Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 63374-h.htm or 63374-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63374/63374-h/63374-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63374/63374-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/confessionsofrai00fagarich Transcriber’s note: Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. CONFESSIONS OF A RAILROAD SIGNALMAN [Illustration: A TYPICAL SMASH-UP] CONFESSIONS OF A RAILROAD SIGNALMAN by J. O. FAGAN With Illustrations [Illustration] Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin Company The Riverside Press Cambridge 1908 Copyright 1908 by J. O. Fagan All Rights Reserved Published October 1908 Second Impression CONTENTS I. A RAILROAD MAN TO RAILROAD MEN 1 II. THE MEN 26 III. THE MANAGEMENT 47 IV. LOYALTY 69 V. THE SQUARE DEAL 95 VI. THE HUMAN EQUATION 118 VII. DISCIPLINE 149 ILLUSTRATIONS A TYPICAL SMASH-UP _Frontispiece_ A HEAD-ON COLLISION 26 A YARD WRECK 52 A TYPICAL DERAILMENT 82 A REAR-END COLLISION 112 WHAT COMES FROM A MISPLACED SWITCH 132 DOWN AN EMBANKMENT IN WINTER 150 THE AFTERMATH 176 Acknowledgment is due to the proprietors of _Collier’s Weekly_ and of the _Boston Herald_ for their courteous loan of the photographs from which the above illustrations have been engraved. CONFESSIONS OF A RAILROAD SIGNALMAN I A RAILROAD MAN TO RAILROAD MEN Considering the nature and intent of the following essays on the safety problem on American railroads, some kind of a foreword will not be out of place. As much as possible I wish to make this foreword a personal presentation of the subject. But in order to do this in a satisfactory manner, it will be necessary to take a preliminary survey of the situation and of the topics in which we, as railroad employees, are all personally interested.