Central Railway Club Proceedings
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 88
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ...under the direction of men who are not widely experienced in operating a road by signals, and whoare ignorant as to the special needs of the apparatus. The Signal Supervisor has charge of the signal repair force on an operating division, which may include a mileage of one hundred to six hundred. His territory may be sub-divided into districts in charge of District Foremen, with a mileage each of fifty to one hundred. To the District Foremen report the Signal Repairmen. A repairman may have aterritory of one mile to fifteen miles of continuous signaling, depending upon the character of the apparatus and the number of signals; and on some roads is furnished one or more helpers to assist in the rough work. In the beginning of signaling, there were electrical inspectors, mechanical inspectors, mechanical repairmen, electrical repairmen, fitters, wiremen, blacksmiths, battery men, carpenters, painters and lampmen. Possibly, there might be ten men on one small territory. With the growth of the art, one by one the various specialists were combined until now, except for a general overhauling of any sort, customarily, all the work of repairs is performed on any section by one man. This has required long patient training, a constant survival of the fittest. A man who was thoroughly competent to find any failure in a mechanical device, where the sense of sight controlled so largely, became entirely lost when there was required the reasoning out by deduction of the cause of an electrical failure, the symptoms being known. I remember one mechanical foreman who ranked among the best, when questions of handling the installation of a hundred lever mechanical interlocking plant were considered. This man gave up the care of a large electropneumatic plant...