days ago and de-
scribed for that newspapers readers the
thorough precautions taken 10 insure
their transportation being undertaken 10y
well-trained railroad employees.
A great deal mora il taught In this Bos-
ton school to the candidate for employ
II 49,. - IL. n,~,pa . -,
he must pass 10 obtain employment il
a great deal moro comprehensive. than
is needed in the particular. job for which
he is Immediately intended.
For the railroad goes on the principle
that the employee may some time he train
| dispatcher, roadmaster. superintendent Of
shops or. for that matter, may fill any i'm
portant post and, therefore. It IL desirable
to secure in the labor market men with
all their faculties about them, but par
| t~icularlv with quick ears and good eyes.
First of all The candidate must bc ex-
ahmed. His eyes are tested first.
The examiner hands him 4 card with
a lot Of fine print on il 10 read. If he reads
II, his eyes are AZ least clear at short range.
Next the present to him al absurd
collection Of v~ari-colored worsteds done
up in little hundles-cach one tagged and
numbered. There are a great many shades
| tl lt'l anu a fANo' AAlhAA VI h''''f 1870 49,
Of entirely different colors.
Now, sir says the examiner, hand
ing him the largest of the red bundles,
pick me out all the colors that seem 10
resemble that
When he has made his choice, he Ia re-
ouested 20 do the same for the green shades;
and each shade in each section Is regis
tered. by its tag number, In the big book
as part Of the candidates record.
II is a great surprise 20 a perfectly Keen
sighted man 10 find that he has been color
blind all his life without knowing It. yet
many otherwise valuable men are unfit
on that account. OF course, II a man can
not distinguish with absolute certainty
red lights from green, white from orange,
he ia no mar to entrust with the running
OF a train full Of people.
The next test is at long range. The
candidate Is required 10 stand twenty feet
awav and read letters about three-eighths
Of an inch high printed black on a white
~card-first with one eye and then with
the other. covering the unused eye with
a black shield.
Surprising as II Is TO find you're color
blind IL is still more of n shock To @
that you've been almost or totally blind
in one eye for years; yet such cases are
not uncommon But II a man can't read
letters at twenty feet, he can't see
signal arms far enough ahead 70 stop his
train.
There is a peculiar malady Of the eye
brought on sometimes 10y excessive smok-
ing-a sort Of paralysis Of the tissues, In
spots, so that a man may see with one
part of his eve and be blind in another
part. A tiny distant spark will often fall
on a mans blind spot AID be Invisible 10
him. Bv means Of an Ingenious lantern.
equipped with n revolving disk containing
different culored glasses, to the wuuld-be
employee are exhibited lights Of several
shades, shining like sparks through tiny
openings. He nanes each color as IL APP
pears In succession aud the change from
| one color 70 the next is purposely rapid 10
mislead him.
eyeglasses, the examiner finds out what
! change in focus may probably be eN-
peCted to occur in the employees eyes
/ during tho next ten years.
The car tests are not so complicated.
A tiny watch-like machine makes irregular
ticks when wound. II the future railroad
man can hear and count the ticks twenty
feet away, with his hand first over one ear
and then over TIA" other, and his eyes have
previously passed muster, he Is all right
and NAV ioln the instruction class.
II would almost seem impossible that
the average two-dOllar a-diy workman
- Vta.. L. III.