CHAPTER I.

TRAIN DISPATCHING.

The telegraph, as a means of directing the movements of trains, is a necessary railroad fixture. But for its agency the moving of the heavy traffic of some of our railroads would be impossible without large additions to the tracks and consequent increase in the cost of construction and transportation.

The train wire is thus a promoter of both economy and facility of operation. Under the supervision which it permits, the products of industry are rapidly and cheaply exchanged between distant points, while the traveler, unimpeded by the slower-moving trains, goes swiftly on his way. Steam is the noisy giant that shoulders the load and gets the praise; but the silent man, in some quiet place away from the rattle of the wheels, with his finger on the key, controls the ponderous and complicated movements, which proceed so harmoniously that one may almost imagine them to be the result of natural law.

Although the value, however, of the telegraph as a railroad appliance is daily becoming more fully realized, its capabilities for usefulness have not been developed to an extent commensurate with its importance. A well-informed writer has justly said: "Telegraphy as a handmaid of the railroad has not assumed any enduring form peculiarly adapted to this business."

This is still true in a measure, although not to so great an extent as when uttered. The circumstances must be very exceptional in which the aid of the telegraph will not be of important advantage. Machinery breaks, steam fails, connections are late, storms and floods disturb the roadway; a thousand things cause delays. The difficulties may not be great or numerous where trains are few, but they increase rapidly with the growth of traffic, and vexatious delays can only be avoided by adequate means of promptly controlling the movements of the trains. Hence the importance of securing not only the best telegraphic appliances, but the best method as well of rendering them useful in the service in question.

In arranging a system of train dispatching, its relations to safety and economy require that careful consideration be given to the principles on which it should be based. Some of the methods in use indicate this careful study and a growing sense of its importance is shown in the recent general acceptance of rules on the subject, prepared with the most scrupulous care.

These rules, as will be seen, are in conformity with what was urged in the former edition of this work, and the present intention is to direct attention anew to some of the underlying principles, as well as to the practical bearing of the rules referred to.

The means of instant communication afforded by the introduction of the telegraph seemed to place at command a method of directing distant train movements with ready facility; but it soon appeared that the use of the new implement involved risks which must be carefully guarded against; hence the various "systems" which have arisen having this in view.

The distinctive feature of the "American" system of train dispatching is the issuing of orders from a central office, directing train movements, supplementary to those provided for by the time-table and "train" rules. This method is in general use, and is recognized as better adapted to our circumstances than that of moving trains by the "staff" or other means from station to station, as in European practice. In considering the application of this mode of issuing telegraphic orders for single-track, some of the methods will be seen to apply as well to roads having more than one track.

A printed time-table, showing the regular times and meeting-places of trains, may be prepared at leisure and studied by all trainmen, and is full notice as to all regular trains on the road. With rules added directing how the trains are to proceed with relation to each other, understood by all alike and faithfully observed, collisions cannot occur. If, however, it becomes necessary to issue special orders for trains that are not on the time-table, or for the forwarding of any, otherwise than by the operation of the ordinary rules, new precautions become necessary.

The conductor or engineman receiving such an order must know _that it is given by competent authority_.

It must be understood _that others concerned have corresponding orders_.

These orders should be _so clearly expressed that they cannot be misunderstood_, and they should be forwarded and delivered _under such safeguards as to insure their certain and correct reception by the proper persons_.

As these orders are to be acted upon at once, without opportunity for careful study, _their form, and even the paper on which they are written, should be such that they may be easily and quickly read and comprehended_.

It is now generally agreed that _orders of this kind should be issued by a designated dispatcher_, acting by the authority and in the name of the superintendent. For two persons to engage in this work at the same time for the same piece of road involves serious risk, and to insure safety as well as confidence on the part of the trainmen this should never occur. It may be taken as an initial principle that _the success of a system depends largely upon the assurance upon the part of the trainmen that every source of danger has been carefully considered and guarded against, and that the rules adopted are strictly adhered to_. If it were known, for instance, that orders were issued by the superintendent and one of his assistants alternately, as might be convenient at the moment, it would excite distrust. The author must confess to such feeling when, some years since while on a delayed passenger train at a way station, he saw the superintendent take a bit of paper from his pocket and write against the side of a building an order for the train to proceed to a certain point, regardless of another designated train. It came out all right, but the incident did not inspire confidence in the telegraphic system of that road. Within the knowledge of the author a disastrous collision resulted from an oversight in regard to the delivery of an order where a skilful official undertook to assist a dispatcher in an emergency. Between the two an important point was omitted; each thought the other had attended to it. Extreme care is necessary to carry out exactly the methods fixed upon for the proper preparation and issuing of these messages, and confusion is likely to result from interference with those charged with this duty.

