The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-12-24
Surprise Tests" Have Been
Found to Promote Efficiency.
Successful Experiments in the
Lines of Illinois Central.
REDUCE ACCIDENTS.
Fifty Per Cent Gain Over Dis
cipline of the Past.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.
WEDNESDAY.

On the Illinois Central since the adj
vent of W. L. Park as vice president,
efficiency or surprise tests, as they
have been more Familiarity known on
some railways, have been installed for
the purpose of promoting better dis
c1pllne and making men in the train
service more efficient. They now have
been conducted for a period of more
than eight months, as result of which
the number of accidents occurring on
the road has been reduced fully one
half. In regard to the work he says:
safety is paramount of a railroad;
1t Is the one point about which all else
revolves. These tests determine wheth-
,, nails day and night. The scheme was
a success on the Union Pacific and
Southern Pacific, and was originated,
I believe, by julius Kruttschnitt, vice
president and director of operation
and maintenance Of the Hartman
lines. We are not going al the mat
ter roughly, but are enlisting the inter-
est of engineers and fremen, and are
| getting results through their co-opera-
ton. Safe operation protects not
only their lives, but their positions
| SoldierIy Discipline.
| These tests are the best result MAX
| ers have ever known. My idea is to
bring about a discipline about rail-
road officials that will be so1dierly;
that will cause an engin eer to obey
a signal or an order as a soldier or
sailor obeys commands. We want so
| to drill our men, and to establish a
| system that they will automatically OBJ
serve stop signals. One difficulty has
been a misund erstanding of what is
required. I find that operating officers
need the drill as much as the rank and
| file, and that miSunderStan dingS have
arisen as to what it is desired to &C
| complish. To overcome this every con-
| ductor and engineer has been provided
| with a test blank, which enables them
to know just what is expected. OF
course, drilling a lot of high class
men, as railroad men are, to a soldier
| like discipline, is hard work, not be-
| cause these men do not realize the ne
| cessity for such discipline, but because
the American spirit does not like to
acknowledge that a signal man or op-
| orator knows more than they do.
| Curb Initiative.
| eve are not trying to curb the in
itiative or judgment of our men a bit
to insure the maximum safety of oper-
ating signals orders and commands
must be voluntarily obeyed and we
must become as soldiers, with reali-
zation that an absolute signal means
die ground. no deviation, If we are tc
operate a railroad as it should be in
the interest of public safety. Our men
are coming to realize the importance
OF this argument, ana reel InaI DeIore
long running past signal or disobedi-
ence of an order will be a thing of the
past, not only on the Illinois Centra-
but on every other first class railroad
Mr.. Parks experience, with regard
| to getting cooperation of train crews
especially engineers. in these tests, is
not common on other roads, where
they have been made. The men have
not taken kindly to them, and in many
instances have not hesitated in criti-
cising their superiors for making them
in a way that in some instances has
been positively bitter.
This, at the same time has not lee
to a discontinuance of the tests, results
having shown both their value an6
NECESSITY, with a betterment of dis
lcip1ine quite as beneficial as described
by Mr. Park.