THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



217 



property to the care of the men who are in immediate charge 

 of the train which we may board, and to the care of the 

 many other railroad employes who are concerned in the safe 

 running of that train, but I venture to assert that there are 

 few who understand how they are brought in safety to the 

 end of their journey. 



There are interminable things which affect a train in its 

 unharmed and comfortable rapid passage between stations, 

 but I shall only cover in this article the salient or funda- 

 mental principles, which, if not correctly carried out, may 

 result in wrecks. It is a reassuring thought to know that the 

 practice of these principles can be and is successfully sur- 

 rounded with additional precautions which make them as 

 invulnerable to danger as the most cautious individual in his 

 daily life. The fact that insurance companies double the 

 amount which is paid the beneficiaries of accident policies 

 should the insured meet death in a railroad accident, and that 

 only one hundred and nineteen passengers out of the twenty- 

 eight million persons carried one mile on railroad trains last 

 year, were killed in train accidents, conclusively demonstrates 

 this. At this ratio, if it were a physical 

 possibility, a passenger could ride on a 

 passenger train at a speed of forty 

 miles an hour for six hundred and 

 seventy-one years without stopping be- 

 fore he would meet with death caused 

 by an accident to that train. 



First in importance is known as 

 "Rights of Trains," or "has a certain 

 train the right to be running on the 

 main line at a certain time?" How 

 does the train crew get the right to run 

 on the main line at a certain time, and 

 what would likely happen if they did 

 not have such right? 



Answering the first part of this 

 question: The "right" is conferred in 

 many ways, but the standard longest 

 lived practice is by what are known as 

 "Working Time Cards" and "Train 

 Orders." If there are only ten trains 

 running- in each direction over a certain 

 piece of track say, one hundred miles 

 long (called a "district," and each one 

 of these ten trains has printed on the 

 "Working Time Cards," a schedule (time 

 due past each station) governing it, and 

 all of these trains are running on time, 

 no "Train Orders" are necessary, be- 

 cause the crew on each train knows, by 

 glancing at the "Working Time Card" 

 and comparing with their accurate 

 watches that a certain train will reach 

 a certain point at a certain time, and 

 that they will have so many minutes in 



which they can be on the main line before encountering some 

 other train which they must pass or meet. There is a dis- 

 tinction between meeting a train and passing one a train is 

 "passed" when one on a faster schedule is permitted to go by 

 another train ahead running in the same direction on a slower 

 schedule or badly delayed; a train is "met" when, on a single 

 track, it goes in on a sidetrack or passing track to let by an- 

 other train running in the opposite direction. 



done is to station ourselves in the dispatcher's office. The 

 particular dispatcher whom we are privileged to watch (and 

 it would be a violation of rules for us to disturb him in 

 this manner) is located at "A," and has charge of handling 

 of trains on a stretch of single track railroad west to 

 station "M," at which point is located another dispatcher who 

 performs a similar function on a portion of the railroad west 

 of there. Thus we will see that our particular dispatcher is 

 responsible for the trains only between "A" and "M." Be- 

 tween "A" and "M" are stations about seven miles apart, 

 known as "B," "C," "D," "E," "F," "G," "H," "I," "J," "K" 

 and "L." At each of these stations are one or more long 

 sidetracks and a telegraph operator. 



In addition to a telegraph instrument, and an absolutely 

 accurate clock, the dispatcher has before him a large sheet, 

 down the center of which in a perpendicular column are shown 

 the names of the stations from "A" to "M"; on the right 

 hand of this column are blank columns in which will be 

 shown all trains moving eastbound, and on the left hand are 

 similar blank columns for trains moving westbound. If you 



The Train Dispatcher's Office. 



Everything runs smoothly without the intervention of 

 "Train Orders" when all trains are on time and only schedule 

 trains run, but should it become necessary to run one or 

 more trains not shown on the time card, these trains, termed 

 "Extras," must run under "Train Orders" and other trains 

 notified of their presence on the road. "Train Orders" are 

 also necessitated when one or more trains become late on 

 their schedules, when each of the trains affected must be kept 

 posted of their whereabouts by "Train Orders." 



These "Train Orders" are issued by train dispatchers 

 located every fifty to two hundred miles, depending on how 

 busy the railroad may be. The best place to see how this is 





Automatic block signals on double track, between Seymour and Sarpy, on the Summit Lane 



Cut-Off. 



are intent on understanding this, would suggest you follow 

 on the diagram incorporated in this article. 



The dispatcher has now been notified that train No. 1 is 

 about to leave "A." At the top of the first blank column to 

 the left he makes the entry "No. 1." A few minutes later, 

 outside of the dispatcher's office, we hear train No. 1 leaving, 

 and he enters the departing time (for example, 12:00 M.) in 

 the blank column opposite station "A." Nothing then occurs 

 for probably ten minutes, when the telegraph instrument 

 begins to tick and the dispatcher puts down under "No. 1" 

 opposite station "B," "12:11." From this we correctly infer 

 that train No. 1 has passed station "B" and the operator there 

 has notified the dispatcher of the time. 



Another train has arrived upon the scene this one run- 

 ning east. The dispatcher is told by the telegraph instru- 

 ment that "No. 2" left station "M" at 12:16 p. m. He enters 

 "No. 2" in the first blank column on the right, showing 

 "12:16" opposite station "M." 



So it continues each train as it arrives on his district 

 is entered on this train sheet, and each train as it passes the 

 stations is reported to the dispatcher and time is t-ntered 

 accordingly. 



But all of this time trains are getting nearer and nearer 

 to one another and must soon meet. If they were all regular 

 scheduled trains and on time, the trainmen and enginemen in 

 charge of same would know by referring to their "Working 

 Time Cards" what to do and where to meet, but some of them 

 are "Extras" and some late, so that our dispatcher, who 

 apparently has had nothing to do but enter "O. S.'s," is soon 

 called upon to issue "Train Orders" instructing the trains 

 where they shall meet; he glances frequently and anxiously 

 at the clock, all the while with a look of deep study upon his 

 face, figuring where he shall make the best meeting point so 

 that the least delay may be occasioned to each of the trains 

 affected. 



Trains Nos. 1 and 2, which are running late and conse- 

 quently cannot follow the time card, are now within such a 

 distance of each other that it is necessary to instruct them 

 where they shall meet. The dispatcher knows this by glanc- 

 far, so that in this instance (for example) station "F" will 

 long hill a heavy train and probably a poor engine (all of 

 which he must be familiar with) train No. 1 can run only 

 twenty miles an hour at the same time train No. 2, which 

 is light and running on level or down-hill track, is running 

 forty or fifty miles an hour; therefore, in a certain time 

 No. 1 can get to a certain station and No. 2 can travel so 

 far so that in this instance (for example) station "F" will 

 make the best meeting point. The dispatcher is observed to 

 run his finger down the column under "No. 1" and up the 

 column under "No. 2," until he reaches stations "D" and "H," 

 which have not as yet shown the leaving time of the respective 

 trains, indicating that they have not as yet reached these 

 points. By means of the telegraph instrument he then calls 

 up the operators at "D," "H" and "F" and telegraphs them in 



