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: