The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-01
PROBLEM IN PHILOSOPHY.
What a Locomotive Engineer Has to
Remember.

J.. +. Reed, in Harper's Weekly.
Officials who operate the fast trains re-
Gently put on between New York city and
the West are just now facing problem
in philosophy which, on paper. looks some
thing like this:
How many ironclad rules can the human
mind keep within instant recall, if death is
the penalty for forgettinS?'
The answer is supposed to lie somewhere
In the code of rules and signals which the
officials have devised for the operation of
these fast trains. These rules, OF which
there are about 200 for each 1e5 miles be-
made for the safety of the public. but the
public may look askance when il learns
that one man must remember 100 OF them,
and that slip on any one rule may mean
shocking loss of human life.
These 200 rules are the average for each
division of the chief railroad lines running
west from New York. Each set covers the
Work or one engineer, who drives his tram
until another engineer, with a fresh set of
rules and, presumably, fresh memory, re-
lieves him. In other words, eight men, the
average number of locomotive engineers
who drive a fast train between New York
and Chicago, must keep constantly in mind
nearly 600 different rules, in order that
patrons of these trains may travel without
risking their lives. What this means to the
public In twenty-four hours ride on one OF
these trains can be judged from the fol-
lowing llSL or what an engineer on a GER
tain 100-mile run has to watch, while his
locomotive IS going at sixty miles an hour:
Five hundred; "cross-over" switch lights,
to learn whether they are red or white.
learn whether they are red. white or green.
Seven 'noninterlocking'' switch lights. to
know whether they are red or white. Three
''nonin terlocking'' switch lights to know
whether they are red or green Semarhore
arms at twenty-five way stations, for pos
sible red lights. -Four hundred highway
crossings, 10 know whether they are
clear" Locomotives OF a dozen trains
approaching on parallel tracks, for red or
green lights. Telegraph operators at twenty
FIVE way stations, who may be waiting near
any conceivable point in the 100 miles.
displayed as a danger signal. Whether
one or two torpedoes are exploded at any
point in the 100 miles, signifying caution
or stop" Whether his clearance card Is
good for each of twenty-five way stations.
Whether there is enough water in the en-
CINE boiler. Whether there is enough water
In the engine tender. Whether there is
enough coal in the engine tender. Whether
the steam pressure is being kept up.
Whether the firemen is obeying another
long set of rules. Whether the engine bell
rings at 400 highway crossings.
By day the switch and signal lights are
replaced by signal boards and blocks" the
color or direction of which must be read
as literally as the lamps. The engineer
who notes 6a9 of these signs from his cab
window, and misses the tooth. has taken,
IN race-track language, 40 TO L Shot
with a train load of human lives.
The public has good reason to ask whether
the safety limit has not been reached with
both speed and rules. There must be a
point where the locomotive is so large, and
its speed so great. that one human mind
cannot safely control 1t, no matter how
few the levers are. A ninety-ton passen-
ger locomotive going at seventy miles an
hour and operated by one man INSIDE" IT,
Is as much a psychological freak as "a
250-pound human athlete would be, IL turned
loose with the brain Of three-year-old
boy