Читать книгу Locomotive Engine Running and Management - Angus Sinclair - Страница 38

Table of Contents

The Master Mechanics’ Association appointed a committee to investigate the “best manner of educating young men for locomotive engineers,” and the following report was made:—

“Considering this subject to be of vital importance to the Association, and to the public in general, and that proper care and attention have not been given to it in the past, the committee have spared no pains to get all the information they possibly could on this subject, knowing and feeling that men selected to fill the responsible position of locomotive engineers must possess faculties, that, as a general thing, do not belong to all the human race; and, as locomotive engineers have to be selected from the ranks of firemen, they feel that due care and caution should be exercised in selecting young men for firemen. Now, to arrive at a proper conclusion,—one that would be satisfactory to the Association and to the railways of the country,—your committee sent circulars to all the master mechanics in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We sent out five hundred and thirty-two circulars, to which we received seventy-six replies; being an average of one answer to every seven sent. Many of these replies contain very valuable information, and were from many of the leading roads of this country, Canada, and Mexico. Your committee beg leave to return thanks for the answers to their circular.

“The opinions given us by the different master mechanics who replied, were as follows: Five recommended that none but machinists should be locomotive engineers; nineteen thought that nothing more was needed than to have a young man fire from three to four years with good, competent engineers, to make him a good runner; fifty-two thought that one year in the shop and round-house, with two to three years’ firing, was necessary to make a competent engineer; many recommended that young men, while firing, read and study books that would give them a general knowledge of the locomotive, such as Forney’s Catechism of the Locomotive, and several other works of that kind. Many of the replies admitted that machinists would make the best runners if they would consent to fire one year after having learned their trade, as they would then have the advantage of knowing all about the construction of the locomotive. Of course, when speaking of that class of men, they meant bright, intelligent young machinists, men with nerve and energy, and quick to act in cases of emergency. Of course, there are some who would never make engineers, no matter what opportunities were given them. If young men of this kind would consent to run one year or more as firemen, we could select our locomotive engineers from among that class; but they will not do it, from the belief that they are just as competent to run a locomotive as the best engineer on the road for which they are working: and, if they are given an opportunity to run an engine, they are certain to make a failure. This being the fact, we are compelled to select our engineers from among the ranks of the firemen, as the best and safest runners. Now, this being the class of men from which we have to select our engineers, some uniform mode of instructing them for the responsible position that many of them will have to fill in the future, will have to be adopted by the different railroads in America. Your committee would therefore recommend the following:—

“All master mechanics should have full control of the engineers and firemen in the employ of their respective roads, with full power to hire and discharge the same,—of course, recognizing the rights that the general managers or superintendents have to order the discharge of any engineer or fireman for neglect of duty.

“1st, The qualifications for the position of fireman on all the railways in America should be as follows: The applicant should be from eighteen to twenty-four years old, able-bodied, and in good health, with a good common-school education, and a fair knowledge of arithmetic, and of sober and steady habits. All applicants should be required to make application in their own handwriting, signing it in the presence of the master mechanic, or the person he may appoint to hire that class of men. In selecting men for firemen, great care should be exercised. The master mechanic should endeavor, so far as lies in his power, to select energetic, smart, and active young men,—men of nerve, and presence of mind, quick to act in cases of emergency which may occur in the position they may be selected to fill in the future. If we select men of that kind, there will be very little difficulty in educating them up to the proper standard to fill the place of engineers.

“2d, There should be three grades of firemen, classed as junior, intermediate, and senior firemen,—the young man just commencing, to be classed as junior fireman, and so on up to senior fireman; the senior fireman receiving the highest pay for his services, the others in proportion. When a fireman has fired four years, and is worthy of promotion, and fully competent to run a locomotive, there may be no vacancies in the engineer force on the road by which he may be employed. In that case we recommend that he receive a small amount more per day than the senior fireman (say from fifteen to twenty cents per day more), and be ranked as veteran fireman. On the road which one of your committee represents in this convention, this custom has been in vogue for a number of years, and has worked exceedingly well. All the engineers on this road have been educated under this rule, and to-day no engineers in the country rank higher than they do.

“Proper care should be taken, in selecting young men for firemen, as to their ability to distinguish colors in a practicable, common-sense way. We recommend that all railroads having a sufficient number of employés to justify them in so doing, have a reading-room and library for their firemen and engineers, in which the other employés could participate. The library, to some extent, should consist of works on the locomotive engine that a man with a fair education could understand. While we do not think it essentially necessary, still we believe it would be beneficial to some extent to let firemen work one year out of the four in the shop and round-house, so that they might obtain a more perfect knowledge of all the parts of the locomotive.

“Young men consisting of the class we have mentioned, are certain to make good runners; and there will be no difficulty, at the proper time, in selecting good junior engineers from among that class of men. All opportunities possible should be given firemen to get such knowledge of the theory and movements of the different parts of the locomotive as would be beneficial to them when they enter on their career as engineers. To accomplish this end, monthly lectures might be given in the reading-room by men of good practical common sense, who fully understand what they are talking about. If possible, these lectures should be given by one of the engineers. The firemen would learn more from him, as they would better understand what he was saying; he having formerly been one of them.

“Your committee is convinced, that, if the mode recommended by them is adopted generally throughout the country, a large majority, if not all, of the firemen, would be educated to a point from which there would be no difficulty in selecting men who will make good and reliable engineers.

“3d, The fireman now being competent to run a locomotive, and being placed in charge of one, has yet some few things to learn that he did not have the opportunity of learning, from the fact that he was not running the engine. While he may run carefully, and avoid accidents, he has to learn to run his engine with economy in the consumption of fuel and the cost of repairs. To learn this, and to give the young engineer an opportunity to become a first-class man in his occupation, we recommend there be three grades of engineers,—first, second, and third grades,—and that the remuneration they receive be according to grade; the fireman just promoted ranking in the third grade; after one year’s service he enters the second grade; when two years have passed, he enters the first grade, and becomes a first-class locomotive engineer.”