Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/756

RAILWAYS. of the work in every division and subdivision of his department, and each sub-department is in turn under the control of a single head, and so on down to the end of the scale. In this way the lines of responsibility of each employee, from the car-cleaner up to the president, are clearly defined. The heads of the prin i cipal departments directly in charge of the general manager are the superintendent of roadway, the superintendent of machinery, and the superintendent of transportation. The controller, the traffic manager, and the car accountant are also classed in the same rank. The subdivisions of these departments are too numerous to trace in detail. The superintendent of roadway is responsible for the maintenance of all the construction work of the railway, including the track, trestles, bridges, buildings, etc., each of which departments is assigned to supervisors, whose work covers a certain allotted territory. Each supervisor divides his territory into sections which are in charge of a resident section master, who employs a section gang. Track walkers from these gangs patrol their entire section several times a day and report any needed repairs, which are attended to by the section men. The superintendent of machinery attends to the provision and maintenance of all the rolling stock. The locomotives are in charge of a master mechanic, who keeps a record of the performance of each of them, and the cars are under the care of a master car-builder, who attends to the manufacture, repairing, and inspection of all the company's cars. The superintendent of transportation is in charge of the movements of all the trains on the road and all employees connected with the train service, including telegraphic operators, train dispatchers, conductors, etc. In addition to arranging the regular time schedule, he provides for the extra trains ordered by the traffic manager. A graphical representation of the regular trains is used, from which the relative positions of the trains on the road at any time during the day can be seen at once if the runs are made on time. From this diagram the opportunities for sending out extra trains are determined, and any chances of collisions become apparent and can be guarded against.

The traffic manager's department is divided into two principal branches—the passenger traffic and the freight traffic—each in charge of a general agent. In this department the rates and tolls are made, and the advertising, soliciting of business, etc., carried on. The duties of the car accountant are keeping a record of all cars on the road, which is made up from the conductors' reports, and notifying the owners of the number and movements of other companies' cars on his road. This is made necessary from the custom of sending through freight cars over different roads without unloading, and in this way they are often scattered widely over the country. There are two other departments, less intimately connected with the management of the roads than those mentioned above. These are the purchasing and the legal departments. The controller's department, where the accounts and statistics are kept, completes the general outline of the organization of a railway.

Passenger service on steam railways was inaugurated on October 10, 1825, on the Stockton and Darlington road with a passenger car called the Experiment, which carried inside and outside about 25 passengers. The distance run was 12 miles, and the fare was one shilling, each passenger being allowed 14 pounds of baggage. In America by the end of the year 1831 there were several railways in operation or in course of construction, but for fifteen or twenty years the railway travel was extremely uncomfortable, although it was a vast improvement over the stage coaches previously used. The car ceilings were low and without ventilation, the stoves at either end of the cars had no effect on the temperature at the middle seats, and in the absence of spark arresters the cars were filled with cinders. Tallow candles were used at this period, which contributed more to the odor than to the illumination of the cars, and the roughness of the track and jolting of the train made conversation almost impossible. The flat rails used at first were the cause of numerous accidents. Their ends were cut at an angle to form lap joints, and the pointed ends were occasionally caught by the wheels and driven up through the car floor, impaling the passengers sitting directly over them. Through tickets were unknown, and at the end of each short, independent railway, into which the long routes were at first divided, the passenger was obliged to purchase a new ticket, change cars, and transfer his own baggage. These conditions prevailed generally on American railways, as well as on all others, for a number of years, and it was not until 1860 and after that the most important railway improvements were adopted. Automatic brakes and automatic couplers, as well as spring buffers, were the most noticeable of the early improvements introduced. These devices overcame the jerking and jarring of the cars both when in motion and when starting and stopping. The bell-cord passing through the cars and communicating with the engineer, or with the air-brake mechanism, is a safety device peculiar to this country, and is still generally omitted in Europe for fear that false signals may be given.

The use of sleeping cars and parlor cars introduced an element of comfort in railway travel which was of great importance in this country, on account of the distances traversed. The buffet car was afterwards provided to avoid delays at meal stations. This was merely a modified sleeping car with a kitchen at one end and portable tables, which could be fixed in each section. Dining cars, introduced shortly afterwards, led to the development of vestibuled trains, as, in order to reach the dining car, the rule forbidding passengers to cross the platforms when the cars were in motion was then broken at the invitation of the railway companies. Vestibuled express trains are now in general use, on which sleepers, parlor cars, a dining car, a smoking saloon, library, bath-room, barber shop, and writing-room are provided. The checking of baggage is regarded in this country as one of the most indispensable features of railway travel, as by this system through checks over any number of connecting railways may be issued, so that baggage is transferred from the passenger's residence to any specified address in the country without devolving any responsibility upon the owner. This system operates so perfectly that the loss of baggage is almost unknown, and its detention is of rare occurrence. The usual allowance of 100 pounds of baggage per passenger is merely nominal on most roads, as charges are