Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-07-27
WHY IS A R. R. TELECRAPHER?
Partly Because Great Heat or
Cold Is Important Information.
Reports to Chief Despatchers -Four
Times DaiIy-Extrcmcs Affect Oil
Boxes and Rniis--Then Freight
Loads Must he Lightencd.

Why is railroad telcsrapher? More
why Is n railway teleCraphcr
of the Central Vermont or Rutland?
There are plenty Of answers to that qucs-
ton and hero are only few of them.
Every day. week DAYS and Sundays, the
photographers of the two roads which
share tho union station in common, tele-
graph four times to the chief despatchers
of tho companies, at St. Adams and Rut-
land respectively, and tell them what the
temperature is at the time and whether it
looks like a storm. At 90 a. m, 1900
M, 400 p m. and between II 90 and 200
p. m, winter and summer, spring and
fall, the three trusty brass Founders at
tho station send in their weather reports.
Rain or hail snow or sleet, clear skies
ahead or lowering. In go their reports.
and a record is kept of those reports by
the chief despatchers. at least temporar-
tly.
Four times daily ut least these re-
ports and forecasts are made. They
aren't couched in technical terms, and
John Operator is too busy usually to
take very long look ahead. but ex-
perience teaches him a few things, and
rarely fbs and is void of Imagination
Those thermometers are out in the
cold or comfortably ensconced in the
shade, as the case may be, doing duty
"a hours a day. maybe a little
more, owing to Mr.. julius Caesar-the
man Willy Shakespeare made famous
and others. perhaps. There's one of
them at every station and they are
kept in working trim. And they are
some thermometers" Like the West
ern Unions chronometers and
onometer-correcters they speak
their little piece" we'll.
These four reports don't include
special reports which may be called
for by a yard-master, as matter of
making somebody else the goat" If
there is to be one. any hour, day or
night. He asks for them particularly
If there is or threatens to be a violent
change in the weather and in any case
If freight Is being made UP at that
particular station, He knows more
about the effect Of the jump or drop
in temperature. or the frown or smile
of the canopy above. than the man in
side does. and may be able to get
good a record, but that doesn't alter
the procedure.
(The d. T. p. and a. p. telegrapher
at this moment. pursuant to a request
for local color" among the craft
suggests lightning singers" and
wielders of the dot and dash" We
have already stolen his brass pound
ers." but return with scorn his dot
and dash" 1t has an unfautunate
connotation, for it is Mutt and Jeff
by another name that doesn't sound so
sweet, the name of a movie play we
once beheld. AS for lightning sling
ers." it's sacrilegi ous)
The scribe in his innocence began to
expand on the effects of heat and cold
upon matter, but he was only partly
right. The railroads take all these
precautions principally for two rea-
sons. namely, the fact that rail-ends
huddle up 10 each other when it's
warm. and if they huddle too far may
spread: and. in winter the oil boxes
get gummy and the oil doesn't flow.
OF course rain and ice make ire rails
slippery, but that's there rather than
here.
The nanges on a car wheel and on
an engine wheel too for that matter.
can't keep the coach or locomotive on
( the tracks if the tracks me ander off
to one side Rounding a curve the
hange, especially of the big vehicle
in the lead. is inclined to throw the
track outward, and If il happens to be
even a little out of place already. the
engine may jump the track or the rails
may spread. Rails spread also Of
course because of loose spikes and for
other reasons, but most roads now
keep too sharp an eye on their road
! n m NJ
The space Of quarter Of an inch is
left between rails purposely to allow
for expansion with heat. Usually a
roadbed needs special watching If the
thermometer gets much above ninety.
ninety in the shade that is. For in the
glare of the sun the rails become much
hotted than ninetr.
Rut tho everyday result of ohserv!n e
a marked change in temperature. and
the chief purpose for inspecting the
Thermometer has To do with the cargo
of freight In winter even twenty
above zero is considered Abnormal and
a reduction Of 10 per cent. in the
amount Of freight allowed must be
made But II tho little red thread
sinks down to zero the load must be
ligntened twenty per cent, and twenty
more is taken off If it descends still
further to twenty below. Everyone
has heard the squeak and dull grind
ing sound in the journal of a freight
car That discord is due to the gum
ming up of the oil. The axle doesn't
do its little turn smoothly. OF course
in hot weather. or in any kind of
weather there may be similar
squeaking from a totally different
cause. namely friction, owing to the
presence Of sand or other foreign sub
stance.
Spreading or misplaced rails and
gummy oil boxes aren't the only con-
ditions which cause a load % he light
ened by the trainman. II there has
been a rain, or there probably win be
one, and the road has n chronic cave
in spot, or dangerous stretch Of
roadhed. the conductor and yardmast-
or, if he is about accommodate the
. heft of the load to the capacity OF the
bed.
The telegrapher is the go-hety~een
| in practically every case where com
munication must be sent 1T once or
speedily from one official or employee
to another. But safety FIRST, which
long has tacitly been the guiding
, motto of railroad men, covers many
of the purposes which move the teleG-
rapher and his fellows,
,
, SAYS THEY ARE WONDERFUL.