particularly dangerous points, such as curves and deep cuts, by
stationing watchmen there with flags or with some form of fixed
signal. The watchman can notify an approaching engine-runner that
a preceding train has or has not passed beyond his own range of
vision; or can notify him that it has been gone a certain time.
Travellers by the Philadelphia & Reading must have noticed the
queer structures, with revolving vanes on top, looking like a
feeble sort of windmill, which appear in positions to command a
view of cuts, curves, etc. These are examples of the devices for
local protection. The non-automatic block signal develops naturally
from the protection of scattered points. Instead of placing
watchmen at points of especial danger, they are placed at regular
intervals of one mile, two miles, or five miles. Instead of the
watchman looking to see that a train has disappeared from his field
of vision before he lets another train pass, he uses the eyes of
the next watchman ahead, who telegraphs back that the train has
passed his station. Suppose A, B, and C to be three block-signal
stations placed at intervals of two miles. When a train passes A,
the operator at that point at once puts a signal to danger behind
it. This signal stands at danger until the train passes B, and
the operator puts his signal to danger, and telegraphs back to A
to announce that train No. 1 has passed out of the block A B, and
is protected by the signal at B. Then, and not until then, the
operator clears the signal at A and allows train No. 2 to enter
the block. Meanwhile train No. 1 is proceeding through the block
B C, its rear protected at B; and the same sequence of events
happens when it arrives at C as happened at B. This is the simplest
form of block signalling. In the more elaborate form there are at
each block-station three signals--the distant, the home, and the
starting. The signals are often electrically interlocked, from
one station to another, in such a way that it is mechanically
impossible for the operator at A to give a signal for a train to
pass that station until the signal at B has been put to danger
behind the preceding train.
A B C
-----------------------------
It is seen that no two trains can be in the same block and on the
same track at the same time. If all run at a uniform speed, they
will be kept just the length of a block apart. If No. 2 is faster
than No. 1, it will arrive at B before No. 1 gets to C, but will
have to wait there. The block system, therefore, while it gives
security, does not always facilitate traffic. The longer the blocks
the greater will be the delay to trains; but the shorter the
blocks, the greater the cost of establishment, maintenance, and
operation.
Various systems have been contrived to have block signals displayed
automatically by the passage of trains. This, if it can be done
reliably, will do away with the wages of part of the operators, and
will also eliminate the dangers arising from human carelessness.
But there are very great objections to relying solely upon the
automatic action of signals, and automatic block signals are little
used except as auxiliary to a system employing operators also.
So used, they are of decided advantage, as they make sure that a
danger signal is set behind every train in spite of the operator,
and that it cannot be again set to the all-clear position till the
train has passed out of the block. All this is accomplished by
electricity.
Brakes, interlocking, and the apparatus of signalling have been
considered at length because they are very much the most important
of all the appliances which go to increase the safety of operating
railroads. They act chiefly to prevent collisions, but often
prevent or mitigate accidents from derailments and other causes.
Of all train-accidents happening in the last sixteen years, over
one-third have been from collisions, and more than one-half from
derailments.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Crossing Gates worked by Mechanical Connection from
the Cabin.]
