Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-01-11
WHERE MEMORY COUNTS.
Rules Engineers Have to Remember
When F"rgetfuness May Be Fatal.

When F-rgetfuness May Be Fatal.
Officiala who operate the fast trains
recently put on between New York
City and the West are just now fac
ing problem in philosophy which, on
paper, looks something like this:
How many iron clad rules can the
human mind keep within instant re-
call, if death is the penalty for for
sgetfulneSs?"
The answer is supposed to lie some
where in the code of rules and sig
nails which the officials have devised
for the operation of these fast trains.
These rules, of which there are about
700 for each 125 miles between New
York City and Chicago, were made
for the safety of the public, but the
public may look askance when it
learns that one man must remember
700 of them, and that slip of any
one rule may mean a 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 en-
gineer, who drives his train until
another engineer, with a fresh set
of rules and, presumably, fresh mem
DRY, relieves him. In other words,
eight men, the average number of
locomotive engineers who drive fast
train between New York and Chicago,
5000 different rules, in order that pa
irons of these trains may travel with
out risking their lives. What this
means to the public, in twenty-four
hours ride on one of these trains,
can be judged from the following list
of what an engineer on certain 100
mile run has to watch, while his loco
motive is going at sixty miles an
hour:
Five hundred "cross-over" switch
lights, to learn whether they are red
or white. Fifteen 'interlocking"
switchlights, to learn whether they
are red, white Or green. Seven mon
inter,ocking" switchlights, to know
whether they are red or white. Three
mountaineering" switchlights, to
know whether they are red or white.
Three mountaineering switchlights,
to know whether they are red or
green. Semaphore arms at twenty
five way stations, for possible red
lights Four hundred highway cross
ings, to know whether they are
Clear" Locomotives of a 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 a red flag at any
conceivable point in the 100 miles,
displayed as a danger signal. Wheth-
er one or two torpedoes are exploded
at any point in the 100 miles, signify
ing caution" or "stop." Whether his
clearance card is good for each Of
twenty-five way stations. Whether
there is enough water in the engine
boiler Whether there is enough wa
ter in the engine tender. Whether
there is enough coal in the engine
tender. Whether the steam pressure
is being kept up. Whether the fire.
man 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
500 of these signs from his cab win
dow, and misses the Tooth, has taken,
in race track language, "700-to-1"
shot, with trainload of human lives.
The public has good cason to ask
whether the safety limit has not been
reached with both speed and rules.
There must be point where the
locomotive is so large and it's speed
so great that one human mind can
not safely control it, no matter how
few the levers are A cotton paSSen-
ger locomotive going at seventy miles
an hour, and operated by one man
inside" it, is as much a psychological
freak as a 25O-pound human athlete
would be, if turned loose with the
brain Of a three-year-old boy-Leon
Edgar Reed, in Harper's Weekly.
He Took it Back.