The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1907-12-31
MEANS MUCH WORK
LABOR IN ARRANGEMENT OF
RAILROAD SCHEDULES.
skillful Adjustment Of Time Tables Is
Perhaps the Most Difficult Of All
Duties Devolving on Off
ciaIs Of Line.

"Give an inexperienced person a
large railroad folder and you put more
trouble in his hands than the pigs In
the clover puzzle" said a prominent
railroad official the other day.
You will find that the average per-
son has not the slightest idea OF how
to decipher the arrival and departure
of trains. Imagine, then, the immense
amount of work involved in arranging
the schedules of the trains Of a vast
railroad system so they will doyetaD
smoothly and be got in working order
at an appointed hour.
THE adjustment of the timetables
devolves upon the chief operating OH
cial of the road. He notifies the OH
cial of each division that a new train
is to reach a certain point at a certain
hour, and will depart after a change OF
engines five minutes later. being due
to arrive at the other end of the divis
ion at a certain hour.
THE trainmaster of the division
must then prepare a tentative schedule
of trains for his division, and this ten
tative schedule must be sent to the
chief train dispatcher before the new
train is put on.
Each additional train must involve
a certain arrangement Of the schedule
already in force. If the new train Is .
'1ier' the arrangement amounts al
most to disorder. The local and ac'
commodation trains are most affected
by these changes. They must get out
of the way of the limited trains in
plenty of time and passengers on the
local trains are very likely to chafe
under the delays that are inevitable.
when all Of the tentative schedules
providing for a new train are in hand
the chief train dispatcher is in a posi-
ton to prepare a final schedule. He
must regard, especially in limited
trains, the hours at which trains are
expected to leave and arrive at impor-
tant points. He cannot run a train
along the line of least resistance, for
at the hours when there are fewest
obstacles in the way of a "tlier" there
might be the greatest likelihood of no
passengers being waiting at the most
important stations.
when all the data are in hand the
schedule is prepared and notifications
are sent out to all of the division SUI.
perintendents. But the experimental
ton does not end here. There is a
great deal to be done by way of ad.
justing experience to operation, so the
strain on the rolling stock may be
least.
In preparing a schedule for a
long-distance run it is essential to es-
tablish an average hourly mileage for
the entire distance. 1t is not possible
to test the running time between two
neighboring points and by adding
these together to arrive at the maxi.
mum speed possible to attain between
two distant points. The theory of
these averages is that the train shall
leave sufficient leeway to make up
time when necessary. 1t has been
found, however, that engineers will
loaf along over parts of their trip in
order to make faster time than their
schedules call for over other portions
of the route.
1T can, therefore, be seer that all
must be ready IS far as it can be
figured out by man, and the benefit
OF experience adds greatly to the max.
ing of a schedule in the rough that
VIII work out to a nicely when the
train is actually under way"