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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1902)
Train Dispatchers and Their Work I II ! A ,m 1 V -.. - ' Mill I linn lan MM L I 1 VN f i " (j "JOTS DOWN LEAVING TIME ON Photo by Staff Artist. THE TRAIN SHEET" CHIEF DISPATCHER CROXTON AND ASSISTANT FILING ORDERS THAT HAVE BEEN SENT Photo by Staff Artist. CJI1ES HIS OWN ORDERS Photo by Staff Artist. BEFORE SENDING THEM H RILLING stories of train dis patcher crouched tensely over tables In a room, the atmosphere of which is throbbing with the chatter of telegraph instruments and the roar of passing trains, one nervous hand Angering a key, ears straining to catch the faintest murmur from the sounder, every faculty and intuition stretched to the snapping point In an ef fort to avoid making tin mistake that will cost many lives and thousands of dollars; again of such a man committing this fa'al blund T, learning of the terrible results and convulsing at once Jnto a gibbering maniac or shooting his own h?ad off becauai of tho mental torture such tales as these, presented In most melo-dramatio literary style and with great frequency, have tended to Instill in the mind of the reading but un initiated public incorrect notions of the dally labors of this class of workmen. True, this makes interesting narrative, and all such Is avidly assiml'ated by read ers of all classes. No better proof of the value of th ee romances as "taking" matt. r can be found than the readiness with which magazines and other publications buy and print them. When It's all said and done "Tales by an Operator" are not the most reliable source of information concerning the every-day existences of train dispatch ers. To be sure. In many ru i of acci dents a dispatcher has been responsible, but these occasions are a drop in tha bucket of the millions of train orders trans mitted every day. Train Dlapateher In Ural Life. As a matter of fact, the train dispatcher, with all glamour dispersed. Is not on a con stant strain of Intense work; neither Is he In continual terror of committing a cala mitous error; nor yet Is he on the ragged edge of nervous prostration or brain fever. On the o'her hand, the dispatchers who work In Omaha are as a rule easy-going, calm, pleasant-faced men, most of them stalwart and In good physical preservation. They are on duty eight hours a day, but It Is a tofEup whether they will work seven hours or two of that time, and It is an un usual ccngestlon of traffic or annihilating of schedules Indeed that keeps them at tl the entire limit of their shift. So much for the halo of romance and th resulting mistaken conceptions of a train dispatcher's personally and the nature of his duties. An equally grave misunder standing of the scope of his work Is preva lent among people who are not familiar with tha workings of a railroad. It Is the notion of this vast fraction of the Intelli gent population that the dispatcher Is ab solutely the man behind the gun; that ho has his finger on the pulse that vitalizes a system of railroad and controls the move ments of Its rolling stock; that be is Im perator of every train that moves on the line, feeling lis way for It, directing Us every step, acting both as its mentor and guiding star, so completely engulfing its in dividuality as a thing of power and motion that the train is helpless without its dis patcher. Trains lodrr Ilia Control. Come down to earth once more! It's not true. The dispatcher does not do all these things. Generally speaking, he directs but few of the trains that move along his terri tory of trackage. Only late trains and extras are his charge. Every regular train runs on a time schedule. As long as It is up to this, no dispatcher interferes. When it gets behind, he manipulates it. And so docs he extra trains, because they have no schedule. Thus when it so happens that trains are on time and there are no extras the dispatcher has little to do but alt around in readiness and look wise. The importance of his position, how ever, should not be decried, for that would be unjust. He Us a prime factor In rail roading. All he does is direct the move ment of certain trains, but in order to do that he must possess a vast fund of knowl edge concerning the piece of railroad he Is operating and Us equipment. He must know the rights of trains, the use of the telegraph Instrument, the tractive power of every engine on his division, the number of cars on each train, the weight of the trains, the topography of the country at his track, or rather the profile' of his line, and the capacity of every sidetrack on his division. Some of these essentials are easy to grasp and to hold; others are difficult. Some are the same on almost all lines. Others are different on every division of every system. In this country the rights of trains on single track specify nearly everywhere that trains bound south and east have the right of track over those going north and west, so the latter must get out of the way. This rule obtains till trains are twelve hours late; thereafter the dispatcher makes rights arrangements to suit himself. Usu ally, too, trains running east and south are named by even numbers, those north and west by odd ones. Instruments, too, are of course the same everywhere. Where Ilia Trouble lieu Ins. But when It comes to the hauling power of engines, the topography of the road, the capacity of the sidetracks and the number of cars, those things are matters of indi vidual detail. The dispatcher must know how hilly his line is and how steep are the separate hills, so as to tell how heavy a load to give an engine. He must know what the engine can haul for the same rea son. He must know the capacity of the sidetracks, so that he can tell how long a train he can get In them to let another by. He must know the number of cars on each train, so he can tell bow long his train is. If he didn't know these last two things he would be compelled to resort continually to "sawing by," which a good dispatcher shuns doing. "Sawing by" is getting trains past each other when they are too long for the sidetrack. Suppose there were two trains going each