The dispatchers’ office is, as has already been remarked, the brain of the railroad. It is there that all orders relating to the movement of trains originate; and these orders keep the blood circulating, as it were—keep the system alive. Let the brain be inefficient, and this movement becomes clogged and uncertain; traffic no longer flows smoothly, as it does when the brain is well. Fortunately, the brain of a railroad can be replaced when it breaks down or wears out, and in so far the road is superior to a mere human being, who has only one brain and can never, by any possible means, get another. And so there is about the road something terrible and remorseless.

Every one has heard the story of Frankenstein, that unfortunate scientist who conceived the idea that he might make a man; who did really succeed in manufacturing a being something akin to human shape, and in animating it with life. But, alas, he could not give it a soul, and the monster turned against its creator, pursuing him and his loved ones with implacable fury and torturing them with fiendish ? 212 ? delight. The railroad is such a monster; made by man to be his servant, but greater than its maker; grinding out men’s lives, in its fury; wearing out their brains in its service, and then discarding them; for the road must have always the best, and the jaded and second-best must step down and out.

Nowhere is the ruthlessness of this great machine more evident than in the dispatchers’ office, for it is here that the strain is always at the highest; and it is here, too, that deterioration is at once apparent, and is swiftly and inexorably punished. A defect of judgment, a momentary indecision, a mistake, and the delinquent’s days as a train-dispatcher are at an end.

In the office at Wadsworth there were always two dispatchers on duty. One had charge of the hundred miles of track stretching eastward to Parkersburg, and the other had charge of the hundred miles of track stretching southwestward to Cincinnati. The first is called the east end and the other the west end. There are six dispatchers, each of them being on duty eight hours a day. The first trick begins at seven in the morning and lasts till three in the afternoon; the second begins at three and lasts till eleven at night, and the third begins at eleven and lasts till seven in the morning. The new dispatcher begins with the third trick, east end, and gradually works up, as the other places are made vacant by promotions and dismissals, to the first trick, west end. From there, he graduates to ? 213 ? the chief-dispatchership, and on to trainmaster, superintendent, general superintendent, and general manager. That is the regular ladder of promotion—a ladder which, it may be added, very few have the strength to climb.

All the men in the dispatchers’ office of course knew Allan, and liked him, and he received a hearty greeting when he arrived for his first morning’s instruction. He drew up a chair beside the first trick man on the west end, popularly known as “Goody,” not because of any fundamental traits of character, but because his name happened to be Goodnough. “Goody” had reached his present position of primacy by working up regularly through the various grades, and train-dispatching had become to him a sort of second nature. He was a good-humoured, companionable fellow, with an inexhaustible fund of anecdote and a fondness for practical jokes which not even advancing years and a twinge of rheumatism now and then could diminish. It is related of him—but, there, to recount half the things related of him would be to add another book to this series.

Allan, as we have said, drew up his chair beside him and took his first real lesson in train-dispatching. He had, of course, a general idea of how the thing was done, but never before had any one taken the time or trouble to explain its intricacies to him. The dispatcher sat before a long desk, on which, beside his key, sounder, bottle of ink, pens, and so ? 214 ? on, lay the train-sheet, upon which the movement of every train was entered. The sheet, reduced to its simplest form, appears on the opposite page.

Just as Allan sat down, the operator at Harper’s called up and reported that Number Seven had passed there at 7.02. The dispatcher acknowledged the message and wrote “7.02” in the column devoted to Train No. 7, opposite Harper’s. A moment later, the operator at Madeira reported the passage of No. 70 at 6.04. This was also duly acknowledged and noted, and so on through the day, the columns of figures on the sheet were added to, showing the position, at that particular moment, of every train, freight or passenger, on the west end of the division. On the opposite side of the table sat the dispatcher in charge of the east end, recording, in a precisely similar manner, the progress of the trains on his end of the line.

When a conductor and engineer are called, they report at once at the dispatchers’ office, where there is a registry-book which they must sign. Passenger conductors and engineers, as well as passenger-engines, have regular runs, which they always make unless some accident prevents. Freight conductors and engineers are assigned to trains in the order in which they sign the book. There are in the employ of the road two men known as “callers,” whose sole business it is to notify the trainmen when they are wanted. For instance, three freight-trains are scheduled to leave, one at ten o’clock, another at 10.10, and a third at 10.20. It is the caller’s business to see that the crews for these trains are ready to take the trains out. A freight crew consists of engineer and fireman, conductor and two brakemen. The conductor and one brakeman, known as the rear-man, ride in the caboose. The other brakeman, known as the front-man, rides in the cab of the engine, and makes himself useful by ringing the bell, watching for signals, and so on, when he is not engaged in setting or releasing the brakes, or helping make up the train.

? 215 ?

P. AND O. RAILWAY--Train Sheet
EAST BOUND     WEST BOUND
No. 70                           No. 14     No. 22     No. 102     Train     No. 1     No. 7                       No. 97     No. 71
Grace                 Hawkes     Harris     Smith     Conductor     Brown     Jones                 Hall     Hess
Hill                 Curry     Rosland     Jackson     Engineer     Snyder     Hooker                 Price     Roads
906                 1836     1430     1862     Engine     1473     1416                 916     912
26                 6     5     6     Cars     8     5                 28     32
A. M.                             A. M.     A. M.     A. M.                                                           
5:15                     6:15     2:40     Cincinnati                            
5:50                     6:45     3:00     Norwood                            
                        3:12     Madeira                            
                        3:27     Loveland                            
                4:35         4:06     Midland City     6:42                        
                5:07             Highland     6:15                        
                5:12             Leesburg    ............