The St. Louis Republic., 1903-01-01

The Grand Trunk wreck. for which the
operator, Carson, IS held to be reprehehst-
BILE brings to light many stories Gf raiiroau
life from the technical viewpoint some Oh
which excite much sympathy for the
operator, whose life. while at times eN-
ceedingly dull and uninterestins. situated
as he often is at some small, out-ol-the-
Vay place, with little else than the moaning
Of the wind the wires TO Keep MN
awake, is. on the other hand, so f:aught
with responsibility and need of good
clear head that the wonder is that more
wrecks do not occur.
An experienced railroad operator. in
speaking Of Carson yesterday, said that ms
sympath.es were with the operator and
that he would wager could the real facts
be brought out. that Carson's story Is
oearly correct.
II was working in q train dispatcher's
Odfice on the T. q o." said the narrator
saway back in the seventies, and as the road
Is 1t then existed was 4 single track. with
tunnels and bridges every few miles. the
task of keeping trains moving was dit-
ficult one. Engines in those days were not
perfected as they are to-day. and they
would often go wrong in spite Of every ef-
fort 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. If passenger train hap
pened TO be heavily loaded the i;rades in
that part Of the country often made the
schedule time an impossibility when the
track was bad.
BELATED PASSENGER WAS RUNNING
BEHIND THE REGULAR SCHEDULE
1T was a passenger train of this char
acter that fell behind schedule time on the
night / have in mind. She was running
No. and contained eight cars. all filed
with passengers, a great many of whom
were Congressman and others on their way
to Washington for the reassembling of
Congress after the holidays in the winter
of '76.
AT the same time passenger train No. 10
was running on orders and boGnd for the
West. the two meeting at siding between
station called Salem and the dispatcher's s
office, which was named Central. No. I. the
eastbound tIain. was twenty minutes late,
and, she had right of way. il meant
that No. 10 would not wait at the meeting
point after given time. To obvIate delay.
the dispatcher decided to advance No. 10 70
siding ten or a dozen miles west, where
she could meet and pass No. T.
Cali Sa.' said the dispatcher to me as
he heard No. blow for Central which was
our office. and tell him to put out red light
for No. TO-
Red light meant hold for orders. and
the Light was at the top of twenty-five
foot pole, inclosed in small box with glass
doors on each side. Inside the glass doors
were two red curtains or slides. controlled
by cord leading to the operators table in
side the office. These slides were kept I'D
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.
Z" 'Sa' answered at the first call. and IN
reply to my instructions said: %. X; 90
ahead, which meant tnat he had dropped
MS 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
WITH THE MESSAGE BACK
''As No. ] was 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 MS
naturally made the wire hum in sending
was McCabe-Frank McCabe-was a star:
nothlng was too fast for him. and when he
lsh,,e relPeated ar, an order & to our Office L knew
copy him with stylus. The air was cold
ana 'rosty and as the engine outside INV
window WINDOW was popping furiously 1 was
eounder in order TO read McCabe's fusflIade
OF dots and dashes, SO as to not have ia
Ian HIM. thereby delaying the work,
As soon the order had been reneated
and @. X. given 1 handed the copies to
captain Armstrong--Billy Armstrong; peace
to his ashes-who. in turn, handed them to
tne conductor and engineer and told them
- pull out As they left the office Cantain
Armstrong followed them. lantern in hand.
and walked quite some distance away from
the ofnce as he chatted with the conductor
who. swinging onto the steps. waved the
engineer to go ahead And the train
started to pull out with her safety valve
stu popping, the engine bell Changing. the
4. steam from her cylinders kissing and the
exhaust from the stack throwing buaa
clouds Of smoke and cinders
Notwlthstanding all the noise, and AL
tnough had walked across the room for
something e.. or other. heard sa' calling me. ne.
so furious, SO frantic and swift that i knew
by instinct that there was something
doing. And. although the caller had never
stopped to sign his own office letters l
knew It was McCabe as no other man I
mad ever known could put the same fire
into call that he could e
flushing to the key 1 answered. in order
70 be quick. by simply saying T.
NO. 10 did not stop: she got no orders