To the best engineer belong the best trains.
Chance never built an engine, and it should have nothing to do with running it.
Yet the opposite way of doing things is the general rule.
Engineer A retires, dies or is killed, and Engineer B is promoted because he happens to be next on the list. He may be a dull, stupid fellow, and Engineer C as bright as a dollar, but in the chance death of A, B gets the prize, and everybody that has any interest in the successful running of his train becomes the loser thereby.
Engine driving, to be good, must be based upon rules and principles.
He who strictly observes them wins; he who don't, loses. With the latter all is uncertainty; the hand trembles upon the regulator, the eye watches with painful anxiety the needle of the pressure gauge, and gazes into the fire to find out its deficiencies, but gains nothing but blindness by the attempt.
With the engineer who has a reason for every act performed, either by himself or his fireman, all is different. He works by rules and principles that have proved themselves a thousand times over to be safe, practical and certain in their results.
Sound rules and principles are absolutely sure in the effects of their application--not right to-day and wrong to-morrow; not right in a short trip and all astray on a long one; not right on one particular engine and wrong on another; not right on the first part of the run and wrong at the end; not right with one kind of coal and wrong with another, but _always right, every time_.
Under the guidance of sound rules and principles, the mind of the driver is full, and he is enabled, under all circumstances, to handle the regulator with confidence, to travel with a boiler full of steam, and to finish with success.
In a word, these are rules and principles which lead up to and make the success of an engineer.
Let us now consider in detail some of the more important duties of an engineer.
Before going to his engine an engineer should, for his own safety, as well as that of the public, visit the special and general notice boards and post himself fully upon the running of the trains for the day. By neglecting this more than one engineer has lost his life.
An anecdote bearing on this is related on good authority, as follows: