OPERATING SINGLE TRACKS SAFELY.
For many years to come, the great majority of our railroads will be single tracks, as they now are. The operating of single-track roads is only done safely by the exercise of unsleeping vigilance on the part of all concerned in the movement of trains. Delays sometimes occur through mistaken excess of caution, as in the case of an engineer in Iowa, who mistook the lantern of a benighted farmer for the headlight of an approaching train, and backed to the nearest telegraph station; or that of a conductor in Michigan, who side-tracked his train to let the evening star pass. Such mistakes make pleasantry among train-men, but all acknowledge that it is better to err on the safe side than to run recklessly into danger.
On this subject the remarks of Kirkman are strongly applicable. Writing on the “intelligent discrimination exercised by train men,” he says, “It is observable in the practical application of the system under which trains are operated, that the employes connected with the train service do not always attach the significance to specific signals or rules that would naturally be supposed. Especially is this so in reference to use of signals. Their acquaintance with the every-day working of trains teaches them that allowance must always be made for the ignorance, stupidity, or thoughtlessness of employes; and they strive constantly to protect themselves, and the passengers and property intrusted to their care, from the fatal effects that would oftentimes follow a blind obedience to the orders given them.... The engineer of an irregular train that is running under special telegraphic instructions at the rate of sixty miles an hour, can not depend implicitly upon the accuracy of the reports he receives in reference to the location and intention of other trains.... His orders are to proceed. He has been trained to obey. Outwardly he is unconcerned, but inwardly he is filled with apprehension; and, as he proceeds on his course, he scrutinizes the track with an intensity and a sagacity that never wearies.”