Evening star., 1937-04-17

fuses by night. The minimum dis
tance which he must go back Is 1920
feet in most States. This is in addi-
ton to the automatic block signal
system and the automatic train con-
troll used by railroads.
Upon passing Of the superior train,
the engineer of your train will give
either four blasts or five, as the case
may be, to call the flagman back to the
train. F'our blasts are for south and
west and five blasts for north and
east, in order to avoid confusion to
the fagman when other trains are in
the vicinity)
Upon signal from the flagman that
he Is aboard, the engineer will give
two short blasts to notify the crew
that the train is about to leave.
X
TT is occasionally necessary for q
train to stop, as you say, in the
bushes if the engineer suspects stick
ing brakes, hot-boX, leaking train
line or steamline. He Immediately
calls attention to the train crew 50
that they can make an immediate
inspection of the train by one short
and one long blast. They must inspect
at once.
"No! In all OF these signals of the
whistle the train Is not calling for
its mate 1t is talking with its own
train crew, section crews, towers and
crews of other trains to protect you In
your berth or compartment.
THE laws of every State, as well as
the rules of every railroad, absolutely
forbid the use Of a whistle unless
absolutely necessary. In many years
of travelling l have never heard a
whistle blown except when needed.
Whistles really are an Improvement
on mental telepathy. Why not learn
the language of the whistles?
Then again you mention the mat
ter of adding and subtracting cars
from trains in stations. That is not
arithmetic; it is almost algebra, in
cluding even some of the principles
of geometry. On almost all through
trains, cars are picked up and dropped
of at many division points. Naturally,
the reason for this is to save the pas
senger the inconvenience of changing
cars.
"A through train will pick up cars
from another road from one point,
dropping them off at another point
The passengers never know the differ
ence-they may have Travelled over
three or four railroads during the
night. This procedure goes on all
night long on some trains. Quite
frequently your car is the only car Of
the original train to reach its destina-
tion. All of these cars must be kept
straight by yard and train crews, as
well as despatchers.
X X
The question Of the dining car Is
next. Very rarely Is 1t the same
dining car that you were trying to
locate. The usual procedure after the
evening meal is over, is to drop the
diner at the next division point, where
1t is restocked and picked up by an
other train in the morning, probably
for return trip.
Long before you are ready for
breakfast in the morning, another
diner has been picked up, fresh, which
will most likely be dropped of later
in the morning, to be replaced by
another fresh one for the noon meal.
This, as you of course understand does
not necessarily apply to buffet cars,
cafe lounge or club-cafe cars which
are sometimes carried the entire trip.
"As to arriving on one section wIlen
you started on another-that is hardly
understandable. One section always
leaves on schedule time. II there is
sufficient traffic first section leaves
ahead of time, carrying flags and
lights, denoting that second section
is following. A proper whistle signal
is given to all track workers, signal
men and yard crews that q second
section is following.
And trains do not play leapfrog!
$50, now that your problems are
settled, please get some sleep tonight.
I need some, too, after writing this!
Most Sincerely,
"A U PIIMpHPEv