School Trains Women for Railroad Service 



Some Wonderful Changes Wrought by the Draft 



THE war has created in all belligerent 

 countries a scarcity of male workers 

 in occupations which heretofore 

 have been considered unsuitable for 

 women. Thousands of the young men 

 employed in the shops and factories, the 

 offices, yards and round houses of the 

 various railroad lines of the country have 

 been drafted into the army or navy and 

 many thousands more are sure to be 

 drafted if the war should continue for a 



long time. The railroads, being con- 

 ducted upon a strict business basis, never 

 employed more men than were absolutely 

 necessary for maintaining the efficiency 

 of the service. To prevent the service 

 from being crippled, the vacancies must 

 be filled with other efficient workers. 



Realizing that the supply of available 

 men is greatly limited, some of the large 

 railroads took steps to train women to 

 take the places of the men drafted into 

 military service. Since many branches of 

 the railroad service, like the telegraphic 

 and telephonic service, the block-signal 

 operating, etc., demand a certain amount 

 of previous training and experience, some 

 of the large railroad companies estab- 

 lished schools for the systematic training 

 of young women for these branches of 

 service. The students are taught teleg- 

 raphy and in six to eight months most of 

 them develop into skilful and rapid send- 

 ers and receivers of telegraphic messages. 

 They are also instructed in the manner 

 of controlling the block signal system by 

 telegraph and telephone. The instruc- 

 tion is along practical lines and is aided 

 by models of railroad tracks with block 

 signals, switches, trains, etc. 



Studying the movement of trains by means of realistic models. Belo .v ; Part of the room in 

 which girls are preparing themselves to become railroad telegraphers and train operators 



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