The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-29
TRAIN DISPATCHER HAS
 NERVE WRECKING VOCATION
BY HARRY WILKINSON.

Most passengers riding on fast trains which pass from ocean to ocean and from the lakes to the gulf at mile a minute clip think their safety depends entirely on the engineer at the throttle, never for a moment giving a passing thought to the train dispatcher bending over his train sheet, watching every movement of all trains on his division with an alert eye and listening with intense nervous strain to every click of his telegraph instrument.
 It is the train dispatcher as well as the engineer who has the lives of thousands of passengers in his hands One little mistake on the part of the man at the key could cause more death and destruc- ton in a moment than single engineer could cause in a life time.
 The engineer looks to the train dis patcher for his orders. There is not a moment out of the twenty-four hours which constitute a day that some one on duty in the train dispatchers office does not know the exact location of every train on his division. 1t is he who arranges meeting points, gives time orders and handles the trains generally. And a nerve wrecking vocation it Is.
 Some people think the life of a train
 
 sits by his instrument, marks down the arrival and departure of trains,, and gives meet" occasionally, while his only ex- citement is the occasional "cussing out of an operator on the line
 Nerves Strained.
 ! In this belief the public is deceived. Every nerve of the train dispatcher Is strained as he bends over his train sheet and order book watching the movement of trains and pilodng them to safety with their burden of human freight. He is conscious that one error might cost hundreds of lives. Every brain tis- sue is working. He must think and think fast too for a five-mlnute delay to a lim- 1 tied train would probably cost him his position. His eye must constantly be on his order book; his hand upon the tele- l graph key. If a train does not reach a l certain point when it is due. the man at l the key is in misery Moments to him | drag as though they were hours. Five l minutes elapse and the train does not show up. He searches his order book to ] see If he has sent out the correct orders Almost every minute he asks the operator at that given point if he hears No. So and So coming. At the same time he must watch the movements of perhaps fifty other trains on his division. but the l belated one causes him the most uneasi- l ness.
 In Case of Wreck. In case of a wreck it is the train dis i patchers duty to order out wreckng 1 trains sidetrack all trains between the station from which the wrecking train ls sent, to the point where the wreck oc- cured and send relief with all possible l haste
 There is a well known telegra pher in Birmingham who years ago. was train i dispatcher on the Chesapeake and Ohio fallroad In Virginia. One night a wreck occurred on his division soon after he went off duty. Two men were killed. The blame of the wreck was laid at his door. For days he suffered untold tor lures. Finally the superintendent pre- sided al a trial which was ordered so that 1 the blame could be placed where it be- l longed. It was found that the Brming- | ham man was not responsible for the col | lision and the blame was transferred to | another dispatcher who had, on that oc- casion, imbibed too freely in strong drink and lost his head.
 Tt was back in the sos" said he. in 1 discussing the wreck. when all available l passenger engines were being pressed into l service to haul returning Knights Tenn 1 plars who had been attending the con l clave in Frisco. Early that night I start ed four extras out of Charlottesville giv- 1 ing them orders to run twenty miles an hour from Charlottesville to Clifton Forge. regardless of regular trains The 1 f1rst three extras were trains of empty coal cars, the fourth being a passenger engine running light Each engineer and conductor was given a copy of the order and the trains started out twenty-flye minutes apart.