Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1912 — Surprises of the Rail. [ARTICLE]

Surprises of the Rail.

As a means of training to engine drivers so that they will not fatl to see signals, railroads constantly use test or surprise signals. The method is to flash signals calling for the driver to slow up or stop when there Is no real reason for it. Then if the driver fails to Bee the signal he is told at the end of his trip that at a certain point and a certain moment of his run he failed to obey a signal. Nothing has happened except that the driver has been made more alert by the admonition. The training is kept up until it becomes impossible for the driver to pass signals without regarding them. This sort of training Is regarded by many railroad men as constantly necessary to keep the men ever on the alert for signals, so that when the moment comes that there is real danger there will be no possibility. of their failing to heed the warning and obey it. Some psychologists of the road assert that the training makes It Impossible for the men to fall Into the habit of noticing certain-stereotyped signals and not recognizing others.