After brakes and signals, the devices next in importance as means
of saving life are those for the protection of highway crossings
at the grade of railroads. In years to come, as wealth increases
and as traffic becomes more crowded, we may suppose there will
be few such crossings; but their abolition must be slow, and
meantime the loss of life at them is great. The most accurate and
complete statistics bearing on this matter are those collected
by the Railroad Commissioners of Massachusetts. In 1888, of all
those killed in the operation of the railroads of the State, seven
per cent. were passengers, thirty-three per cent. were employees,
and sixty per cent. were others. The others include trespassers,
forty-seven per cent.; and killed at grade crossings, eleven per
cent. More trespassers were killed than any other class; but the
deaths at highway crossings considerably exceeded those among
passengers. The difficulty of preventing this class of accidents
is strikingly shown by the fact that, of all crossing accidents,
forty-two per cent. were due to the victims' disregard of warnings
given by closed gates or flags. It is evident that the efforts of
the railroad companies to save people's lives at crossings are
largely nullified by the carelessness of the public, and the lack
of proper laws to punish those who venture upon railroad tracks
when they should keep off them. Still, it remains the duty and
the policy of the railroads to protect street crossings by all
practicable means. The best protection is afforded by gates with
watchmen, and of all forms of gate the most common, because it
is the simplest and most convenient to operate, is the familiar
arm-gate. This is usually worked by a man turning a crank, but it
is also worked by compressed air. On this page is shown a group of
gates worked from an elevated cabin by a mechanical connection. A
bell fixed at a crossing, to be rung by an approaching train, is a
very useful auxiliary to gates and to watchmen with flags, and is
considerably used where the traffic does not warrant the expense
of maintaining a watchman. There are several good devices of this
sort, either electric or magneto-electric. One of the latter class
has a lever alongside the rail, which is depressed by each wheel
that passes over it. This lever is geared to a fly-wheel, which
is set rapidly revolving and causes an armature to revolve in the
field of a magnet, and thus generates a current and rings a gong,
precisely as is done with the familiar magnetic bell used with the
telephone.
[Illustration: Some Results of a Butting Collision--Baggage and
Passenger Cars Telescoped.]
[Illustration: Wreck at a Bridge.]
About thirteen per cent. of the train-accidents in the United
States, in the last sixteen years, were derailments due to defects
of road. These include not only defective rails, switches, and
frogs, but bridge wrecks. There are, however, few devices used in
the track, other than those already mentioned, that can be called
safety appliances. This class of accidents is to be provided
against only by good material, good workmanship, and unceasing
care. Many so-called safety switches and safety frogs are offered
to railroad officers, but those actually in wide use are confined
to a very few standard forms. The split-switch, which is shown in
the engravings on pages 206 and 207, has gradually replaced the old
stub-switch, as well as most of the "safety" switches that have
been from time to time introduced; although the stub-switch is
still in considerable use in yards where movements are slow, and
in the main tracks of the less progressive roads. It consists of a
pair of moving rails the ends of which are brought opposite to the
ends of the main-line rails, or to those of the turnout, as the
case may be. It follows that but one of these tracks is continuous
at any one time, and a train reaching the switch by the other
track must be derailed. The distressing accident which happened at
Rio, Wis., in 1886, where seventeen people lost their lives, was
a derailment of this sort. Since that time the railroad on which
the accident happened has taken out all stub-switches on thousands
of miles of main-line track. The split-switch provides against
such derailments, for if the switch is set for the turnout, and a
train approaches it from the main line in the "trailing" direction,
the flanges of the wheels move the switch-rails to make the track
continuous. The terms "facing" and "trailing," as applied to
switches, are almost self-explanatory. If a train approaches toward
the points of the moving rails, the switch is said to be facing. If
it runs through the switch from the rear of the moving rails, the
switch is said to be trailing. This will be made clear by reference
to the illustration on page 206. If a train were coming from the
bridge, the first switch reached by it would be a trailing and
the second a facing switch. In the newspaper reports an accident
will very often be assigned to one of two causes, failure of the
air-brakes or spreading of the rails. The chances are that it will
be found on investigation to be due to neither of these causes.
Those interested to maintain the credit of the air-brake or of the
track department are not often on the ground when the reporter
gets his information, and the temptation is always great to shift
the responsibility to the shoulders of the absent. Probably
the displacement of the rail will have taken place after the
derailment; but rails do sometimes spread. Loose spikes and rotten
ties allow the outer edge of the rail-flange to sink into the wood,
and the rail to roll outward enough to let the wheels drop. Sound
ties are the first safeguard against such accidents. Metal plates
under the rails are useful also; but one of the most efficient
means of preventing displacement of the rails is the interlocking
bolt shown above. These bolts cross in the timber, and slots cut
in the two bolts engage with each other in such a way that when
the nuts are screwed down on the rail-flange it is impossible to
pull the bolts out. They can only be moved by tearing through the
wood contained in the angle between them. This bolt is much used
on bridges and trestles, where it is of vital importance that the
rails should be held in place and no part of the floor broken.