In issuing a time-table in advance of the date upon which it takes effect, means can readily be used for making sure that it is received by those who are to be governed by it. The means are more complicated and subject to greater risks whereby we can be assured that a telegraphic train order reaches correctly and surely the hands of those for whom it is designed. After preparation by the Dispatcher it is transmitted in telegraphic language by mechanical agency to a distant point, there to be retranslated into plain English and written out without mistake, for record and delivery; and all this in the shortest possible time.

The details of this process should be so arranged as to guard as far as possible against every risk arising under the several steps, and _nothing should be left to mere personal care that can be provided for by fixed methods of proceeding_. To one who is an expert and can see in his own case no occasion for extraordinary safeguards such precautions may not seem important; but a consideration of the risks involved, of the many steps to be taken, and of the number of agents engaged in the process, many of whom are often not greatly experienced, must lead to the conclusion that _a methodical following out of a carefully prepared mode of proceeding_ is a most valuable means of providing against many of the chances of failure.

Two general methods or "systems" of constructing train orders are in use. They have been distinguished as the "single order" and "duplicate order" system. The latter is accurately described by its title. The other title is not a strictly accurate designation, but sufficiently so for our purpose.

Although the "duplicate" method is now widely recognized as the best, the other is still in use. For purposes of comparison of these methods we will take a telegraphic order providing for the meeting of two trains at a designated point beyond which the one has, by train rules, the superior right of track as respects the other. The order is to limit the superior right, and permit the inferior train to run to a point to which it could not otherwise go without trespassing on the right of the other. If by any error or misunderstanding the superior train fails to stop at the proposed meeting-point, while the other proceeds upon the assumption that it will thus stop, the result may be a disastrous collision.

Under the "_single order_" system, when two opposing trains are to meet by special order, arrangements are usually first made to stop the superior train by a "holding order." An order is then given forbidding it to go beyond the designated point, and then another order is given to the inferior train authorizing it to go to that point. The holding order is addressed to an agent or operator whose station the superior train will pass, and reads substantially as follows:

_Hold train No. 5 for orders._

The person receiving this is required to display a signal to stop the expected train if it is not already at the station, and not to allow it to proceed until the meeting-order is duly forwarded and delivered. This order to the superior train is usually addressed to the conductor and engineman in the following form, or its equivalent:

_You will not pass Alton until train No. 4 arrives._

The corresponding order to the conductor and engineman of the inferior train, sent to some station to be passed by it, will read:

_You will run to Alton regardless of train No. 5._

or perhaps--

_You will meet and pass train No. 5 at Alton._

The holding order is dispensed with by some, and with some it is the practice to issue orders to inferior trains while a superior is held by a holding order until its movements can be determined on, when it receives an order covering all that have been given to trains against it.

Under the "_duplicate_" system the holding order may be used, but such has not been the general practice, and it would not under this system be used in the manner above described. This system, as its name implies, requires that _the order given to each train shall be a duplicate of that given to every other train_ concerned in the movement provided for in the order. For the simple movement above described an order is addressed to the conductor and engineman of each of the two trains, _in the same words_, as follows:

_Trains No. 4 and No. 5 will meet at Alton._

This, being in the same words to each, may be transmitted over the wire to both at the same time. This is usually done, and offers one of the chief advantages of this form of order. The trains are stopped by signals, which are required either to be displayed when an order is sent, or to stand normally in position to stop trains, which are only permitted to pass on the signal being changed or on getting proper orders.

Objection has been made to the "duplicate" form that it does not distinctly order a train to proceed farther than its schedule rights permit, nor in definite terms direct the other not to go beyond the new meeting-point. The objection has no weight, as an order to meet can only be construed as authorizing each train to go to the station named, and not beyond it until both are there; and it is easy and proper to provide a rule which shall definitely settle the point for those who are unaccustomed to this form, if it should be deemed necessary.

