Category: Biographies

Confessions of a Railroad Signalman

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Chapters

2. Part 2

On June 17, 1908, a freight train, running fully thirty miles per hour, approached my signal tower with a clear right of way east-bound. At the same time an express passenger tr...

6. Part 6

“To make an effort to reduce injuries and accidents to the lowest possible minimum, the company has felt justified in creating an office to handle in a systematic manner the que...

5. Part 5

The relations, coöperative and otherwise, that exist between the men and the management of a railroad are intimately connected with the safety and efficiency of the service. Gen...

10. Part 10

Theoretically, the mental process has a good deal to be said in its favor; but in actual operation the system has proved to be disastrous, and the records on American railroads...

1. Part 1

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 63374-h.htm or 63374-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/63...

9. Part 9

Perhaps the best field for a short consideration of this interesting subject, so far as railroads are concerned, is to be found on the Santa Fé Railroad system. The introduction...

8. Part 8

Twelve or fifteen hours at a stretch is too long a period for any man or boy to remain in harness. As I look at it, the primary object of this law is, or should be, to increase...

4. Part 4

To begin with, it will be well to take note of an estimate, made after a careful study of the figures, that fully eighty-five per cent of the fatalities that occur on our railro...

7. Part 7

Membership in the Relief Department of the Baltimore & Ohio is compulsory on the part of all employed in the direct operation of the road. The employees themselves have part in...

3. Part 3

Now as it seems to me, the all-important facts in these cases do not relate to the nature of the rules, nor even to their non-enforcement, but to the downright neglect of railro...

11. Part 11

I am not presuming, in any way, to define the functions or duties of the railroad commissioners; my object is simply to discover, if possible, by whom and in what manner these r...