The Train Wire: A Discussion of the Science of Train Dispatching / (Second Edition)

by John Alexander Anderson

This rule is based on the fact that all sections of a train are substantially one train, so far as schedule rights are concerned. This is definitely fixed by the "Standard" train rules. This rule provides that each section included in the operation of an order must have copies. Instances might be cited where this would seem unnecessary.

A delayed train may be ordered to meet a superior train at some point short of the meeting-point. Without any order each section of the superior train would have a right to go to the designated point, and it may be supposed that, if the first section is held by the order at that point for the inferior, the other sections cannot go by until the inferior is out of the way. While this may be true, circumstances may arise even in this case that would render it important that each section should know of the movement. The difficulty of specifying in a rule the cases in which the provision might be omitted probably led to making the rule absolute. It is pointed out, however, by practical men that serious and needless delays may often arise from strict adherence to the rule, and that in certain cases there can be no danger from giving the order to the leading section only. It is quite possible that the rule may admit of some amendment in this respect.

Rule 521.—Meeting-orders must not be sent for delivery to trains at the meeting-point if it can be avoided. When it cannot be avoided, special precautions must be taken by the Train Dispatchers and operators to insure safety.

There should be, if possible, at least one telegraph office between those at which opposing trains receive meeting-orders.

Orders should not be sent an unnecessarily long time before delivery, or to points unnecessarily distant from where they are to be executed. No orders (except those affecting the train at that point) should be delivered to a freight train at a station where it has much work, until after the work is done.

Here it is wisely provided that trains shall, if possible, be advised of their place of meeting before reaching it. It is scarcely necessary to point out the obvious reasons for this, arising from the possibility of a train, on arrival, passing the switch where the meeting is intended to be. The first and second paragraphs both suggest the advantage of being able to communicate with a train in the event of a desire to change an order or of an error having been found to have occurred on the part of a train or in the preparation or transmission of an order. The third paragraph is to guard against men forgetting orders delivered to them, through lapse of time or preoccupation in their work, and also against the necessity of changing orders issued long in advance of the time at which they are expected to be used, when a new set of circumstances may have arisen.

Rule 522.—A train, or any section of a train, must be governed strictly by the terms of orders addressed to it, and must not assume rights not conferred by such orders. In all other respects it must be governed by the train rules and time-table.

To some disciplinarians the provisions of this rule would seem to be unnecessary. To say that a thing means what it says and no more would seem to be superfluous, and yet the vital importance of the point, and the fact that it has been often disregarded, warrant this enforcement of it. A case in point came not long since to the author's knowledge. A rule in the book of a certain road required that "all trains must slow up at meeting-points with trains of any class." The rule was intended to apply to schedule meeting-points, and was so generally understood, notwithstanding the indefiniteness of the designation. An order was given requiring a superior train to wait until a time stated for the arrival of an inferior train at a point reached by the superior train before its arrival at the schedule meeting-point. The inferior train not arriving by the time stated, the superior train went on and passed the schedule meeting-point without slackening speed, as required by the rule. The inferior train was there and not quite out of the way, and a collision occurred. The conductor and engineman of the superior train claimed that the order to meet had done away with the schedule meeting-point, and therefore the rule did not apply, whereas the order was provisional, and was completely fulfilled when the inferior train failed to arrive and the superior train went on past the point named in the order without meeting the other. The inferior, being unable to reach the given point by the time stated, ran on its rights and stopped at the schedule meeting-point, respecting which the order had made no mention.

It is to be remarked that while the indefiniteness of the rule may have been partly chargeable with the wrong view taken by the trainmen, a strict construction would make it applicable to every point that became a "meeting-point," whether under the operation of the rules or of special orders. A rule capable of these different constructions is fatally defective.

Rule 523.—Orders once in effect continue so until fulfilled, superseded, or annulled. Orders held by or issued for a regular train which has lost its rights, as provided by Rule 107, are annulled, and other trains will be governed accordingly.