The fatal defect in the "single order" system is that the orders to the two trains, written separately and differently expressed, are subject to the grave danger of inadvertently giving in one a meeting-place different from that given in the other. This liability is greater if an interval of time occurs between the preparation of the two. The risk is very much increased by the usage under this system of including several meeting-points in one order, and becomes still more serious if meeting-points are to be made for several trains moving in each direction. The schedule for these must be rapidly made up and written out in parts, giving to each train its part, differing in form from all the others. There is nothing but the care and skill of the Dispatcher to prevent the opposing orders from differing in some particular. When we consider the care necessary in preparing a time-table, to properly show the running time and meeting-places of the several trains, we must see that the risk, in the process described, of getting something wrong, must far outweigh any supposed convenience in a train having an order showing a continuous schedule of its meeting-points for several opposing trains. Those unacquainted with this work would be astonished at the extent to which the skill of some dispatchers in this direction has been developed. To the uninitiated the mental operations would be simply bewildering, which are required of a brain from which issue for hours, without apparent effort, the instructions under which the trains on a busy road are moved expeditiously and harmoniously. It is not to be denied that many men have moved traffic of huge dimensions safely and with entire satisfaction by the "single order," but this does not at all prove that the system possesses inherent principles of safety. Great personal ability and skill have, with it, achieved marked success where in less able hands its defects would have become apparent; but that some have developed this remarkable ability is no reason why we should depend upon this in a matter of such vital importance. The prevalence of methods which require exceptional skill has doubtless interfered with the more extended usefulness of the railroad telegraph which would probably have resulted under a system more readily operated by men of less experience and ability.

Men who have successfully worked under the "single order" method have stated that the mental strain is very great, augmented by anxiety born of the fact that a single error may be fatal to property or life. Now, a mode of constructing orders which may be operated with safety by men of moderate skill, which relieves them of the mental strain, and _which in itself provides against the most serious chance of error_ must at once commend itself. The "duplicate" would appear to meet these requirements; and that such is the case is the abundant testimony of those who have used it.

In preparing this order the Dispatcher cannot possibly give different meeting-points, as there is but one message for both trains, and when transmitted to both simultaneously each must get the same as the other. The mental anxiety arising from the other method is absent in this. An experienced Dispatcher under the "single" system has stated that in visiting an office where the "duplicate" was used he was surprised that those engaged there appeared to have so little on their minds. He found, on himself adopting the "duplicate," that it was readily explained. Each transaction is at once complete. On the preparation and transmission of the order in precisely the same language to both trains, and with no necessary connection with any other transaction, the mind is at once prepared to dismiss that and go on to the next. In the transmission of two separate orders for the one meeting, there is ever the feeling that an error may be or may have been committed. But where the one sentence is prepared for both trains and, as is usually done, transmitted to both at one sending, the Dispatcher may rest secure that _no collision can occur from any oversight of his in preparing the orders_, and superintending officers may, if necessary, commit this work to comparatively unskilled hands, with the assurance that so long as the prescribed methods are adhered to the proceeding will be _at least safe_, however great may be the delays arising from unskilful movements.

The power of combination and of quickly calculating the probable movements of trains and determining what shall be done is an entirely distinct matter. This power is largely the result of experience. It is essential to the full development of any system, but is exercised with much greater facility under the relief which the "duplicate" affords, it has been alleged that this method requires more telegraphing than the other, and that trains cannot be moved by it so promptly. It has, however, been for many years in use on roads where only the most expeditious methods would serve; and superintendents moving a heavy traffic, who have changed from the "single" to the "duplicate" state that the amount of telegraphing is reduced one-third. Those who have grown up with a system may have reasonable hesitation as to making a change. It is not easy to give up methods of practice in which one has been trained for those which are new; and it may seem difficult, perhaps unsafe, to undertake to re-educate operators and trainmen in so critical a matter. Nevertheless, those who have tried it have found these supposed difficulties to quickly vanish, and have discovered the result to be in every way satisfactory, and that this form of order is much to be preferred. Some officers who were with difficulty induced to change are now among the most enthusiastic supporters of the "duplicate" method.

In arranging for the issuing of train orders, experience has shown that forms may be simplified and improved methods adopted by which the work is facilitated and the orders rendered clearer to those receiving them; and disaster has taught the necessity for precautions not before thought of. These points will be considered in detail with reference to the "duplicate" system of orders, although much that follows will apply to the other.