Charles DeLano Hine

Name: Letters from an old railway official — Letter 2
Author: Charles DeLano Hine

Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

Summary

“Letters from an old railway official — Letter 2”, published in 1904, is a work by Charles DeLano Hine. It explores elements such as dispatcher, train and hoopskirts.

Quotes from Letters from an old railway official… (Charles DeLano Hine)

Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

“ One of the lessons a dispatcher has to learn is to know when he is up against it; when he has figured badly; and when not to make a bad matter worse by vainly trying to retrieve a hopeless delay. A good dispatcher will know without being told that he has made a poor meeting point. Educate him to consider that as an error to be avoided under like conditions in the future; not as a mistake to be made worse by putting out more orders that may fail to help the stabbed train enough, and may result in having every fellow on the road delayed. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

“ The official who is an old dispatcher has to fight in himself the temptation to be the whole cheese. He has to learn to trust subordinates with details. Every position entails some inherent temptations. The absolute, unquestioned authority given a dispatcher in train movements breeds a temptation to be autocratic and unreasonable, to put out too many orders, to give too many instructions. Therefore, try to get your dispatchers in touch with your crews. If the former are in a skyscraper uptown, get authority to build an office for them at the terminal where most of the crews live. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

“ On most of the roads in the country passenger trains of whatever nature or importance are all shown in one class, the first. As a result every limited train in the inferior direction on single track has to be given right by train order over opposing local passenger trains in the superior direction. In other words, the working time table, by definition a general law, has no more practical value, as between such trains, than an advertising folder. A train order by its very nature is an exception to the general law, the time table. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

“ Successful politicians and public speakers have long since learned not to disgust their hearers by trying to talk in language ridiculously simple and uncultured. For us to say that the intelligent employes of to-day cannot keep in mind four or even five classes of trains is to confuse them with the comparatively illiterate men of a bygone generation. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

“ If any train must be delayed, let it be one that is already late rather than one that is on time. Above all get the confidence of your dispatchers so that they will not try to cover up their own mistakes or those of others. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

“ The official who remembers to mention good work will find his rebukes and criticisms much more effective in remedying poor work than the official whose theory and practice are to take up failures and to let successes be taken for granted. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

“ Every superintendent and higher official should remember that if the same train order is given every day there must be something radically wrong with the time table. All over this broad land, day after day, hundreds of unnecessary train orders are being sent because many time tables are constructed on the models of forty years ago. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

“ Sarcasm in official intercourse or toward one’s subordinates should never be tolerated. It is an expensive kind of extra that should never be run. When you praise a man it will add to his good feeling if some one else happens to be present. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

“ Personal contact is much better than long-distance communication by wire. There is enough of the latter from the very nature of the business without causing an unnecessary amount by artificial conditions. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official… (1904)

“ It often takes longer to stop a train and get an order signed and completed than the additional time given in the order amounts to. Even a judicious use of the beneficent nineteen order involves more or less delay. ”

Charles DeLano Hine

Summary

Quotes from Letters from an old railway official… (Charles DeLano Hine)

Common terms

Similar works

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature