mineral districts of England, which conveyed coal to the sea. Animal
motive power was used. By the discovery, in 1814, of the adhesion
of a smooth wheel to a smooth rail, it became possible to consider
the employment of the tractive power of a rolling locomotive, and
for some time subsequent to this, to the trial trip of the "Rocket,"
in 1829, which may be described as the first successful steam
locomotive, the experiments were along these lines.
While industrial railroads similar in character to the English
existed in this country, the Baltimore & Ohio was the pioneer
American railroad built for public use. On July 4, 1828, the first
rail was laid by Charles Carroll, the only surviving signer of the
Declaration of Independence, and thirteen miles were opened for
traffic in 1830. In the same year the West Point Foundry began
building locomotives, producing the "De Witt Clinton," in 1831. It
weighed three and one-half tons, and was built for the Mohawk &
Hudson Railroad, the pioneer company of the present New York Central
Lines, which had been chartered in 1826, four years before actual
construction was begun.
The line was opened from Albany to Schenectady in 1831; to Utica in
1836, and to Buffalo in 1842. Connections to New York and Boston were
built in rapid succession.
About this time, in Pennsylvania, the Columbia Railroad was built
from Philadelphia to Columbia, on the Susquehanna River, forming the
pioneer division of the present Pennsylvania System.
Several companies were chartered about the same time in Massachusetts.
Following the panic of 1837 there was little industrial development
and a lull in railroad construction, but with 1850 begins the era
of rapid extension and the welding of short connecting lines under
single ownerships. The consolidation was vigorously objected to at
first. Originally there were eleven companies owning and operating
the line between Albany and Buffalo. Between Buffalo and Cleveland,
changes of passengers and freight were made at Dunkirk and Erie.
The latter change was made necessary by the difference in gauge; to
the east six feet and to the west four feet ten inches. Plans for
the consolidation of some of these lines made in 1853 entailed for
through operation the change of the gauge east to conform to that
west of Erie, to obviate transfer. This proposition so aroused the
inhabitants of Erie that they resorted to violence. In December,
1853, they tore down the railroad bridge, no trains going through
until February, 1854. This same bridge was rebuilt in 1855, but again
torn down and burned by a mob. Finally a compromise ended what is
known as the Erie War and the gauge was changed, from which time
dates the beginning of definite through operation.
In 1851 the Erie Railroad joined New York with Lake Erie. The
Baltimore & Ohio reached the Ohio River. Two years later the Atlantic
seaboard and Chicago were connected by rail, which the following
year reached the Mississippi River. These extensions to the Western
Frontier opened the traffic between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
In the early days the public desire for rail transportation
facilities led to numerous enterprises securing public financial
support, but owing to the disaster that was experienced in some of
these enterprises the Ohio law prohibited any town, county or State
from rendering such assistance. When the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad was built, Cincinnati found it imperative to have railroad
communication to the South, but the prohibition of the aforesaid
law prevented public assistance, and the scheme was devised of
building and owning a line. This line went south through Kentucky to
Chattanooga, was built and operated, and eventually leased to the
Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific.
The railroads played an important part in the conduct of the Civil
War, many of them being practically devoted to the transportation of
Government troops and supplies. Great damage was done to the many
lines in the South owing to the military operations. By the close of
the war there had been no pronounced advance in protection by the
appliances which are now commonly employed in the control of train
operation. This was largely due to the light equipment, slow speeds
and sparse traffic.
The first Pacific railroad was begun, with Government aid, in the
'60s. With the opening up of the West and the return to industrial
pursuits of the people after the close of the war dates a remarkable
era in railroad extension. In the decade from 1880 to 1890, 70,000
miles were built in the central and western districts, opening vast
unoccupied agricultural, grazing and mineral sections to immigration
and development. The panic of 1893 exerted considerable influence on
railroad construction during the following decade.
The period since 1900 has been more one of reconstruction and
improving existing lines; the growth of industries and population
tributary to existing lines necessitating this course.
The vastness of the railroad industry may be imagined when one
considers that from fifteen to twenty per cent of the capital of the
United States is invested in railroads. As an exhibit of the growth
and importance let me quote the following statistics of railroad
growth by decades since the first operation:
1830 23 miles
1840 2,814 "
1850 9,021 "
1860 30,635 "
1870 52,914 "
1880 93,296 "
1890 163,597 "
1900 193,346 "
1909 about 250,000 "
Such is the exhibit of progress in the extent of railroads,
broadly viewed. With the growth in extent the elements of safety
have multiplied and have become very numerous; in fact, an almost
indefinite subdivision of railroad property and operation in
respect of safety might be conceived. We will consider, however, the
beginnings and the growth of a few of the more important and striking
items and their relationship to the state of the art, as portraying
in a more graphic manner the adjustment, if you may call it such,
of safety to progress, or, as the subject has been assigned to me,
"Progressive Safety."
