The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-03-11
RAILROAD NEWS.
College Graduates Being Sought
More by Large Systems.
Growth OF Traffic Creates Need
for Trained Men.
FOR SPECIAL COURSE.
One Arranged at Altoona by
Pennsylvania for Employees.
other Items of Railway
Interest.

Philadelphia, March linen with
college training are TO be in greater de-
man on the Pennsylvania railroad
henceforth. The management is max
ing special efforts to secure apprentices
who have a real technical education.
The man who has 1t proves himself
other things being equal, to be more
valuable to the railroad than the one
who has been forced to get along with
out training.
With the tremendous New York i'm
provements of the Pennsylvania and
other extensions all along the line
there is the increasing need for operat-
ing men and engineers of experience
and Judgment. New positions of re-
sponsibility are being created and must
be filled. Every year the Pennsylvania
has been receiving applications for en-
ployment from about twenty college
men. most of them graduates of tech
meal institutions. The company is TAX
ing steps to get applications from
much larger number.
I'VE must have more college men on
our line" said one of the officials,
speaking of the companyy's improve
ments and need of new men. of
course. being a graduate is not enough
l. itself there has to be ability to IN
sure promotion. There will still be en-
ployes without the record of a day in
college who will rise to the top, some
men can't be kept down. But the fact
remains that technical training is what
a railroad man ought to have and we
intend to get those who have it
The Pennsylvania policy of employ
ing college-trained men for certain
branches of the operating and engt-
neering departments has been great
inducement. and graduates now occupy
some of the most important executive
offices in the service of the company. |
The fact that the Pennsylvania, at the |
start. gives a college man sufficient pay |
to afford him proper support is pow
erful attraction.
No "Soft Snaps in Railroading.
A diploma does not entitle the candi-
date for railroad honors to any sort of /
a soft snap" He has to begin at the
bottom of practical railroading. 1t is
in the maintenance of way department
that the trained man is needed most
these days, and there he finds work 10
which he can readily adapt himself.
First he is rodnan in the office of a
division assistant engineer or in the
branch of the department
After serving his term as rodman he is
sent to Altoona.
Altoona pa. is known as the seat of
the greatest railroad educational estab-
Iishment in the world. Since 1871 the
Pennsylvania has trained its men there,
and some of the highest executive Off
cials in the general offices in Philadel-
phia went through the severe course
When the maintenance OF way novice
reaches Altoona he is put to work in the
Yards These yards are seven miles
ong and contain about 210 miles of
racks. The novice, who may be made
1izzy by the maze of tracks at first,
earns the intricacies of shifting, how
20 keep car records to manipulate sig
nails to classify cars. and to do many
mother thing which he has to know all
lbout before he can rise.
Altoona yards are left for the road. |
rhe graduate has now become an as
istant supervisor and is assigned to !
ome stretch of the line. He watches !
teel rails and learns to tell when they
re as they should be. Crossties, bal
asst tie-plateS. nuts, bolts, bitches for
rainage-an these have to be known {
Then, perhaps. the assist I
mt becomes a full-hedged supervisor; Z
fter that come the grades of assistant {
ngineer and superintendent When '
he college man gets to be a superin- i
endent he has qualified as railroad 7
xpert. '
pecial Apprentices Four Year Course
For the college man trained as me- d
hanical engineer there is 4 special b
curse at Altoona He becomes a II
special apprentice" as distinguished
rom the regular apprentices who have Il
&c 'is put through q four years a
purse the like of which is not to be f
,und anywhere else. He goes through
lie shops-boiler. blacksmith, wheel,
ar. tank. and all the rest. Part of the
me is spent in the draughting room Il
nd part in the testing room. Three
onths the railroad student devotes to
ring an engine on the road. acquiring =
Ich knowledge of the working of a II
as only experience can give. e
Men available for promotion to the "
49, : =. = - = T
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