The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-10-11
TRAINMEN'S SIGNALS AND WHAT THEY MEAN
Swinging Wildly
N S


A man standing in a railroad yard
| swings his arm as if to drive a spike.
At the same instant an engine far
| down the track belcheS smoke and
plunges backward. A wave runs down
the train, as the couplings crunch on
| one another. The cars are quickly
gathering momentum, when suddenly
| the man on the ground throws both
arms back and forward in a horizontal
! circle level with his chest, as if he
were swimming. simultaneously, the
man in the cab reverses the lever. An
| other shiver runs down the train.
| There is hiss of escaping air from
the cylinders. The brakes grind hard
on the wheels. The train stops.
The average American traveller or
the average New York commuter might
say at first that this was an every
day, commonplace event, to which only
| child from the country would pay
any attention. But let some railroad
man ask him to explain how the man
in the cab and the man on the ground
! understand each other so perfectly, and
"Mr. Blase' would be forced to admit
his ignorance.
And, though these signals seem sim
pie, the amateur soon finds how diff
cult 1t is to initiate them. There is an
easy swing of the arm which comes
only with practice. Only the other
day a gang of highwaymen undertook
to hold UP a train between Worcester
| and Providence. 1t had just begun to
| grow dark when the engineer saw one
! of the signal lamps suddenly change
from green to red. He instantly clos
| ed the throttle and set the air brakes.
| AS the train came crunching down to
| StandStiH, he also saw red Ian
! tern swing across the track, but not
with the easy grace of the brakeman's
arm. Suspecting foul play, and taking
the risk of plunging himself and a
trainload of passengers into unknown
peril, the man in the cab opened the
throttle and flashed by the danger sig
nails at full speed. AS he passed he
saw a gang Of men close to the track
Two of them were tampering with the
semaphore.
In learning the brakeman's art, a
beginner finds himself in collision with
strange language, which must first
be mastered. The words are English
but their relation one with another is
| distinctly foreign to a novice. Should
one encounter a courteous brakeman,
such as Tribune reporter met recent
ly in the terminal yards of the Erie
railroad, in Jersey City, and ask him
to explain his set of signals, the brake
man is likely to start the lesson by say
| ing:
Watch my arms. There. That
means to shake 'em up. Now watch
again. See how I swung 'em? That
means to cut 'em off, When I swing
both arms, so, that means they're
! broken in two"
The reporter asked the brakeman to
! go little slower and translate. The
| brakeman shook his head as if he pitied
one who could not understand such a
| lucid explanation. Stretching out his
arms sideways, so that they stood at
right angles to his body, he said:
That's the go ahead signal. If the
engineer I'm signaling to is way down
the track, and it's hard to catch his
eye, l swing both arms. If / want him
| to shake 'em up or come ahead fast,
also use both arms. If I want them to
go ahead slow, use one hand and just
| move it,
At this moment another brakeman
near by began swinging his arms in a
circle, up and down, as one would in
| swinging a hammer.
There exclaimed the reporters in
structor, that's the back up signal.
l was just going to make it, AS he
spoke passenger train propelled by a
brand new engine backed into a sid
ing, along which a crowd of impatient
| Montclafr commuters were waiting
1 L GU Wdtll 10 WATCH the Q1TGCl1On MS
! hands are going" continued the rail-
road man, as he pointed to his fellow.
| "As he swings his arms you notice that
| his hand comes forward when it is up,
| and goes backward when it is down.
| There's everything in the direction of a
| swing. For instance, if you swing your
arms in just the opposite direction, it
would mean they're broken In two.'
Whats broken in two?" asked the
newspaper man.
Don't you know?" exclaimed the
brakeman, with another look of pity at
| his pupil. why, the train, of course
The cars have become uncoupled. See
there" and he pointed out into the
freight yard. freight engine was
struggling to start a long train loaded
| for the West, when the last five cars
broke away The gap had widened Sc
! little that none except a railroad man
would have detected that there was
anything wrong. A brakeman who was
running along from car to car had just
discovered the break and was making
vigorous gestures to the engineer. He
| swung his arms exactly in the opposite
direction to the back up signal, bring
ing his hand up in front and down be-
hind him. The engineer slackened his
speed a bit The gap closed.
What signal would you make to
stop train?" asked the reporter.
"a horizontal swing like this" was
the reply, and the brakeman stretch
ed out his hand in front of him and
brought his hand to his chest, just like
a person swimming.
"And what did you mean when you
said cut 'em off, little while ago?'
why. that's for the engineer to kick
'em off,"
Kick what OFF,"
Here the brakeman. gave a sigh. but