Easier for Engineers

The flagman swings his lamp, or his flag or hand, in a vertical circle at half-arm's length across the track. The engineer blows three short blasts, his indication that he has understood the signal to back.* Then he throws the locomotive into reverse. If he has a power reverse gear he just turns a little wheel, steam doing the rest. If he has a hand reverse gear he has to push hard and knows that the antic steam may kick the lever and break his arm.

Last week the I. C. C., after weighing the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers' complaints about the treachery of hand reverse gears, ruled that by the end of 1936 all locomotives must be equipped with power reversers. Of the 55,000 locomotives in the land (of which 9,000 were in need of repair last week), half still have hand reverse gears. The I. C. C. order means that about $10,000,000 will be transferred out of the lean pockets of the railways into the lean pockets of the equipment companies.

Much easier to operate than a steam engine is an electric locomotive. Fortnight ago Pennsylvania Railroad completed electrification of the 91 mi. between Manhattan and Philadelphia. Four crack passenger trains between the two cities, each making a roundtrip, are now electrically- drawn. Eventually all passenger trains on the run, then all freight trains, will have electric locomotives. Electrification of the lines as far as Wilmington will be completed by February but work on the Wilmington-Washington branch has been postponed.

*When the train is running, the same three short blasts mean that the engineer has understood the signal to stop at the next station. Other important whistle-signals: Two long blasts, two short: approaching a highway crossing; three long blasts: train in motion has parted; one short blast: apply all brakes.

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