216 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



The Handling of a Train on 

 a Modern Railroad 



BY H. R. Newlean 



I had by some fortunate change ingratiated myself to 

 such an extent in the esteem of the general superintendent 

 of the Overland Railroad that he extended to me the hos- 

 pitality of the railroad insofar as such hospitality was not 

 restricted by the provisions of the Anti-Pass Law and the 

 stipulations of other railroad bills. 



His private car was attached to the rear of the train 

 upon which I was soon to journey to California, and we 

 were, at the moment he preferred me this courtesy, standing 

 by the monstrous, throbbing, iron steed, which was to pull 

 our train. I had never ridden in the cab of an engine, and 

 as I stood there gazing at this immaculate powerful locomo- 

 tive, with her seven-foot driving wheels and carefully 

 groomed boiler, glistening in the glare of the electric lights 

 at the Union station; her headlight piercing the darkness a 

 mile ahead, I was impelled by the thought of the novelty and 

 exhilarating experience of a ride alongside the engineer to 

 avail myself of the general superintendent's generous offer 



by requesting the privilege of riding in the engine cab to the 

 next district terminal one hundred and fifty miles west. 



I wai then introduced to the engineer, and an order 

 followed which consigned me to the front end of the fireman's 

 seat. The engineer was manifestly surprised at this, for it 

 is an unwritten rule not to permit persons to disturb the 

 enginemen by imposing their inquisitive selves in the cab. 



As it was about leaving time I clambered up, and as I 

 sat there watching the engineer giving the engine a final 

 oiling here and a finishing polish there, I was impressed with 

 the thought of how little I (who can well represent the gen- 

 eral public in its knowledge of railroad operation) knew 

 about the running of a train, although I had many times inno- 

 cently and with no misgivings ridden in them. 



The conductor now came forward and compared time with 

 the engineer; then at the exact schedule departing time, sang 

 out, "All aboard," and gave the "go-ahead" signal. The 

 engineer slowly pulled out the throttle and snorts of seem- 

 ing protest belched forth from 

 the stack, as if the great monster 

 was angered at the thought of 

 being awakened from her con- 

 tented purring and Clumber at the 

 station and mastered by such an 

 insignificant thing as a mere man 

 for comparatively speaking, in- 

 significant he is, weighing about 

 one-fourteenth hundredth of the 

 locomotive's two hundred and ten 

 thousand pounds. But with each 

 notch the throttle was pulled out 

 she very noticeably leaped for- 

 ward until it was soon apparent 

 she, too, had entered with me 

 into the enthusiasm of "doing" 

 fifty miles an hour on the smooth 

 racing- track of steel before us. 



We were now threading our 

 way amongst a maze of red, yel- 

 low and green lights of the 

 terminal freight and passenger 

 yard, the meaning of which were 

 foreign to me. I ventured to ask 

 the engineer their significance, but 

 he was too Intent on the lookout 

 to answer standing with one 

 hand on the throttle, the other 

 on the air-brake lever, prepared to 

 bring the train to a quick stop 

 should the locomotive err in pick- 

 Ing its way through intricate frogs and switches, the proper 

 coourse being marked by the colored lights. 



We soon rattled over the last switch, and were forging 

 ahead at great speed. After the engineer had settled himself 

 on the seat and seemed less occupied, I thought perhaps he 

 would be open to questions, and I yelled a few at him. He 

 smiled and yelled back, but the roar drowned out the intelli- 

 gence of his answers, for my ears were not accustomed to the 

 noise. That Nature adjusts our various senses to meet the 

 exigencies of our environments was clearly proven to me, 

 when I witnessed the ease with which the fireman and en- 



gineer could understand each other. They later explained to 

 me that they had become so accustomed to this noise that any 

 other sounds, such as speaking, pounding of defective ma- 

 chinery, etc., which do not properly belong to the ordinary 

 roar of a moving train, were as audible to their ears as they 

 would be in the middle of a calm Sahara. 



Every mile or so there loomed up before us an automatic 

 electric block signal, displaying green, with two exceptions, 

 when a yellow signal flashed up, causing the engineer to im- 

 mediately shut ofl steam and gradually slow up until about 

 half a mile further on we found a red signal, at which he 

 brought the train to a full stop. The firemen told me to 

 lean out of the cab window and look toward the rear to see 

 what happened. One long and three short blasts on the 

 whistle at once caused the flagman to appear at rear of train 

 with danger signals, who immediately started running back. 

 After having gone about a quarter of a mile he stopped 

 (the fireman told me, to put torpedoes on the track to warn 

 a following train should it come upon us). Continuing back 

 until he reached a position about half a mile to the rear, the 

 flagman remained protecting our train from the possibility 

 of a rear-end collision. The red signal had now turned green, 

 whereupon the engineer whistled five times, which started the 

 flagman on the run toward our train. After boarding the 

 rear car he "high-balled" the engineer, and we were off. 

 Arriving at the next station we learned the cause of this 

 signal being red our train had gotten too dangerously near 

 the rear end of a freight train which had just pulled in on 

 a sidetrack, and the signal had given its warning of this fact. 



With the exception of a few other incidents wherein 

 rules for the protection of lives and property were observed 

 with military precision, we reached the next terminal "on 

 the dot." 



My curiosity to understand everything I had seen was 

 greater than my longing for California, so that I further 

 availed myself of the official's invitation by asking permission 

 to remain at this terminal clothed with authority to acquaint 

 myself with numerous facts relating to the operation of rail- 

 roads. 



My study was so interesting, and I went into the matter 

 so thoroughly, that I feel somewhat qualified to tell the 

 observations of a layman. 



The public has been supplied with abundance of exceed- 

 ingly interesting, and apparently accurate, divulgments of the 

 financial and physical development of our great domestic 

 arteries of commerce the railroads but unle-s my observa- 

 tions in the literary field have been too limited, very little 

 has been written for the benefit of the public mind concerning 

 the intricacies of railroad management and operation. This 

 is probably due to a belief that the inside working of railroad 

 transportation is something in which the public has no rightful 

 interest. It has been recently demonstrated, however, by the 

 management of at least one of the largest railroad corpora- 

 tions in the United States that this belief belongs entirely to 

 those who feel that there is much to be concealed, and it is 

 not indulged in by the higher officials of properties which 

 employ the most modern, safe and practical methods of run- 

 ning a railroad that are compatible with the earnings which 

 the public may permit. I have in mind a certain system of 

 railroads on which boards of inquiry into the cause of acci- 

 dents, in addition to the railroad officials, are composed of 

 United States army officers, state governors, mayors of cities 

 along the route business men, farmers and other prominent 

 citizens whose integrity is undisputed. 



The idea that the public might be interested in knowing 

 about the subject treated herein suggested itself on several 

 different occasions while the author was visiting the plants 



With Her Headlight Piercing the Darkness a Mile Ahead. 



of some well-known manufacturing concerns who make it a 

 practice to invite those interested to enter their factories and 

 to understand the processes employed. Noticing the eagerness 

 with which the thousands of persons, who annually take 

 advantage of such opportunities, listen to the lectures and 

 closely watch the working of machinery, I was impressed with 

 the thought that these same persons would display a like 

 enthusiasm in an elementary treatment of problems which 

 unceasingly confront the railroad president, general manager, 

 general superintendent and subordinates. 



We frequently and unhesitatingly entrust our lives and 



