Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-06-18

to straighten out tangle than could be
done in an hour with the telegraph key.
BY a system OF repeating all messages
and writing them down as they are
sent and deliv-
Keeps in Close Touch cred. the op-
With All His Men d,snatcher O are
able to keep even a more complete record
of all that transpires than II using Lie
telegraph. Practically the only difference
between the two systems is that the tele-
phone uses direct conversation and the
telegraph only written words transmitted
by the comparatively slow Morse alpha
bet With the telephone the dispatcher
gets in closer personal touch with every
man on the road through the use Of that
instrument than he ever was able to do
with the telegraph.
Some dispatchers do not like the new
system. They say. for instance. that
the dispatcher who uses a telephone is
figuratively tied with halter and can
not get around his office as readily as
the man with the telegraph instrument.
The latter, they assert. can go to any
part of the room and still listen to the
message coming in on the telegraph keys.
a new idea in the use of the telephone
in handling trains Is being tried on the
Pennsylvania railroad. telephone is in
stalled in the engine cab and another in
the caboose. They are connected with
copper wire. and the conductor and en-
gineman may be in intimate contact
throughout their rum
A bill recently introduced in the Mis-
souri, legislature declares that the duties
Of the train dispatcher involve a great
strain and that therefore, for the safety
of the travelling public his working time
ought to be limited to six hours at a
shift The dispatcherS themselves are in
that this is a matter which can be adj
tusted between them and the railroad.
The work of the train dispatcher is
one of the most exacting in the whole
field of railroad
Work of Dispatcher m anage ment.
Is Very Exacting. confronted by
the necessity of getting his trains over
the road with all possible speed consistent
with safety His mind Is in reality
sort of emergency timetable. rail-
road adopts a timetable for the move
ment Of all its trains, yet it absolutely
is impossible for every train on the line
to live up to that schedule. train that
is able to make every leaving point upon
schedule time. and to get over the road
at twenty miles an hour today, tomor-
row may be unable to make any meeting
point on time. or to get over the line
at ten miles an hour. The result OF
this is that the schedule must be made
to order to meet the needs OF the minute
The successful dispatcher must have
a mental picture Of the exact position
of every piece Of rolling stock on the
road at all times. He must be IN
timately acquainted with every station.
grade, bridge, tunnel, switch. siding
and water tank; what trains take
water at given tanks. and thou
sand other details. Many roads re-
auire their dispatchers to go out upon
the line as freight conductors at fire.
ouent intervals in order to familiarfze
themselves with conditions along the
road The dispatcher at the Union sta
ton terminal in Washington has more
THAI. a mental picture of the position
OF the trains under his jurisdiction.
There is arranged a full layout OF the
entire terminal system in his office,
and miniature trains and signals show
the exact situation OF every light.
switch and train throughout the big
terminal system When a signal is
changed on the big line 1t Is auto
matically duplicated on small one.
AS recently as the civil war period