Omaha daily bee., 1903-02-08
WRECKS CAUSED BY ERRORS
Grand Trunk Collision Recalls the Mistake
Of a Train Dispatcher.
DISASTER AVERrED BY ALERT CONDUCTORS
An Incident Illustrating some of the
Responsibilities Resting Upon the
Man who ManipuIates the
Telegraph Key.

The Grand Trunk wreck. for which the
operator. Carson. is held to be responsible
life from the technical viewpoint, some OF
which excite much sympathy for the OPP
orator, whose life, while at times exceed
ingly dull and embarrassing. situated as he
often is at some small, out-of-the-way
place, with little else than the moaning
Of the wind on the wires to keep him
awake, is. on the other hand, so fraught
with responsibility and need Of a good,
clear head tn. the wonder is that more
wrecks do not occur.
An experienced railroad operator, in
speaking Of Carson in the st. Louis Repub-
lie, said that his sympathies we're with
the operator and that he would wager,
could the real facts be brought out, that
Carson's story is nearly correct.
"T was working in a train dispatcher's
office on the Baltimore & Ohio said the
narratsr, away back in the '7Os. and as the
road as 1t then existed was a single track.
with tunnels and bridges every few miles,
the task Of keeping trains moving was a
difficult one. Engines in those days were
not perfected as they are today, and they
would often go wrong in spite of every
effort by those in charge; they would steam
badly, get cranky and what not. causing
the train to fall behind time, and then or
ders must be given for special meeting
points. Moreover, II a passenger train
happened to be heavily loaded the grades
in that part of the country often made the
schedule time an impossibillty when the
track was bad.
BeIated Passenger Train.
at was a passenger train of this char
acter that fell behind schedule time on the
night l have in mind. 1t was running as
No. Z and contained eight cars, all filled
with passengers. a great many of whom
were congressman and others on their way
to Washington for the reassembling of con-
gress after the holidays in the winter of '76.
AT the same time passenger train No.
10 was running on orders and bound for the
west, the two meeting at q siding between
a station called Salem and the dispatcher's
office, which was named Central. No. Z,
the eastbcund train, was twenty minutes
late, and, as she had no right Of way, 1t
meant that No. 10 would not wait az the
meeting point after a given time. To OBJ
viate delay, the dispatcher decided to ad-
vance No. 10 to a siding tea or a dozen
miles west, where she could meet and pass
No. I.
"'Call Sa,' said the dispatcher to me as
he heard No. : blow for Central, which was
our ofnce, and tell him to put out red
light for No. 49,
"Red light meant hold for orders and
the light was at the top Of a twenty-five
foot pole, inclosed in a small box with
glass doors on each side. Inside the glass
doors were two red curtains or slides, con-
trolled by a cord leading to the operators
table inside the office. These slides were
kept up all the time, showing a white light,
except when the train was to be held, In
which event the curtain was dropped, which
made the light red.
'Sa' answered at the first call. and In
reply to my instructions said, o. X; go
ahead which meant that he had dropped
his red curtain on the side from which No,
10 would approach, and that he was ready
to copy the order for her.
McCabe burned the Wires.
"As No. Z w1s at that moment standing
in front Of our office, under our own red
light, which had been dropped in her face,
meaning that she must get orders from us.
I naturally made the wire hum in sending
TO Sd. line ODeTdlOI lnNINs NhOoo AAh0
was ~McCabe-Frank McCabe-was a star;
nothing was too fast for him, and when he
repeated an order to our ONCE l knew
mighty we'll that it meant hard work to
copy him with a stylus. The air was cold
and frosty and as the engine outside ny
window was popping furiously I was
Obliged to place my ear very close to the
sounder in order to read McCabe's fusillade
of dots and dashes, so as to not have to
break him, thereby delaying the work.
GAS soon as the order had been re-
heated and %. k given l handed the copies
10 Captain Armstrong-Billy Armstrong
peace to his ashes-who. in turn, handed
them. to the conductor and engineer and
told them to pull out AS they left the
office Captain Armstrong followed them
lantern in hand. and walked quite some dis
lance away from the office as he chattec
with the conductor, who swinging onto tht
steps, waved the engineer to go ahead.
And the train started to pull out with hel
safety valve still popping. the engine bel
changing, the steam from her cylinders
kissing and the exhaust from the stscl
throwing huge clouds of smoke and cinders
Notwithstanding all the noise and al
though I had walked across the room fol
something or other, l heard 'Sa' calling
me.
"'Cs.' 'Cs,' 'Cs.' came the dots So fast
so furious, so frantic and swift that
knew by instinct that there was something
doing And, although the caller had neve'
stopped to sign his own ONCE letters
knew II was McCabe. as no other man
had ever known could put the same fr'
into a call that he could.
Rushing to the key, I answered, in orde
TO be quick. by simply saying T.
"'No 10 did not stop; she got no orders,
came the warning. and I can safely sa!
that, although twenty-five years in in,
business, had never heard the same mum
Der OF words done in the same length o
time by any mortal from that day to this
McCabe was a bright. intelligent and fairl,
we'll educated boy and he knew his business
thoroughly; lives depended upon action a
that instant and he did IL,
although credited with being a sta
operator myself, l must confess that va
afraid TO trust my own ears at that critica
moment. I must make sure; so l repeateI
back. equally furious. but by no mean
as perfect. for I was excited. You say Nc
10 has gone without orders?'
Yes. yes. came the quick response.
81 saw the lights glimmering from tn
then rapidly passing coaches of No, Z a
she was pulling out and away TO certail
destruction; saw the stream OF spark
belching from the smokestaek OF the en-