Rule 502.—Orders will be numbered consecutively for each day as issued, beginning with No. 1 at midnight.
The use of numbers for orders serves to identify each order and to indicate the priority of issue.
Rule 503.—Orders must be addressed to those who are to execute them, naming the place at which each is to receive his copy. Those for a train must be addressed to the conductor and engineman, and also to a person acting as pilot. A copy for each person addressed must be supplied by the operator.
The requirement here that orders shall be addressed to those who are to execute them might seem superfluous but for some former looseness in this respect and the necessity for exactness in prescribing each step in the process of issue. The address, including the place of delivery, is necessary as indicating, in simultaneous transmission, which operators are to receive for those respectively to whom the orders are sent. The introduction of the Pilot here is valuable. As the one under whose special direction the train is for the time being, he should be directly informed of orders controlling its movements. The conductor and engineman who are in charge of the train subject to his control, are also necessarily advised. The relations of the Pilot to the train are much the same as those of the pilot to a vessel of which he has control for the time being. He is placed there because of his having special knowledge, not possessed by the conductor and engineman, of circumstances which necessarily affect the movement, and has entire control of the train in this respect. He may or may not be an engineman. He may or may not run the engine. He, however, is to say when it may or may not run, and is the person by whose authority the movements are to be regulated with reference to the signals and the physical features of the road and with respect to other trains as well as the established rules. He does not assume the duties of the conductor as to those things which are purely local to the train, and the brakemen and fireman are properly held to be under his orders through the conductor and engineman. The trainmen are not, by the presence of the Pilot, relieved from the usual obligation to protect the train and perform other duties connected with it or required by the rules.
Rule 504.—Each order must be written in full in a book provided for the purpose at the Superintendent's office; and with it must be recorded the names of trainmen and others who have signed for the order, the time and signals, showing when and from what offices the order and responses were transmitted, and the Train Dispatcher's initials. These records must be made at once on the original copy, and not afterward from memory or memoranda.
The requirement here as to the record of each order in a book is usually now fulfilled by the preservation of a manifold copy in the book in which the blanks are bound. This, in fact, is the method contemplated, although the rule is so drawn as to admit of other methods. The record of the various points specified is requisite for a complete history of each transaction.
Rule 505.—The terms "superior right" and "inferior right" in these rules refer to the rights of trains under the Time-table and Train Rules, and not to rights under Special Orders.
This rule is rather an authoritative statement of a logical conclusion from the facts, but very properly gives this prominence to a point that must be constantly borne in mind. When the rights of trains are reversed by an order, as is usually the case, the inferior becomes for a time the superior, and this definition emphasizes this. In this connection it may be again noted that a very important and necessary part of the training of those engaged in operating the railroad telegraph is the acquisition of an intimate knowledge of the rules governing the rights and movements of trains when acting independently of telegraphic control. The legitimate use of the telegraph is to facilitate movement when, under the unaided operation of the rules, there might be delay, and to give preference, for special reasons, to trains which, under the rules are inferior. An exact knowledge of the effect of the rules, and what may be done by trains under their provisions, is therefore important, so that there shall be no unnecessary use of special orders, and that those used shall be the most appropriate to the circumstances.
Rule 506.—When an order is to be transmitted, the signal "31" (as provided in Rule 509) or the signal "19" (as provided in Rule 511), meaning "Train Order," will be given to each office addressed, followed by the word "copy," and a figure indicating the number of copies to be made, if more or less than three—thus, "31 copy 5," or "19 copy 5."
This rule begins upon the details of transmission and is the first in which mention is made of the special signals "31" and "19," signifying "train order," the use of which is more fully indicated later on. We have here the first step in the methodical plan of transmission prescribed in these rules, preparing the operator for the reception of the order and informing him of the number of copies for which he must prepare his manifold sheets. As three is the number most usually required, the omission of this number economizes telegraphing. In the same case the word "copy" might as well be omitted.