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anxiety their trains have cost me to get them past without check or stoppage. There is very little to encourage the signalman in his difficult task, and he stands but very little chance of promotion. So long as he is able to keep all things right, the higher officials, or those in authority, hardly ever trouble to consider, that for his long and useful services, he expects a share in the promotions and appointments. I may here say, that when once a man gets out of a signal-box—either for good or bad deeds—nobody can ever get him to take to it again. A signalman may see men join the service years after him, placed in positions just under the eyes of the authorities, and promoted over his head. He wonders when his turn will come; but, alas! he hopes in vain, for, most likely, his turn is as far off as ever. In fact, he is treated like a “machine,” and, so long as his “machinery” does not fail, he may stop in this responsible and trying position until his hair turns grey. I would remind the reader that signalmen have no chance of receiving any of those useful things—so much needed now-a-days—called “tips,” to help them out with their scanty pay. His duties are quite heavy enough to impair the strongest of minds in a few years; and anyone has only to look at the careworn and anxious faces of the majority of signalmen to be fully convinced of this statement.
Accidents at Facing Points.
The cause of accidents at facing points is often very difficult to discover. It baffles some of the most experienced and practical men. I have been much struck by the number of different opinions on this important subject. When an accident occurs at facing points through some part of the train continuing on one line, and another part running on another until the lines widen, whereupon one or both parts are either dragged off the rails, or the couplings and chains give way, there can be to the practical mind only one opinion, viz., that the points have shifted during the time that the train was passing over them. The question is, how, and by what
