Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 245, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1917 — WAR BRINGS ADVENT OF GIRL RAILROADER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WAR BRINGS ADVENT OF GIRL RAILROADER

Among the first changes being brought about In the United States by the war is recorded the entrance of women Into railroading. From doing flag duty at grade-crossings to wiping the monster locomotives and operating lathes in machine shops, girls are replacing old men and young men. While the first call for the girl railroader was to replace men who will take up arms, with the bars down they are showing efficiency in branches heretofore employing old men and those crippled in the service of the companies. Especially is this true in the signal department. The new school of telegraphy has recently been transferred from Bedford, Pa., to Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania railroad. When the transfer was made, the course was opened to women as well as men. More than 200 students are now taking the course. The only requirements for entrance are that the applicant be between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five and possess good sight, hearing and a fair knowledge of English, mathematics and geography. Have Miniature Line. The girls are learning by actually operating the block system on a spe-

cial road, which has been constructed for that very purpose—a miniature, electrically operated road over which hum freights, locals and expresses all day long with all the businesslike faithfulness to schedule which is necessary on the real railroad, telephone bells ringing and telegraph sounders clicking. Official reports and roders are made out just as though the girls were at work, as conceivably they soon may be, in the towers between Philadelphia and Altoona. Down to the smallest detail the miniature road is complete. To a casual observer who might happen upon it by chance, there might be an element of humor in the busy men and women bending over their work along the line of this toy railroad. To the instructors and their classes it is the most serious work, for when the novices have fully mastered the system of the miniature railroad, with its block system, its ramifications of reports and transactions of official nature, they virtually have mastered the system of the Pennsylvania railroad and are potentially able to take their places at the keyboards, the signal phones and the switch and block towers. In the train room the tracks are laid on a great table built in a U-shape, with terminals at each end. The blocks are represented by wooden partitions, through which are cut openings for the trains to pass. All the signaling is

done with the regular equipment such as is used in the regular operations of trains, telephones and telegraphs. There are divisions in this system,for 50 students and a passageway up to the center enables the Instructor to move from one to another for individual attention. Three-Track System. At present the system is a threetrack one, two regular lines and a continuous switch track in the center, just like many sections of the real railroad are built. Shortly there will be added a fourth track, which will make it the counterpart of the company’s fourtrack trunk lines. Another advantage which is given to the students is the opportunity to hear the messages and reports which go over the red! wires of the company, as the lines have been tapped and receiving apparatus set up in connection with them in the school. Telegraphy itself is no easy subject to master, but the equipment of the school contains special arrangements to enable the ready acquisition of speed and accuracy on the part of the students. The telegraph room is 20 by 40 feet, and down the two side walls and the center are tables at which the

fair students sit at their Instruments. These tables are wired in such a manner as to enable any student to enter any speed class at the request bf the principal without the necessity of changing her seat. The classes are made up of speeds, 5, 10, 15 and 20 to 25 words a minute. This is accomplished by having four circuits around the room and a four-holed jack-switch box on each table. This undertaking of the Pennsylvania railroad is not a fad, for the girls actually work hard. The course is not easy and it requires from six to eight months’ steady application for completion. Besides telegraphy and block signal operations, all station office detail work is taught. At the end of the course a job is assured. Other Lines Adopt Plan. The Pennsylvania railroad is not the only company to adopt the system of employing women. At an Erie car shop in Buffalo are 28 young women who are taking the places of men. One young woman is running a bolt cutter and is working 100 per cent piecework. The Baltimore & Ohio road has introduced woman workers in a number of its shops with success. It has also opened positions in the freight and passenger terminals to women. They work the regulation day and wear overalls, caps and gloves while they are on the job.

TEACHING WOMEN RAILROAD TELEGRAPH SERVICE.