On 12 July 1890, in Eastleigh, England, the London & South Western Railway had a collision that resulted in one fatality. A light engine ran some stop signals at North Junction and then crashed into the rear of a freight train. The accident report cited the cause as the engine driver and stoker failing to “keep a proper look-out”. Pilot error you might say.
However, it was speculated in the report that both men were “asleep, or nearly so”, having been on duty for over sixteen hours. So while the driver was the immediate cause of the crash, the deeper, the root cause, was fatigue due to poor working conditions governed by the regulator, the owners, and the company. These long hours were clearly cited in the report for pushing humans beyond reasonable limits.
Sound familiar?
A hundred and thirty years later we still have people falling asleep in cockpits. The FAA bans naps in cruise, despite research suggesting this may be a safer way to operate some long flights. The FAA bans reading a magazine in cruise, despite pilots saying sitting staring at the attitude indicator for seven hours is not the best way to be alert. Our schedules swap between late nights to red-eyes to early shows crazier than kids swap Pokémon cards. Is any of this smart?
Following the damning railway accident report, the magazine Punch published a cartoon and poem about driver fatigue on 4 October 1890. It repeats, and then answers, the question, “who is in charge of the clattering train?”
No author was credited, but it’s believed to be Edwin James Milliken, a former engineer who became a writer and was at the time an editor at Punch. The poem is explicit about driving steam trains tired, but still today speaks against mechanical companies pushing humans too far. In an even broader context, as a nation asleep at the wheel, it was cited in 1948 by Sir Winston Churchill in the first volume of his epic six-volume history of World War II, The Gathering Storm (1948):
You can see the wonderful Albert Finney playing Winston recite some of the lines in this clip from the 2002 movie The Gathering Storm. It’s how I hear the whole poem in my head now!
Anyway. It’s been 130 years. Time to stop regulators and operators from pushing pilots. Time for more realistic fatigue management policies. Time to know who is really in charge of the clattering train.
Death and his brother sleep
Who is in charge of the clattering train?
The axles creak, and the couplings strain.
Ten minutes behind at the Junction. Yes!
And we’re twenty now to the bad—no less!
We must make it up on our flight to town.
Clatter and crash! That’s the last train down,
Flashing by with a steamy trail.
Pile on the fuel! We must not fail.
At every mile we a minute must gain!
Who is in charge of the clattering train?
Why, flesh and blood, as a matter of course!
You may talk of iron, and prate of force;
But, after all, and do what you can,
The best—and cheapest—machine is Man!
Wealth knows it well, and the hucksters feel
‘Tis safer to trust them to sinew than steel.
With a bit of brain, and a conscience, behind,
Muscle works better than steam or wind.
Better, and longer, and harder all round;
And cheap, so cheap! Men superabound
Men stalwart, vigilant, patient, bold;
The stokehole’s heat and the crow’s-nest’s cold,
The choking dusk of the noisome mine,
The northern blast o’er the beating brine,
With dogged valour they coolly brave;
So on rattling rail, or on wind-scourged wave,
At engine lever, at furnace front,
Or steersman’s wheel, they must bear the brunt
Of lonely vigil or lengthened strain.
Man is in charge of the thundering train!
Man, in the shape of a modest chap
In fustian trousers and greasy cap;
A trifle stolid, and something gruff,
Yet, though unpolished, of sturdy stuff.
With grave grey eyes, and a knitted brow,
The glare of sun and the gleam of snow
Those eyes have stared on this many a year.
The crow’s-feet gather in mazes queer
About their corners most apt to choke
With grime of fuel and fume of smoke.
Little to tickle the artist taste–
An oil-can, a fist-full of “cotton waste,”
The lever’s click and the furnace gleam,
And the mingled odour of oil and steam;
These are the matters that fill the brain
Of the Man in charge of the clattering train.
Only a Man, but away at his back,
In a dozen ears, on the steely track,
A hundred passengers place their trust
In this fellow of fustian, grease, and dust.
They cheerily chat, or they calmly sleep,
Sure that the driver his watch will keep
On the night-dark track, that he will not fail.
So the thud, thud, thud of wheel upon rail
The hiss of steam-spurts athwart the dark.
Lull them to confident drowsiness. Hark!
What is that sound? ‘Tis the stertorous breath
Of a slumbering man,–and it smacks of death!
Full sixteen hours of continuous toil
Midst the fume of sulphur, the reek of oil,
Have told their tale on the man’s tired brain,
And Death is in charge of the clattering train!
Sleep—Death’s brother, as poets deem,
Stealeth soft to his side; a dream
Of home and rest on his spirit creeps,
That wearied man, as the engine leaps,
Throbbing, swaying along the line;
Those poppy-fingers his head incline
Lower, lower, in slumber’s trance;
The shadows fleet, and the gas-gleams dance
Faster, faster in mazy flight,
As the engine flashes across the night.
Mortal muscle and human nerve
Cheap to purchase, and stout to serve.
Strained too fiercely will faint and swerve.
Over-weighted, and underpaid,
This human tool of exploiting Trade,
Though tougher than leather, tenser than steel.
Fails at last, for his senses reel,
His nerves collapse, and, with sleep-sealed eyes,
Prone and helpless a log he lies!
A hundred hearts beat placidly on,
Unwitting they that their warder’s gone;
A hundred lips are babbling blithe,
Some seconds hence they in pain may writhe.
For the pace is hot, and the points are near,
And Sleep hath deadened the driver’s ear;
And signals flash through the night in vain.
Death is in charge of the clattering train!