CHAPTER VIII.

THE TRANSMISSION.

The transmission of orders will be taken to include all the steps after preparation by the Dispatcher until final delivery.

These are:

1. Telegraphing the order to the stations to which it is to be sent.

2. Writing down as received.

3. Repeating it back to the Dispatcher.

4. The response of the Dispatcher indicating that it is correctly repeated.

5. The acknowledgment of this response.

6. Comparing copies of the order with the persons to whom it is addressed, and taking their signatures.

7. Telegraphing the signatures to the Dispatcher's office.

8. The Dispatcher's reply, acknowledging the receipt of the signatures, and indicating that the order may now be delivered.

9. The indorsement of this reply on the order.

10. The delivery to the trainmen.

Some Dispatchers prefer to personally telegraph their orders, having an assistant operator to copy them as transmitted or as repeated, and to perform the subsequent work of verification, record, etc. Those who are accustomed to transmit their own orders strongly contend for that practice. Those who pursue a different course are equally strong for theirs. In arranging for those, at least, who have not become wedded to any particular method, general consideration should govern. If contests or inquiries arise on the wire when the Dispatcher is sending, time is occupied which he may very much need, and where the amount of work is large it will leave the Dispatcher more at liberty to attend to his special duty if he simply prepares his orders and hands them to an operator for the subsequent steps, and this is by some carefully insisted upon.

The Dispatcher's duty is not simply to direct each movement as the exigency arrives. He should be constantly on the alert to provide as far as possible in advance for the arrangements necessary for keeping his trains moving, and his mind should be free from anything that may interfere with this. Attention by him to the merely mechanical duties detracts from his usefulness and the benefits which the road should derive from the talents which are supposed to fit him for his position. Some points connected with this subject are referred to in Chapter VI. Whether sent personally by the Dispatcher or by an operator from a written sheet, the order should, whenever practicable, _be transmitted simultaneously to all the offices to which it is to be sent_. Ordinarily this will be to but two offices. An order annulling a train may have to be sent to all the offices on the division. The simultaneous transmission is a most valuable safeguard and a saving in telegraphing only practicable with the duplicate order. It has been urged as an objection to the duplicate order that where agents act as operators their duties as agents may sometimes interfere with their attendance as operators when wanted for simultaneous transmission. This furnishes no ground for objecting to this form of order, as simultaneous transmission is not essential, and it is only necessary in such case that the precaution be observed of sending first to the train of superior right.

On calling an office a special signal should be used to indicate that a train-order is to be sent. The numerals 31 or 19 are now generally used for this purpose, the former for orders to be signed by the trainmen before delivery and the latter for orders to be delivered without such signature. After this signal the word "copy" should follow, with a number indicating how many copies are to be made. This maybe omitted when three is the number required, that being the most usual. If the system in use does not provide that the train-order signal shall stand normally in the "danger" position, the operator who is to receive the order must, at this point, place it in that position and report that he has done so. He then prepares his manifold-book for the requisite number of copies and takes the order down as sent, with the proper address for his station, immediately repeating it back word for word, _reading from the order as actually written on the paper to be delivered_, and not from a slip to be afterward copied. A "paper" operator should write the order in manifold before repeating. Some defer the repeating until the signatures of the trainmen are to be reported. But it is on many accounts preferable to repeat and verify the order at once and before signatures are taken, even if the trainmen are present. It assures its accuracy before they have read and signed it. The repeating operators can listen to each other better than if they repeat at different times, and the sender of the order can better attend to its verification while the original lies before him. There will also be less detention to trains if the repeating is done before their arrival. The importance of this will further appear from the consideration elsewhere of the effect of an order where the telegraph fails after but one train has received and proceeded on it.

The relative succession in which the offices are to repeat should be fixed by rule or usage, to avoid doubt or conflict. It is better that the repeating be done in the same succession as that in which the several offices are addressed. This assures the repeating first by the office receiving for the superior train. As a valuable precaution against error, _each should be required to listen while the others repeat_. An operator has been known to hear the name of a meeting-place correctly, write it down incorrectly in the order and repeat it back correctly. If he had looked at his copy as the other repeated, he would probably have noticed his error.

In this connection it may be observed that too much importance cannot be attached to the cultivation of a careful habit in telegraphing orders. A certain degree of rapidity in handling the key is not inconsistent with distinctness, but the latter should never be sacrificed to haste and a hurried and careless style of telegraphing should never be permitted.