AIR BRAKES.
As the density of traffic, and the speed, together with the weight of
equipment, developed, following upon the greater transportation to
be undertaken, the question of brakes was an important factor. More
efficient brakes were needed; the essential characteristics being
that they should be continuous throughout the length of the train,
simultaneously applied and released, with a single point of control.
In 1869 George Westinghouse, Jr., brought forth what is known as the
straight air brake, consisting of a pump, main reservoir, three-way
valve, brake cylinder and train line. Application was made by
admitting air from the main reservoir into the train line. The brakes
were released by reducing the train-line pressure into the atmosphere
through the three-way valve. The brakes were useless if there was a
leak, a burst in the air line or a parted train.
With these shortcomings in mind, the automatic air brake was produced
in 1873, in which the method was reversed. With the addition of an
auxiliary reservoir under each passenger car and a triple valve,
application of brakes was secured by reducing the train-line
pressure, while admitting air from the main reservoir raised the
pressure and released the brakes. On the application of the automatic
air brake to freight cars it was found the reduction of pressure was
not quick enough to set the rear brakes promptly, and in consequence
accidents occurred from the bunching of the cars.
The consideration of the brake question by the Master Car Builders'
Association in 1885, and public tests under their auspices in 1886,
at which time the manufacturers were represented, did not succeed in
stopping freight trains without violent and disastrous shocks. So
discouraging did these tests seem for the time being, that a report
was made, suggesting that the successful application of such brakes
on long trains could only be accomplished by electricity. However,
the following January witnessed the introduction of the Westinghouse
Quick-Action air brake, which corrected the previous trouble and
made practicable the application of air brakes to long freight
trains. Continuing from this time there has been marked improvement
and development in all features of the apparatus, without, however,
modifying the essential elements of which it is constituted.
With the solution of a means of train control came a further growth
in their size and weight; sooner or later this had to emphasize
the necessity for efficient coupling devices. Not only were there
accidents due to the primitive link and pin couplers, but the various
standards in existence both complicated the operations of coupling
and uncoupling of cars and involved the question of interchange and
safety.
AUTOMATIC COUPLERS.
Owing to the large number of accidents, Mr. F. D. Adams, of the
Boston & Albany Railroad, recommended to the Master Car Builders'
Association, at its third convention, in 1869, that a uniform height
should be established for couplers; their failure to meet when cars
came together being considered the cause of numerous accidents. In
1871 that convention adopted 33 inches as the standard height for
standard-gauge cars. At the convention of 1873 Mr. M. N. Forney
urged that a committee investigate the cause of accidents and make
recommendation. This committee in the following year gave as the
principal cause the same as reported by Mr. Adams eight years before.
They pronounced the tests of automatic couplers to date a failure.
Another committee at this same convention gave the first recognition
to automatic couplers by reporting that a great advantage would
be derived from a uniform drawbar, such as would be accepted as a
standard and which would be a self-coupler. During several years
following various models were examined, but nothing was found to meet
the demands. In 1877 Mr. John Kirby, of the Lake Shore, reported that
his company intended to equip 100 cars with self-couplers, and at the
same meeting Mr. Garey, of the New York Central, told of having been
waited upon by a committee of yardmasters, asking for dead blocks or
some such safety device. This turned the attention of the Association
from the coupler to the dead block. In the year following they
invited the Yardmasters' Association to act in concert with their
committee in reporting upon means of safety for protection of yard
and train men in the performance of their duties.
This was the situation when on March 19, 1880, the Massachusetts
Legislature instructed the Railroad Commission to investigate and
report with recommendation as to means of prevention of accidents in
the coupling of cars. They reported that they preferred to be guided
by the action of the railroad companies, and any device made standard
by them would, in their opinion, be the best recommendation for such
device.
In 1882 the Connecticut Railroad Commissioners recommended to the
Legislature that automatic couplers be required on all new cars.
In 1883 the Massachusetts Commissioners expressed the hope that the
Master Car Builders' Association would at its convention agree upon
some type of coupler for freight cars.
In 1884 the Association selected Mr. M. N. Forney to conduct tests
of automatic couplers and report. Attention was called at that time
to less than a dozen varieties that were worthy of consideration.
With this action of the Association as a guide, the Massachusetts
Commissioners undertook to solve the problem, and announced that they
would not prescribe any coupler that had not been tested in actual
traffic, but notified the railroad companies in the State that all
new cars, and cars requiring new couplers, should be provided with
one of five kinds specified. It happened that the kinds specified
would not couple with each other.
