The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1911-01-12
prehensive knowledge

brake.
Your boys first engine will probably
be on work train or at switching,
at regular pay Of 1925 day of ten
hours; but, II seniority permits. he
will soon find himself on a regular
freight run. at pay Of 1886 to $3.50 for
every hundred miles run, according
to the size of the locomotive. Freight
engineers on steady work earn some
thing like $125 month, and are in
direct line for promotion to passen-
ger runs. The regular pay on the lat
ter is $685. for every hundred miles,
which gives engineers from $3.50 to
5000 month, some, on choice routes
exceeding even this.
Promotion from the choicest passen-
ger cab is to road foreman of engines,
who is sort of assistant to the mas
ter mechanic and is paid a salary Of
about $3.50 month. His duties are
generally to supervise the engineers
Of division, settling their troubles
and seeing that locomotives are kept
in proper order. Besides, he Is men,
Der Of the board that examines fire.
men and engineers. Next he becomes
master mechanic at 5000 to $3.50 a
month. The latter is the direct mas
ter of engines and engineers, being at
the head of the roundhouse, repair
shops. ETC., and assigning the men to
their duties. Following this position
comes that Of division superintendent
Of motive power, who has charge of
the main shops and Is superior to
four or five master mechanics, at
$4,000 to $4,000 year; then comes
assistant general superintendent Of
motive power, at around $4,000 salary;
then, full general superintendent, at
$1,000 to 100000 annually. Once in
this position, your boy should now be
competent to get into the highest po-
sitions in railroading. In the ordinary
course of progress he should reach a
choice passenger run by the time he
Is thirty-five or so, the foremanship
within five years later, and be eligible
for the general superintendency by the
time he Is about fifty.
This line of work, from fireman up
through the engineman's cab is lit
tie different from ordinary occupa
lions, in that boy generally has to
be twenty-one before he can be fire.
man; but many, to avoid the waiting,
start in earlier than that as workmen
on the ash pits, which Is little more
than ordinary manual labor, at Is or
16 cents an hour, or as wipers in the
roundhouse at is cents. Then, as soon
as they are Of age, they make their
formal start as firemen.
Railroads demand the highest pos
sible proficiency in their employees,
and, as already indicated, in the case
of flremen, this includes an intimate
knowledge of the economy of fuel.
questions In railroading, and the fire
man that gets over a given run in
schedule time with less consumption
of coal than other firemen use is con-
sidered to possess exceptional qualifl-
cations and will be given every pos
sible opportunity to advance. Thus.
he is constantly spurred to increase
his scientific and practical knowledge
of his work, which may ultimately
lead him to speciality in this particu-
lar phase of the business.
If fireman expects to get on he
must also possess to large degree
nerve and judgment; for both are
taxed every time he makes a passen-
ger run, in observing the hundreds of
electrical signals that line the con-
gested tracks, in avoiding accidents,
in taking responsibility for departure
from rules which may be required by
some emergency Of the moment, and
in always realizing that the lives Of
the hundreds of passengers in the
train are dependent upon him-and
still he must keep up the speed
schedule.
Copyright, 1910. by the Associated Lit
erary Pres5.s