The operator in the Dispatcher's office should carefully observe each word as repeated by each, to make sure that all is repeated correctly. Some observe the commendable practice of underscoring each word as repeated, thus making sure that their attention is not withdrawn. If the Dispatcher transmits his orders himself and his copy for record is made as the order is repeated, as is the practice of some, his copy can hardly be said to be an original. It may vary from what was sent or designed to be sent, and his operator taking it down has not the opportunity of checking as above, and may himself make a mistake in receiving it. All offices required at the time to repeat an order should do so before the Dispatcher replies. The signal for this reply now generally used, and adopted for the "Standard" Code, is "O K." This is given simultaneously to all, naming each, and each should acknowledge it. It is important that the Dispatcher should know that each has received the "O K." It is not necessary that the Dispatcher personally authorize this reply. It may be properly done by his operator who has watched the repeating. Where the order is not repeated back until the signatures are obtained and sent with it, the response, "O K" and sometimes "complete" is used to cover the whole, but where the practice herein recommended is pursued, the use of two signals is necessary, "O K" being the first. The time at which the order is sent and "O K" given should be noted on all the copies, with the initials or signals of the operators sending and receiving, and the name or initials of the superintendent. The order is then ready for signature and delivery, and, if the train for which it is designed has not arrived, the train copies should be removed from the book, folded and marked on the outside with the train number, and placed in the rack provided, as indicated under The Train-Order Signal.

Practice has varied very much in the method of delivering orders. Some have simply had them authenticated by repeating back as above, with perhaps the proviso that the trainmen compare their copies with that of the operator, and in some cases sign for them. The transmitting of signatures has not in all cases been required. Many rules, especially those of early date, appear to be based on the idea that the whole process of sending, verifying, and acknowledging an order is to be continuous and while the train is at the station. Much that appears in some rules gives the impression that either this idea prevailed or that the phraseology used in connection with it was retained while the practice had changed. On a busy road it would certainly be impracticable to carry out this idea, and it is not now usually attempted.

In early days of train telegraphy, when orders were not prepared with the precision of the present day, it was the custom to add to the order the phrase "how do you understand?" This came to be represented by a signal, the most generally used perhaps being the numeral "31." The reply to this, preceded by "we understand we are to," represented by "13" or other numeral, was required to be written out by the trainmen as their "understanding." This was probably in most cases a verbatim copy of the order. Whether this was actually done by the conductor and engineman is doubtful. Some allowed the operator to do it. With the definite forms of orders now used and well understood, there is certainly no necessity for men to write out their "understanding." The manifold copies, authenticated by repeating back and compared by reading aloud, which also serves to impress the order on the men, must certainly be better than anything written by or for them. There would seem to be no reason for perpetuating a fiction by referring to the repeating of the order as the "understanding" or by the use of "31" and "13" in their original sense, when the question and answer which they represent are no longer designed to be used, and this practice and the expressions which arose under it have almost entirely given place to the improved methods.

Following, then, the practice here recommended and now generally used, the message has been placed in the hands of the operator and its verbal accuracy assured, and the train-order signal being in position to stop the train, the conductor and engineman understand that on arrival they are to go to the office "for orders." One of them (or the operator) should read the order aloud while each looks at his copy, the object being _to guard against a hurried reading of the order, to acquaint them fully with its exact terms, and to impress its purport upon them_. It is to be hoped that no man would willfully disregard a train order, but there are many who would proceed upon a hasty examination or none at all, if permitted to do so, and perhaps on a wrong impression as to what it directs to be done.

The order having been thus read and compared, the signatures should be taken on the operator's copy. From the many rules forbidding operators to sign for trainmen, and conductors for enginemen, it would seem probable that this is sometimes done. This is a practice which no considerations of convenience can justify. Personal signatures should be insisted upon. Without this there is danger that men will hastily "grab" an order and fail to get its meaning. Time is well spent in securing their particular attention to it, and their signatures attest that this has been done.

There is much difference of opinion as to whether it is important to take the signature of the engineman. Much time is often lost by taking him from his engine, particularly on very long trains, and some think that the purpose is as well served by having his copy delivered to him by the conductor. In the latter plan there is some danger that the attention of the engineman may not be particularly called to the purport of the order, and for this reason the author believes that the practice is best where both signatures are required. The Time Convention code leaves the choice optional.

