The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1911-05-05
RAILROAD WATCH INSPECTION

n. Frank Meddril, In the Saturday Evening
Post, Tells How Train Mems Time Pieces
Are Regulated and Kept Reliable
On a spring afternoon almost exactly
twenty years ago the engineer and con-
ductor of west-bound accommodation
train were given orders to let the east
bound fast mail pass them at small
station near Oberlin, Ohio. The train
men glanced at the station clock, COM
pared timepieces and proceeded on
their way. 1t afterward transpired that
the conductor did not again look at his
watch, relying, not unnaturally, on the
engineer; while the timepiece of the
latter, it was subsequently shown, must
have stopped four minutes and then
started running again, fateful fact un-
known to the man at the throttle. I'm
aware OF the four lost minutes he was
leisurely numbering along when the fast
mail flashed into view. The result was
a collision in which both engineers were
killed, and the mangled remains OF nine
postal clerks were taken from the wreck.
The destruction Of rolling stock and
the expensive litigation that followed
this collision was due entirely to an un-
reliable timepiece, and doubtless SINH
lar accidents on other lines first brought
home to railroad companies the import
ance of a good timepiece as factor in
safe railroading. Then was evolved the
Watch inspection idea, and so salutary
did its introduction prove that the sys-
TEN is now in force on railroads aggre-
eating total mileage Of nearly 200, 900
miles; nor has any railroad that once
adopted the system ever dispensed with
it. Considering, in fact, its proved
service in protecting life and property,
it is safe to predict that some form of
watch inspection will be in force on all
the railroads of the continent in the not
distant future, Canada and Mexico hay
ing already followed our lead.
The railroad mans watch is rightly
regarded as safety appliance; but there
is this distinction to be made-that
though all other safety devices are pro-
cured at the expense of the railroad
companies the watch must be purchased
by the engineer, conductor or brake
man. The railroad employees, however,
see no particular reason for objecting to
this investment, partly because their
well-paid positions call for no equipment
of tools, and partly because good watch
is permanent necessity in their calling
and is their personal property.
Though the majority of travellers by
train have heard of railroad watch in
spection, probably but few of them have
any accurate idea of the rigid system in
force with regard to the timepieces,
their grade, regulation and repair. In
accordance with the inspection rules,
railroad man is compelled to purchase
a watch of high grade, the minimum
standard being what is known among
the American watch trade as the IL
jeweled patent regulator, adjusted to
heat, cold and at least three positions
pendant up, as carried in the pocket,
dial up and dial down.
Though this is not by any means the
most expensive watch produced in the
American factories, it has all the essen
tials necessary to good timekeeping and
frst-class service. The time service"
calls for a watch that will run within a
variation Of 80 seconds week, and the
watch above specified, with proper at
tention, will accomplish this and more.
The rules call also for a lever-set watch
in preference to a pendant-set watch,
because of the possibility, in the latter
case, Of the wearer's forgetting to push
back the stem after setting. One of
the latest Improvements in the railroad
watch is the minute numeral dial, de-
signed by the general watch inspector
of the Santa Fe, the use of which rem
ders mistakes in reading the time vir-
tually impossible.
The inspection system calls for the
service of a general time-inspector and