The Handbook Of Railway Station Management Or Agents Manual PDF Download

Excerpt from Railway Station Service Not designed as a manual explaining merely in a matter-of-fact way, either in complete detail or in out line, what things must be done at a railway station and how to do them, the present book, While stating with some fullness the leading features of railway station service as matters of prescribed routine, attempts to give also some insight into the general condition, spirit and principles of such service. It is a fact, familiar to every agent of experience, that the station man is de pended upon by his superior oficers not merely for a proper knowledge and application of his company's rules, but, in addition, for information and for well advised opinions on a multitude of matters not covered by those rules; and the agent is well aware of the fact that his services are of value to his company very much in proportion as he is able to meet this additional de mand. Furthermore, in recent years, legislation regard ing railway matters has been such that the agent has been rendered in a measure independently responsible, so that it behooves him to become informed as to condi tions under which he is placed, not by his company in the first instance, but by federal and state laws. And, again, the public whom the railway serves looks to the agent as its chief informant and adviser in matters relating to the business of shipping and of traveling. In general, the tendency of circumstances a tendency that is undoubtedly increasing in strength is toward the necessity of the agent's being not merely a hired servant of his company but an all-round, intelligent, capable individual person. It is in accordance with, if not in consequence of, this tendency that schools have in recent years been established and are being established to fit men for the really intelligent understanding and performance of duties connected with railway service in general. The present work aims to contribute some thing towards meeting the demand involved in this tendency, so far as station service is concerned. The substance of the work was first made public in a short course of lectures delivered by invitation before the class in Railway Administration at Michigan University in the autumn of 1909; and it is the hope of the author that the work as here presented may be found of use to classes in railway administration in other institutions, as well as to railway agents in general, to shippers in some degree, and to the general student of railway matters. The matter of the book has been derived mostly through an experience of a dozen or more years on two leading lines of the West, no written work cover ing precisely the field of the book having fallen into the author's hands. For the faults almost inevitable in a first attempt of this sort the writer would ask a reasonable indulgence. Below is a short list of works which might profitably be consulted in connection with the reading of the book. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.