[Illustration: New South Norwalk Drawbridge. Rails held by safety
bolts.]
In 1853 an express train went through an open draw at South
Norwalk, Conn., and forty-six lives were lost. This, one of the
most serious railroad accidents that ever happened, is still
remembered as an historical calamity. The bridge which stands on
the same site is shown opposite. In May, 1888, a west-bound express
train, consisting of an engine and seven cars, was derailed just as
it was entering the draw-span. The train ran three hundred feet on
the sleepers before it was stopped. Then it was found that all of
the driving-wheels of the engine had regained the rails, but all
the other wheels were off, except those of two sleeping-cars in the
rear. This was a remarkable escape from a bad accident, and much
of the credit of it has been given to the interlocking bolts with
which the rails were fastened. They are supposed to have prevented
the rails being crowded aside, and thus to have made possible the
rerailing of the engine. Besides, they helped the oak guard-timbers
to hold the ties in place. The destruction of a bridge in an
accident frequently begins by the ties bunching in front of the
wheels and allowing the wheels to drop through and strike the
floor-beams below. For this reason guard-timbers, notched down over
the ties, should always be used.
[Illustration: Engines Wrecked during the Great Wabash Strike.]
The traveller will have noticed, on all bridges of various roads,
two rails placed inside the track-rails, and curved to meet in
a point at either end of the bridge. These are known as inside
guard-rails, and their function is to keep derailed trucks in line
till the train can be stopped. Besides the bunching of the ties,
there is danger in a bridge derailment that a truck may swing
around and strike one of the trusses. Then the bridge is very
likely to be wrecked. A further provision for the protection of
bridges is the rerailing frog invented by the late Charles Latimer,
whose name is dear to railroad men all over America. This consists
of a pair of castings combined with inside guard-rails, designed
to raise the derailed wheels and guide them on to the rails. There
is no doubt that it has prevented several wrecks, although it has
never been widely used. The subject of bridges should not be left
without a word of explanation of the stout timber-posts often seen
at either end placed in line with the trusses. These are designed
to stop any derailed vehicle which might otherwise strike against
and destroy a truss.
* * * * *
There is one track-fixture that has no duty or value except as
it promotes safety. It helps only one humble class of railroad
employees. That device is the foot-guard. At all places where two
rails cross or approach each other, as at frogs and guard-rails,
dangerous boot-jacks are formed by the rail-heads. The overhang of
the heads of the rail makes it easy for one to so fasten his foot
in one of those boot-jacks that it is hard to get it out. If a man
finds himself in this position in front of an approaching train, he
sometimes has the alternative of standing up to be struck by the
engine or lying down and having his foot cut off. Fortunately this
class of accidents is comparatively rare; probably not more than
two or three per cent. of all deaths and injuries to passengers
and employees is caused in this way. Nevertheless, the means of
guarding against accidents of this class is so cheap that it should
be more generally adopted than it is. It consists simply in partly
filling the space between the rail-heads by putting in wooden
blocks or strips of metal, or even packing with cinders, gravel, or
any sort of ballast. Various wooden and metal foot-guards have been
patented. They are all too simple to require description.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Link-and-pin Coupler.]
Of all accidents to employees the most numerous are those which
arise in coupling and uncoupling cars. In Massachusetts, in 1888,
the employees killed and injured were 391; of these casualties
154 occurred in coupling accidents. The commissioners of other
States, especially of Iowa, have for years published statistics
showing nearly the same ratio. Fortunately accidents of this class,
although numerous, are not proportionately fatal. Far the greater
part of them result in the loss of part of a hand; but they are
so frequent as to have caused much discussion, legislation, and
invention. Several States have, one time and another, passed laws
requiring the use of automatic couplers; and two or three years
ago there were on record in the United States over four thousand
coupler patents. The laws have been futile because impracticable;
and most of the patents have been worthless for the same reason.
