Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/725

 School Trains Women for Railroad Service

��Some Wonderful Changes Wrought by the Draft

��THE war has created in all belligerent countries a scarcity of male workers in occupations which heretofore have been considered unsuitable for women. Thousands of the young men employed in the shops and factories, the offices, yards and round houses of the various railroad lines of the country have been drafted into the army or navy and many thousands more are sure to be drafted if the war should continue for a

��long time. The railroads, being con- ducted upon a strict business basis, never employed more men than were absolutely necessary for maintaining the efficiency of the service. To prevent the service from being crippled, the vacancies must be filled with other efficient workers.

Realizing that the supply of available men is greatly limited, some of the large railroads took steps to train women to take the places of the men drafted into military service. Since many branches of the railroad service, like the telegraphic and telephonic service, the block-signal operating, etc., demand a certain amount of previous training and experience, some of the large railroad companies estab- lished schools for the systematic training of young women for these branches of service. The students are taught teleg- raphy and in six to eight months most of them develop into skilful and rapid send- ers and receivers of telegraphic messages. They are also instructed in the manner of controlling the block signal system by telegraph and telephone. The instruc- tion is along practical lines and is aided by models of railroad tracks with block signals, switches, trains, etc.

���Studying the movement of trains by means of realistic models. Belo .v ; Part of the room in which girls are preparing themselves to become railroad telegraphers and train operators

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