In 1885 public tests were held at Buffalo by Mr. Forney. Forty-two
couplers were tested, twelve of which were recommended for further
tests. In the following year the trials made of power brakes on
freight trains made it very evident that the link and pin type of
coupling would not suffice, and it was eliminated from further
consideration.
In 1887 the Executive Committee reported in favor of the Janney type
of coupler and all other forms that would automatically couple with
it under all conditions of service. This report was adopted in 1888
by a vote of 474 for and 194 against. The Executive Committee then
undertook to establish contour lines, drawings and templates as
standard, but found that the Janney patents covered the contour of
vertical plane couplers. This was remedied in 1888, when the Janney
Coupler Company waived all claims for patents on contour lines of
coupling surfaces of car couplers used on railroads members of the
Master Car Builders' Association, which enabled the Association to
formally adopt in all respects this type of coupler as standard.
At the convention of 1889 such action was taken, on motion of Mr.
Voorhees, General Superintendent of the New York Central Railroad,
and since that time this type of coupler has been the standard, and
called the "Master Car Builders' Coupler."
In 1893 Congress enacted a law requiring all railroads engaged
in interstate commerce to provide on all cars and locomotives a
continuous power brake capable of being controlled by the engineman
in the locomotive cab, and also automatic couplers which would
operate by impact. January 1, 1898, was the date set by which these
changes must be made--subsequently extended two years. We now have
uniformity in height and contour to insure perfect contact between
all classes of equipment, and a positively locked knuckle. The design
and attachments to car body are prescribed of a strength in excess
of the power of locomotives, and in modern friction draft gear the
strength reaches 250,000 pounds.
SIGNALING.
The need of indicating the conditions of the road to trains came
with the increasing traffic and speed. As these conditions developed
in England before they did here, the first steps were taken in
that country. In 1834 the Liverpool & Manchester introduced the
first system of fixed signals, consisting of an upright post with
a rotating disk at its top, showing red for danger and the absence
of indication by day and a white light by night for clear. On the
opening of the Great Western Railway this method was improved.
Experiments by Messrs. Chappe, the inventors of optical telegraphy,
showed that under certain conditions of illumination the color of
any body would disappear. This demonstrated that the form, and not
the color, of the day signal could be relied on. It was also found
that a long, narrow surface could be seen further as projected
against the horizon or landscape than the same area in a square or
circle. Making use of these results, Sir Charles Gregory, in 1841,
designed and erected at New Cross the first semaphore signal. There
was no communication between stations; each signalman displaying his
signal at danger after the passage of a train until a certain time
had elapsed, when it was cleared. The only information conveyed to
the engineman was that the preceding train had passed the station at
least the required time before him.
The failure or inability to act with sufficient promptness at the
display of the danger position, and the consequent collisions, led to
the installation of additional signals to give advance information
to the engineman of the position of the signal he was to obey. Thus
we have clearly portrayed the inception of the present block and
caution signals.
Mr. C. V. Walker, of the Southwestern Company, introduced the
"Bell Code," which was the first audible method of communication
between signal stations. The same year Mr. Tyer supplemented this
with electric visual signals, the object being to give the operator
indication of the signal having been received and given, and at all
times to show the exact position of the signal itself. This suggested
the space interval between trains, in place of the time interval,
making signal indications definite. In 1858 the positive block system
was established in England, based on the space interval system.
Making use of telegraph communication, Mr. Ashbel Welch, Chief
Engineer of the United New Jersey Canal and Railroad Company, devised
and installed during 1863 and 1864 the first block system of signals
in this country, on the double-track line between Philadelphia and
New Brunswick. Signal stations were suitably spaced, and at each
station a signal was provided, visible as far as possible each
way. The signal itself was a white board by day and a white light
by night, indicating "clear," shown through a glass aperture two
feet in diameter in front of the block signal box. For the "danger"
indication a red screen fell to cover the white board or light. On a
train's passing a station the signalman released the screen, which
fell by gravity, and did not raise it until advised by telegraph that
the preceding train had passed the next station, thereby maintaining
a space interval. Thus was evolved the telegraph block system, still
generally used, with modifications of apparatus and signals, on lines
of light traffic. Elaborations of this system were later installed
following more closely the English practice, perhaps reaching
the most complete development upon the New Haven and New York
Central lines, where it is still in use. Notwithstanding numerous
improvements in apparatus, the same practice of fixing a positive
space interval by means of communication between block stations still
holds. The addition of track circuits for locking and indicating
purposes and interlocking between stations, more fully effected by
the introduction of the "Coleman block instrument," in 1896, has thus
evolved the controlled manual block system as now used.
AUTOMATIC SIGNALS.
