BIG TRAIN JUGGLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21278, 3 September 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

BIG TRAIN JUGGLE

WIZARDS OF THE LINES SPEED-UP PATHFINDERS* TASK Pathfinders —wizards of the British railway time-tables—have, with the preparation of the new summer speed-up services which came into operation in July completed their biggest task of the year. These railway experts, who juggle with trains and minutes, are the "brains" of the service. They add and subtract trains amid a majs of figures, planning out a hundred and one different express and local "paths" every time an intricate retiming takes place. With pen and paper the experts chase imaginary trains all over the country, from destination to finishing point, and then at a general conference at headquarters present their data from which individual journeys are worked out to the minute. "These men work in different areas spread oyer the whole of a company's system," said an official at one of the " pathfinders' " offices. "They have to be expert mathematicians, each one working out a new train or speeding up others for the holiday season over a certain mileage." _ \ Great care has to be taken in these alterations at junction points where main and local lines cross. Added to their work during the last year or two has been the arranging of connecting road services in certain districts where the railway companies have a financial interest. The reshuffling of the summer timetables this year has been a heavy one, more excursion trains having been introduced.