The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-16
Arrangement of Time Gard Is
Interesting.
Santa Fe Has Been Busy Past
Week.
new TRAIN HAS BEEN PUT on
Joe SOmmers Has Been in Bust
ness Since 1880.
When He Moves Pin Some Crew
Is Held Up.

laundering transcontinental pas
senger trains bearing hundreds Of
lives, running to a schedule in which
minutes are split to fractions, and Vio-
lations of which mean "the carpet
for the magnificent creature in blue
and brass who majesttcally accepts
your transportation slip; crawling
freight trains loaded with the goods
for which consumers are waiting with
ill-concealed Impotence; leisurely, ap-
parently ineonsequential locals run oy
chummy. human train crews winch
stop by the wayside on the slightest
provocatlon-they all look alike to the
uninitiated when they are strung on
the time card, translated INTO terms OF
red Irvine Topped over pins on the .aee
of a blackboard scored with lines. IN a
dinEy room packed with other such
boards, on the second floor of build
ing onsKansas avenue.
The Time Card Room,
The room is the "time card room
for the eastern and western lines OF
the entire A. T. & S: +. system, anu M
before the boards traffic inspectors sit
and solve problems of getting trains
mast certain points and past eaen oth-
er. TO form the interlOcking schedule
which governs the whole system
To the traffic inspector the req
the layman, is train in motion. Tne
fine lines crossing the board UP and
down are minutes. The heavier INES
running across the board are statlons,
spaced on the board according 10 tneir
distance apart on the track. It's all
very simple
Speod of Trains Is Chartcd,
Like the lines and curve on an en-
gineer's graphic chart, the course OF
tho trains and their speed is charteo'
When the red string runs nearest YER
tically, covering many OF the mIlsase
divisions to few of the minute spaces
it means that the trains running
time is fast, the track good, no grades
and few stations
When the string runs horizontally
and requires many minute DIVISIONS 70
cover small mileage, then the trafnc
inspector knows at a glance that ths
time on that particular stretch OF
TRACK is slow. When the string runs
directly across the board, the tram Is
halted, waiting at station.
The time card room has oeen pusy
place during the past week, because
a new train was being put on, and a
s'system change" of time cards was IN
process of coming into being. Given
the time the train leaves ITS CnIeaso
terminal and the time 1t enters the
San Francisco terminal, it is up to the
superintendent or representative OF
every division-and there are sixteen
included IN the eastern and western
lines to come to the time card rooms,
and nut a new string on the black
boards for the new train. with the e1-
act time when the new train is due at
any point on the track between Chl-
cago arc San Francisco, in graphic
Joe. Sommers in Charge.
Joe Somners handles the time cards
for the eastern division. He has been
in the time card room since 1880, ana
the figures and times which ne nasn
in his head probably won't pc founo IN
any OF the published timetables of
the system,
"Ine, c'lY.ere, here's umpty-seven
crossing at Clayton with umpty-steen
two minutes behind him and both OF
'cm meeting something else. How yum
going to fix en- up?"
and the crew of umpty- must lay
over a minute longer at some station,
reduce their speed between certain
points on the line, and increase IT at
another in order to get off the dlVi-
sion at the correct time. And before
he has finished explaining what he
has donA some one at the other end
of the Toom has another battling
problem for him to solve.
Transformed Into Copy"
After all the cards are strung, clerks
transform the cards into copy" for
tHe kCneQhleSy
time when the trains pass thru every
station along the line.
The time cards are set up in type,
and proofs furnished to the men
higher up who study them, correct
them II necessary. and make changes
which they find necessary OF advisa-
bic. More "stringing," another proof
10 be o. KID, and finally the public IS
advised that Number so-and-so will
arrive at Blank station at such and
such a time after such-and-such a
date, instead of at such-and-such .
time"
They've speeded up another train.
is all 1t means to the man who rides
on the train. The mechanical process
which is behind the making out of a
new time card, one of the Santa Fee
workers says-'is just part of the
work that the public never knows any
thing about. 1t isn't of any interest
to them"
A "Systcm Changc."~
But that's part of what happens
when there is to be a system change"
along the Santa Fe. 1t happens in
Topeka, in the little. dingy. almost un-
furnished room. for the eastern and
western lines. 1t happens out in Cali
fornia for the Gulf Coast and the San
Francisco lines.