The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1906-09-10
CURIOUS SCORE BOARD
IN EMPORIA OFFICE
Ingenious Device in Big Division
Headquarters Enables Employees to
Spot Whereabouts of Any Particu-
lar Train at any Particular Time
Description of Invention.

Description of Invention.
AlmoSt every person in town knows
that Emporia was recently made the
division of the Santa Fe, and that the
offices were moved here from Topeka,
yet scarcely a person in town with
the exception of the men who came
from Topeka when the offices were
moved knows of the large time ear
board that stands in superintendent
McCleIlan's office, says the Emporia
Gazette.
The oddly about this board con-
sists in several things; one of which
is the surprising great weight of it.
When the board was moved here
from Topeka it required eight men to
move it. What is still more peculiar
about the board is the striking ap-
pearance. A stranger upon entering
Superintendent McLellan's office al
ways notices this board the first
thing, say the office clerks, and he will
invariably glance at it with bullying
eyes and open mouth the last thing
before eaving.
A stranger is partly right when
he thinks there is nothing to it but
pins and a few colored strings. for
these are the principal things used in
its construction, but by means of this
board any person working in the Of
flee can tell you the movement OF
any of the regular trains that are
to run daily over the miles
of track which it represents. 1t also
shows the exact speed of these trains
at any particular time or place. 1t
shows exactly the place or station
where these trains pass each other,
how long they stop at a station, If at
all, and practically everything to be
told about the daily movement Of the
trains.
The board is six feet high, two
inches thick and seven feet wide and
stands a foot above the floor on legs.
1t represents the eastern division OF
1917 miles of track on this division
and seventy-three daily trains run
ming over this track, besides sections
of regular trains and special trains
| that are not shown on the board. 1t
is necessary for the people who con-
troll these trains to have an exact pro-
gram of their movement. That is
what this board is for and it is so
| complicated that no one with the eX-
ception of the railroad people under
stands it.
In the first place the board has
colored lines on it running up and
down and extending clear across.
These lines represent the tw~enty-four
hours in the day and for convenience,
colored lines are used, as is often the
| case on the dial of a clock. The red
lines represent five minutes the green
lines fifteen minutes and the black
lines half hours, so they are at equal
distances apart. At the upper left
hand corner of the board it is marked
IL o'clock, or midnight, then at every
other half hour mark across the
board the hours are marked. The
center of the board is marked noon,
and when the numbers reach the up
per right hand corner of the board
they have reached midnigh again.
At each side of the board the sta
tions are marked, for example, start
ing with Kansas City and coming to
Emporia. the stations are written in
their respective order and black lines
run across the board from where the
station is marked, at right angles to
the lines indicating the time. These
black lines show the distance apart
of each one of the stations while the
colored lines running up and down
are the time lines and are used for
altogether different purposes The
pins and strings running across the
board represent the movement of the
trains and of course the pins are only
used to hold the string in place, with
the exception Of where they use black
headed pins, and these indicate that
two rains pass each other wherever
they happen to be Xxi
Take for amp train No. lis, the
fast mail, which leaves Kansas City
at 2:20 O'Clock in the morning and
reaches Emporia at SEA. This is the
fastest scheduled train between KAN
sas City and Emporia. It makes the
run in three hours and four
while No. 9, which leaves Kansas City
at = D. NJ ana arrives IN EH1pOEld
at 1905 a. M, takes three hours and
five minutes, or just = one mlnut
longer.
Starting at Kansas City with the
fast mail there is a pin sticking where
the 2:20 time line intersects the 2:2o
distance line. This is, of course, four
half-hour lines. or black lines, one
green line which is a quarter hour
line, and one red line, a fve-minute
line. which makes two hours and
twenty Argentine is the
first station this side of Kansas City
and the string runs very slanting
across the board until it reaches the
Argentine line. The slant of the
string indicates the speed of the train
and the straighter the string runs up
and down the greater he speed of the
train. The reason there is SO great a
slant in the string between Kansas
that they are compelled to reduce
their speed while going through the
suburbs of Kansas City and yards at
Argentine. The slant is lessened con-
siderabIy the moment the train leaves
Argentine and it takes a gradual slant
until it reaches Lawrence at 3:15.
There the pin is sticking on the first
green line on the right hand side of
the third hour line Law
renee and Topeka. the slant is less
than between Argentine and Law
renee, t~hereforefore they would make
the fastest time between Lawrence
and Topeka. They arrive at Topeka
at $50 and leave at $3.50, so the string
follows the Topeka station line across
the board, which indicates that the
train is stopping, but time is going
the slant of the string as about tne
a-o &c hat hafUQpu T,awrence and