The signatures having been obtained, the Dispatcher is to be advised, by their transmission to him, in connection with the number of the order signed for and the train number or designation. The reply that all is satisfactory, authorized by the Dispatcher personally, is then to be given in some prescribed form. The word "complete" has been adopted in the "Standard Code," superseding "correct," which was formerly used.

The selected word should be written on each copy, with the exact time at which it was given. The order may then be delivered, and the train order signal so placed as to allow the train to proceed. If the Dispatcher's office is also used as an office for delivering orders, the same formalities in delivery should be observed as at way offices.

It will sometimes occur that an order must be sent to a disabled or other train away from a telegraph station. It must, in that case, pass through additional hands, and great care is necessary to guard against error. The conductor or messenger who carries the order should be made accountable for its delivery in proper form, by himself signing for it and getting "complete." The order being addressed to the conductor and engineman of the train "in care of" the messenger selected, the latter should be furnished with an additional copy, on which he is to take the signatures of the conductor and engineman, as if they were at a telegraph office. This copy should be delivered as soon as practicable to an operator, who should forward the signatures, completing the process.

Although when these paragraphs were first written the method of transmission described did not correspond entirely with any practice that might be termed general, it agreed in essential points with the practice upon several roads where most careful consideration has been given to the various risks in train dispatching and to methods for avoiding them. The process detailed indicates the points to be guarded, and furnishes what has proved a practicable and satisfactory method, and corresponds with the regulations now being rapidly adopted on our principal roads.

The rules should determine the course to be pursued if the telegraph fails during the process of transmitting an order. If this occur before its correct reception is assured by repeating back and giving and acknowledging "O K" for any office concerned, the process is not sufficiently complete for the men of a train at such office to be allowed to sign for and act upon it. If, therefore, communication is not quickly restored it is perfectly safe and proper to provide that an operator shall permit a train, in such case, to proceed on its schedule rights without orders. If, on the other hand, "O K" has been given and acknowledged, the correct reception of the order is assured, and a period is reached when the men of a train may, and often must, be permitted, on arrival, to sign for and act on the order before the arrival of the other at the point where the order is awaiting it. If the men of one train have thus proceeded, and the other on arrival cannot be communicated with, it would be obviously unsafe for it to proceed upon the order awaiting it for which signatures cannot be transmitted, because, although the opposing train may be on the way to execute the order, this is not known to the train that is cut off from communication. It would therefore be improper for it to proceed either in accordance with the order or on schedule rights. It would appear, therefore, that an order wholly or partly sent by the process detailed, and for which "O K" cannot be given and acknowledged by reason of the telegraph failing, should not operate to hold the train addressed, but that an order for which "O K" has been given and acknowledged should have this effect. The rule should therefore be _that, after "O K" is given to an order and acknowledged, the train to which the order is addressed shall not be permitted to pass until the signatures are transmitted and "complete" obtained_, or until the train can be communicated with by the Dispatcher. This is based, of course, upon the presumption that the plan is followed of assuring the accurate transmission for both trains, and that each operator has acknowledged the "O K" before "complete" is given to either. The delays arising from the operation of this rule cannot be frequent, and it is better to submit to these than to run the risk involved in a different course.

In the use of the "19" order, to which the signatures of the trainmen are not taken, the order becomes of effect only when "complete" has been given and acknowledged; and until this is accomplished it should be treated as of the same effect as a "31" order for which "O K" has not been given and acknowledged.

If the practice is followed of delaying the repeating of the order until the signatures are obtained and sent, then the presence of the order in the operator's hands should serve to hold either train if the telegraph fails, as neither can know but that the other train has received the order and proceeded on it. It must be seen, however, that there is some risk in depending on a train being held by the mere presence of an order, the correct reception of which has not been fully acknowledged, as the receiving operator may even have made an error in receiving the number of the train for which the order is designed; and this offers an additional reason for repeating back at once on the receipt of the order. These considerations as to the holding effect of an order when the telegraph fails, do not, of course, apply to a general order, as one annulling a train, until such order is specially addressed to a train. It should be understood that operators hold trains a reasonable time for the resumption of communication broken during the transmission of orders.

It is important that the holding effect of an order not signed for should be clearly understood, so that the Dispatcher may run trains with confidence against a train so held.

A careful Dispatcher will observe that the inconveniences arising from a train being held by the incomplete transmission of an order will be greater as the distance is greater between the point to which the order is sent for delivery and the point where it is to take effect.