Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1905-06-29
Continued Next week.)
What Locomotive Engineer Has to
Remember.

Remember.
Officials who operate the fast trains
recently put on between New York city
and the west are just now facing a
| problem in philosophy which, on paper,
looks something like this:
How many iron-clad rules can the
human mind keep within instant recall
II death is the penalty for forgetting?"
The answer is supposed to lie some
where in the code of rules and signals
which the officials have devised for the
operation of these fast trains. These
rules of which there are about 100 for
each l25 miles between New York city
and Chicago. We're made for the safety
of the public. but the pnblic may look
askance when II learns that one man.
must remember 700 of them. and that
slip on any one rule may mean
shocking loss of human life.
These 700 rules are the average for
each division Of the chief railroad lines
running west from New York. Each
set covers the work of one engineer
who drives hts train until another en-
gineer, with fresh set of rules and,
presumably, Il fresh memory, relieves
him. In other words eight men, the
average number of locomotive egineers
who drive a fast train between New
York and Chicago must keep constant
ly In mind nearly 5000 different rulesA
In order that patrons of these trains
may travel without risking their lives.
What this means to the public, in
twenty four hours' ride on one of these
trains, can be Judged from the follow
ing list of what an engineer on a GER
tain l00-nlle run has to watch, while
his locomotive Is going at sixty miles
an hour:
Five hundred "cross-over" switch
lights, to learn whether they are red
~ ~ tts,,t,. IL
switch lights, to learn whether they are
red, white or green. Seven "non-inter-
locking switch lights, to know whether
they are red or green. Semaphore arms
at twenty five way stations, for posi-
BILE red lights. -Four hundred highway
crossings, TO know whether they are
clear" Locomotives of dozen trains
approaching on parallel tracks. for red
or green lights Telegraph operators
at twenty five way stations, who may
be waiting near the track with orders.
For n red flag at any conceivable point
in the 100 miles, displayed as a danger
signal. Whether one or two torpedoes
are exploded at any point in the 100
miles. signfying caution" or stop"
Whether his clearance card is good for
each of the twenty-five way stations
Whether there is enough water in the
engine boiler. Whether there is enough
water in the engine tender. Whether
there IS enough coal IN the engine ten
der. Whether the steam pressure Is
being kept up. Whether the fireman is
obeying another long set of rules.
Whether the engine bell rings at 400
highway crossings.
BY day the switch and signal lights
are replaced by signal boards and
Blocks" the color or direction of which
must be read as literally as the lamps.
The engineer who notes 699 Of these
signs from his cab window, and misses
the Tooth, has taken, in race track Lam
guage, 100 to ] shot" with train
load Of human lives.
The public has good reason to ask
whether the safety limit has not been
reached with both speed and rules
There must be point where the loco
motive is SO large, and its speed 30
great, that one human mind cannot
safely control it, no matter how few
the levers are. A s0-ton passenger To-
connective going at seventy miles an
hour, and operated by one man inside"
1t, is as much psychological freak as
250-pound human athlete would be,
II turned loose with the brain Of a
3-year-old boy.-Leon Edgar Reed, In
Harper's Weekly.