The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-03-10
Alarms Cost 500 a Day.

Alarms Cost 500 Day.
AS to the necessities for using the
alarm system of the North side cable
lines, it has been figured that two
thirds of the calls are made because
of impediments to traffic put in the
way by the outside public. And yet
the system means the expenditure of
500 a day on the North side and West
side cable and trolley lines belonging
to the company. Ten of these emery
ency stations are maintained by the
system, each averaging six men and
four horses in two shifts, each wagon
having fifty miles of track subject to
all the ills that street railway steel is
heir to.
Two styles of wagon are necessary,
one a low truck designed for the re-
moVal of Instructions from the tracks
and the other a tower wagon with it's
crew for the splicing of a broken troll
ley wire. In each of the ten barns,
virtually day and night, the horses are
in the harness and hitched to the wag-
ons ready for a run. The truck for
the removal of distractions to traffic
is easily recognized by it's fifty wheel,
which is carried ready for adjustment
to any vehicle which stands upon a
track immoVable because one of it's
own wheels has been crushed down.
This fifth wheel of the emergency
wagon, however, is without sentiment.
There is no charity in it. When it has
been put in place of the wheel that
has broken down and the team attach
ed to the wagon has pulled the wagon
off the track of the company the wheel
is removed and loaded into the truck
which makes another run to it's sta
ton, leaving the driver of the coal
wagon with all the worries of the sit
uation as they existed before the COM
pany truck came.
Most Calls in Winter.
But often before the truck gang has
made the home run another call is
awaiting, for the season of emergency
calls is in the winter, when the sharp
finger of the frost is laid upon every
thing; when steel, above all other met
ais, is subjected to the testing of it's
weakest point, and when nearly every
other material in the construction of
vehicles is rendered brittle by the cold.
Ordinarily an emergency wagon makes
it's run to a breakdown in seven to
eight minutes. The time necessary to
the clearing of the tracks depends
upon the nature of the obstruction
The last key signal of the alarm
system is given on the North side
about 1870 o'clock in the morning. This
is the four-turn signal, which stops
the cable after the last car has gone
into the-barns and when some partic-
ularly suspicious portion of the cable
has come into the view of the repair
gang. This is the good night call
to the engineer of the power house.
Thereafter till SIS o'clock the owl car
has sway of the tracks, and the gem
eral public, which is not particularly
sober in the main, may hang to its
particular style of lamp post and wait.
In the key code for emergency sig
nails a repetition of the number of
turns of the key in the box counter
acts the first signal. For instance,
the one turn Of a key stops the machin-
cry, and when it has come to a stop
another signal turn will start it; two
turns will cause the machinery to slow
up and another two turns will notify
the engineer to turn on full speed
again.