The General Manager's Story; Old Time Reminiscences of Railroading in the United States (Paperback)

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. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XII OVERWORK TRUSTING A CONDUCTOR FIFTV-TWO HOURS ON DUTY THE CALLER--A TRAMP'S STORY -- LEARNING A LESSON DEATH OF THE TRAMP Our lives were not, as you may have been led to suppose, all made up of accidents, by any means. They were varied by long spells of semi-idleness when freight was slack, or being worked to death when it was running heavy, for at such times it is not admitted that men need rest or sleep; and I have had a round-house foreman indignantly ask, "What's the matter with you, that you register for rest? You've only been at work twenty-four hours There's Tom Bailey has been on his engine thirty-six hours, and he ain't asking for rest yet. Some of you fellows ought to get a job clerkin' in a drug store." You have probably seen accounts of the inquests on railroad wrecks, where men have testified that they were so worn out with overwork that they were unable to properly attend to business. This is a common occurrence. The worst case of the kind that ever happened to me was when on one occasion, on arriving at the end of the division, after a particularly tedious trip, I was ordered to return at once sixty miles down the road to bring up thirty cars of coal, as fuel for the engines. "And hurry up with it; we want it." I protested that I was tired, and unfit to go, but was told there was nobody else; so I coaled, watered, and oiled up, got the caboose, and started. It might be thought that after having hauled a heavy train over the road, it would be a snap to go back with nothing but the caboose; whereas, though it is true that better time can be made, yet it is terribly hard riding on a heavy freight engine, with no train to hold her down. She shakes you up like a die in a box, with a peculiar sidewise motion that...