The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-16
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TRAINMEA'S SIGNALS.
Passengers Lives Depend on tn
Wave of Hand

Passengers Lives Depend on the
Wave of Hand.
A man standing in a railroad yard
swings his arm as if to drive 4 spike.
At the same instant an engine far down
the track pelches smoke and plunges
backward. A wave runs down the tram,
as the couplings crunch on one another.
The cars are quickly gathering D1omen-
tum, when suddenly the man on the
ground throws both arms back and for
ward in horizontal circle level With his
chest. as if he were swimming. Stimuli
taneouSly, the man in the cab reverSeS
the lever. Another shiver runs down
the train. There is a hiss of escaping
air from the cylinders. The brakes grind
hard on the wheels. The tram stops.
: The average American traveller or the
average New York commuter might say
at first that this was an everyday
commonplace event, to which only
child from the country wodld pay any
attention. But let some railroad man
ask him to explain how the man IN the
cab and the man on the ground under
stand each other so perfectly. and ''Mr.
Blase'' would be forced to admit his ig-
norance.
And, though these signals seem SIM
pie, the amateur soon finds how diff
cult it is to initiate them. There is an
easy swing of the arm which comes
only with practice Only the other day
a gang of highwaymens undertook to
hold up a train between Worcester and
Providence. 1t had lust begun to grow
dark when the eneineer saw one of the
signal lamps suddenly change from
green to red, He Instantly closed the
throttle and set the air brakes. As the
train came crunching down to a stanu-
still he also saw red lantern swing
across the track, but not with the easy
grace of the brakeman's arm. Suspect
ing foul play, and taking th@ FISK OF
plunging himself and q trainload OF
passengers into unknown peril, the man
in the cab opened the throttle and flash
ed by the danger signals at full speed
As he passed he saw gang of men
close to the track. Two of them We're
tampering with the semaphore.
In learning the brakeman's art be-
ginner finds himself in collision with
strange language, which must first be
mastered. The words are English, but
their relation one with another is dis
tinctly foreign to novice. Should one
encounter courteous brakeman, such
as a Tribune reporter met recently IN
the terminal yards of the Erie railroad,
in Jersey City, and ask him to explain
his set of signals, the brakeman is like
ly to start the lesson by saying:
Watch my arms. There. That means
to shake 'em up. Now watch again.
cut 'em off. When [ swung both arms,
so, that means they're broken in two
The reporter asked the brakeman to
go little slower and translate. The
one who could not understand such a
lucid explanation. Stretching out his
arms sidewise. so that they stood at
right angles to his beay, he said:
That's the go ahead signal IT the
engineer I'm signaling to is way down
the track. and it's hard to catch. his
eye, I swing both arms. If 1 Want nm
to shake EN- up or come aheaa last l
also use both arms. If l want them to
go ahead slow. [ use one hand and just
move it." s
At this moment another brakeman
near by began swinging his arms IN a
circle, up and down. as one would IN
swinging ashammer.
There exclaimed the reporters in
structor, that's the back-up signal L
was just going to make it, As he spoke
new engine backed into a siding, along
which a crowd of impatient Montclair
commuters were waiting
You want to watch the direction his
hands are going" continued the rail-
road man. as. he pointed to his fellow
LAS 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 I'M
coupled See there and he pointed out
into the freight yard A freight engine
was struggling to start long train
loaded for the west. when the last five
cars broke away. The gap was widened
so little that none except railroad
man would have detected 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-uo 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 stretched out his
to his chest, just like person swimming.
And what did you mean when you said
cut EN- off little while ago.?
why. that's for the engineer to kick
'em off
kick what off?'
did not lose his temper. why, see here
he said. Say we've got car on the end
of the train that we want to send down
the track into a siding. There's no use fol-
the engine to waste steam and go way
down there with it, SO it kicks the car off.
The brakeman uncouples the car and then
gives the cut EN- Off signal. There, watch
that switch engine over there" and he
poluteu out mo lht- SdTuS AGAIN
train of passenger and express cars
was moving along slowly, when the brake
man on the forward passenger coach leap
ed to the ground and swung both arms
forward and backward at an oblique an
gle. First his hands met, and then they
were outstretched SO that his arms made
an angle of 45 degrees to the line of his
shoulders. The engine gave a few quick
puffs and then came to a stop. Simulta-
neously. the passenger cars broke loose
from the rest of the train, and with only
brakeman aboard to manipulate the
brakes they rolled down the track. struck
a switch which threw their wheels into a
siding and came gradually to a standstin
at the end of the yard.-New York Tri-
bune-
D. a. r. at Governors House.