way. The leading train having the right of road would pull down on the main line opposite the siding, the leading train going the other way then running around the siding onto the matu track at the other end, and In front of the second rigbt-of-way train. Then the sec ond train which had not the right would pull Into the siding, while the leading "right" train would run down on the main line past the siding on ita journey. Then both siding trains would back up till the leading one was within the siding, and the second "right" train would pull up oppo site the siding on the main line. That would leave the way open for both siding tralne and all would be clear. The same thing can be accomplished with very long single trains by splitting them. This Is a tedious and chagrining operation, howevet-, and the rule by which dispatchers avoid It is "never put on any piece of track be tween sidings more than the sidings will hold." Another Source of Grief. Ignorance as to the tractive power of the engines or the weight of trains or the character of the hills would also lead to mishaps. An engine overloaded would be unable to make some steep hill, and that would necessitate "doubling the hill." The train would be split at the bottcm, half x,t It taken up and pulled into some siding ahead, and then the engine would return and get the other half. Of course an en gine failure or an unexpected spell of weather causing slippery rails might also necessitate such action, but those things are emergencies that cannot be foreseen, so no provision is attempted. The dispatcher's rule la to put behind an engine all It can carry over the worst hill in the division. But over the train dispatchers who do all this work is the chief dispatcher, with general supervision. He it is who orders out the motive power, assigns the engine men and conductors, and distributes the cars over the division. He must know Just how many cars he has on his territory and how many he can spare to a station or a shipper. He also apportions the dis patching work to his men, if he has more than one on a shift. Thus the dispatcher has his assigned piece of track to handle, and a good man can take care of just as many trains as you can get on the line. He has before him a train sheet, bearing the number ot each train, the name of conductor and en gineer, and the number of tn engine. A board on the wall of the dispatchers' office Is chalked up some two or three hours before each train leaves with the names or the men who will take It out, and here the far-famed "callboy" somes Into service. This boy has a list ot the addresses ot every engineer and conductor, and as they are assigned on the board he hunts them up and gets them out at any hour of the day or night in time '.o make the start. Ilia Golden Rnle. However, "touch not" Is the guiding star of the ideal dispatcher. Or, as he would probably express it: "Leave 'em alone as long as they'll run." The capable, cool headed dispatcher is not looking for any trouble, or unnecessary work, either, and he does not meddle with regular traini as long as they are taking care of them selves fairly well. Swapping stories Is more sport. Dispatchers do not bandit trains ins'da yard limits. There personal contact is the irethod employed for keeping different trains apart and out of harm's way. The trainmen simply use their eyes. When the train Is ready to leave, however, with all switching done, the conductor makes his appearance at the dispatcher's office and gets one of two classes of orders. If be is on schedule and on time, he U given a clearance order, meaning to get out and take care of yourself. If he is late or extra, he gets a train order, specifying his con duct of the train. And there are times vhen even a regular train which Is on time gets a train order; for instance, if it Is an unimportant train, and the intention is to "stab" it, or delay It, till other mora pressing although Irregular traffic gets by. Then when the train is out along the road each station operator reports by tele graph to the dispatcher immediately the time of its arriving at and leaving his place, and the dispatcher jots these figures down on his train sheet, always before his eyes. Then he can tell just when it is necessary to interfere, and where to catch the train with orders. Local Crewi and Their Work. Two-hundred and fifty trains, passenger and freight, regular and extra, pass through Omaha every twenty-four hours. That is an average. Sometimes there are many more, sometimes less. Of all these, however, but a small portion, about sixty-five a day, are dispatched from this city. The Union Pa cific, the Missouri Pacific and the Chicago. St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha roads alone dispatch here. For the Union Pacific, Chief Dispatcher W. L. Croxton, with a corps of five train dispatchers and two operators, handles from the office at Ninth and Jackson streets the thirty-two trains that run daily on the Nebraska division. This includes the track age from Council Bluffs to Grand Island, from Valley to Beatrice, from Valparaiso to Stromsburg, from Columbus to Norfolk and from Cedar Rapids to Genoa. Chief Dispatcher C. A. Vermilion, for the Missouri Pacific, handles with three train dispatchers all the lines between Omaha and Auburn via Union and Nebraska City, between the same points via Weeping Water and Talmage, between Union and Weeping Water and between Portal and Papillion. They care for about sixteen trains dally. The office la at Fifteenth and Nicholas streets. Chief Dispatcher W. B. Fordyce of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha has three train dispatchers under him at the office at the Webster street station. He cares for the Nebraska division and branches, with lines from Omaha to Sioux (Continued on Eighth Page.) v i V.. I ! H -v it A V I 1 I i i --i J '. " " '" ii I. " I - ' fU - ' 1, , . .. , INSITE ONE OF THE SIGNAL TOWERS HERE ONE MAN CONTROLS THE MOVEMENTS OF TRAINS IN AND OUT OF UNION STATION YARDS Photo by Staff Artist. BLOCK SIGNAL TOWER IN THE UNION PACIFIC YARDS HOW TRAINS ARE 8TOPPED IF ELECTRIC SIGNAL FAIL Photo by Staff Artist.