In 1867 Thomas S. Hall patented an electric signal and alarm bell,
used in connection with a switch or drawbridge. Its shortcoming lay
in the fact that a break in the circuit or failure of the latter gave
no danger indication. To correct this a closed circuit was necessary,
although more expensive. In 1870 Mr. Wm. Robinson devised the plan
of having the circuit closed at the point of danger, if conditions
were favorable, and opened a short distance in advance of the signal.
The wheels of the approaching train depressed a lever, which closed
the circuit and cleared the signal, unless interrupted at the point
of danger. Subsequent modifications were made, whereby the circuit
once completed remained so through the agency of an electromagnet,
and reopened when the train passed out of that portion of the track
governed by the signal.
In 1871 Mr. Hall put in operation the first automatic electric
block system, on the New York & Harlem Railroad, between the Grand
Central Station and Mott Haven Junction. It was normal "safety."
The wheels of a passing train striking a lever completed a circuit,
which put the signal to danger, after the train, and held it so until
the succeeding signal went to danger, when a separate circuit was
completed, which released the former signal, allowing it to return to
clear.
The disadvantage in having the wheels of a train strike a lever
to complete the circuit led Mr. F. L. Pope to experiment. After a
successful attempt in transmitting an electric circuit through an
ordinary track with fishplate joints, he made a signal test at East
Cambridge, Mass. A section of track was insulated from the rest, with
a wire circuit, including a battery and electromagnet for operating
the signal, fastened at either end to the opposite rails. The metal
wheels and axles completed the circuit, throwing the signal to danger
against following trains. A detent served to keep the circuit closed
until the next signal was reached, when a separate circuit released
the detent, permitting the signal to clear.
In 1879 this system was put in service, and, with some alterations,
still remains in some localities.
Following the original manual semaphore and the controlled manual
system of operation came the pneumatic and electric systems, for
localities which required a great number of signal movements.
With the development of motors and batteries capable of economic
operation, automatic signals of the semaphore type have been
successfully and widely installed.
In the semaphore system numerous failures have occurred, due to
the formation of ice and sleet upon the blades. This has led to
the introduction of the so-called "upper quadrant" operation; that
is, the motion of the signal being from horizontal to an upwardly
inclined position and back.
On account of the widespread prevalence of electric lighting and
the building up of the territory adjacent to railroads, changes in
the color indication of night signals have been adopted, generally
in such localities using green instead of white for the safety
indication.
INTERLOCKING.
Developing with the manual operation of signals, and as a safeguard
against mistakes of the signalmen, interlocking grew up as a means
for preventing conflicting signals being given at the same time.
As with signals, so with interlocking, England led at first. After
a trip to that country in 1869, Mr. Ashbel Welch recommended the
advantage derived from the English method of operating switches and
signals in large yards and terminals, where the entire control fell
to one man so located as to be in touch with the whole situation
and equipped with a machine that would not permit of setting up
conflicting routes. The plea resulted in the order of a twenty-lever
Saxby & Farmer interlocking machine, which was installed in 1874 on
the New Jersey Division of his line. Railroads were prompt to see
its advantage, and in a short time machines performing the functions
were made and installed in this country, not only for the protection
of railroad intersections, but for the control of large terminal
layouts. In 1876 the first power-operated interlocking system was
perfected, which was the pneumatic type. In 1900 an all-electric
interlocking system, advantageous where distant functions were to
be embraced within the operation of the plant, and applicable to
localities where electric traction was in use, was devised.
The more recent development of power-operated interlocking systems,
with complete electric indication of the conditions on all tracks,
has made it possible for larger systems to be consolidated under
the control of a central plant, and thus under the direction of a
central authority; these machines, being of a completely interlocked
character, insure greater safety by the central control, as well as
greater facility of operation.
TRAIN DISPATCHING.
In this country the first radical departure from the time interval
and flagging method of operation came in 1851. The New York & Erie
Railroad had established a single line of telegraph between Piermont,
on the Hudson River, and Dunkirk, on Lake Erie, for company business.
The Superintendent of Telegraph, Mr. Luther C. Tillottson, and the
Division Superintendent were together in the Elmira depot on an
occasion and learned that the westbound express from New York was
four hours late. At Corning an eastbound stock train and a westbound
freight at Elmira waited for the express. With this information,
Mr. Tillottson suggested that the freight train at Elmira could be
sent to Corning and the stock train at that point ordered to Elmira,
with perfect safety, before the arrival of the express. The move
was successful and encouraged similar operation, which shortly led
to the adoption, with some modifications, of this train-dispatching
method on the Susquehanna Division of the Erie. Its adoption over
the entire line followed, in spite of the great opposition which Mr.
Charles Minot, the General Superintendent, met when planning for its
introduction. Some of the conductors and enginemen went so far as
to resign rather than run on telegraphic orders against the time of
another train.