It was obvious that the business of supplying couplers for the
one million freight cars of the country could not be put into
the hands of some one patentee unless his device was manifestly
and pre-eminently superior to all others. It became important,
therefore, to select as a standard some type of coupler general
enough to include the patents of various men, and at the same time
so definite that all couplers made to conform to the standard
could work together interchangeably. Those who read Mr. Voorhees'
story[21] of the wanderings of a freight car will understand
that any one freight car in the United States or Canada should
be prepared to run in the same train with any other car. A few
years ago a committee of the Master Car-builders' Association was
appointed to choose and recommend a type of coupler to be adopted
as the standard of the association. After prolonged and careful
study of the subject, the committee recommended the type of which
the Janney is the best known example, and that has now become the
standard of the association. This action does not give a monopoly
to the Janney company, as there are already half a dozen couplers
which conform to the type. This coupler is shown by diagrams in the
article by M. N. Forney, page 142. A perspective view is herewith
given. This device couples automatically, and thus does away with
the necessity for the brakeman going between the cars. It can also
be unlocked by the rod shown extending to the side of the car,
and the locking device can be set not to couple, to facilitate
switching and yard work. The mechanical principles of this coupler
are a great and important improvement upon any form of link-and-pin
coupler; and the coupler question has now come to this point: A
type of coupler has been selected by a technical body representing
most of the railroads of the United States. It is general enough to
avoid the evils of a patent monopoly. It promises to be economical
in operation, and will certainly do away with the terrible loss
of life and limb which results from the use of the non-automatic
coupler. The railroads are adopting it with reasonable speed,
perhaps, but not as rapidly as simple considerations of humanity
would dictate.
[Illustration: Janney Automatic Coupler applied to a Freight Car.]
Closely related to the coupler is the vestibule, which within
the last two years has become so fashionable. The vestibule
is not merely a luxury, but has a certain value as a safety
device.[22] The full measure of this value has not yet been proved.
Occasionally lives are lost by passengers falling from or being
blown from the platforms of moving trains. Such accidents the
vestibule will prevent, and, further, it decreases the oscillation
of the cars, and thus to some degree helps to prevent derailment.
It is also some protection against telescoping. A few months ago a
coal train on a double-track road was derailed, and four cars were
thrown across in front of a solid vestibule train of seven Pullman
cars approaching on the other track. The engine of the vestibuled
train was completely wrecked. Even the sheet-iron jacket was
stripped off it. The engineer and fireman were instantly killed,
but not another person on the train was injured. They escaped
partly because the cars were strong, and partly, doubtless, because
the vestibules helped to keep the platforms on the same level and
in line, and thus to prevent crushing of the ends of the cars.
[Illustration: Signals at Night.]
The number of passengers burned in wrecks is greatly exaggerated
in the public mind; but that fate is so horrible that it is
not wonderful that "the deadly car-stove" should be the object
of persistent and energetic attacks by the press and in State
legislatures. The result has been the development, in the last
three years, of the entirely new business of inventing and
trying to sell systems of heating by steam or hot water from the
locomotive, and even by electricity. In fact, the manufacture of
such apparatus has already become an industry of some importance,
several thousand cars being equipped with it. This whole matter
of steam-heating is still in a somewhat crude state, and it
does not seem desirable to force it by legislation. It has been
demonstrated that it is the cheapest way of heating trains, and the
most easily regulated; and it has become a good advertisement to
attract passengers. Consequently the whole subject may be safely
left in the hands of the railroad companies, and allowed to develop
itself naturally in a business way. There is not yet any system
of continuous heating so perfected that a railroad company could
without hardship be compelled to adopt it for all its passenger
equipment.
Fires in wrecked trains have originated probably quite as often
from kerosene lamps as from the stoves. The danger of fire from
this source, and the desire to give passengers the luxury of
sufficient light, have led to methods of lighting by gas and,
more recently by electricity. Lighting by compressed gas ceased
years ago to be an experiment. In Germany it is almost universal,
but in this country it has been brought into use very slowly. The
system is almost absolutely safe, not unreasonably expensive, and
may be made to give satisfactory and even brilliant illumination;
but the ideal light for railroad trains will probably be found in
electricity. It is even safer than gas, and is the most adaptable
of any known method of lighting. Some sleeping-cars that have
been recently put in service on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railway are provided with small electric lamps in the sides of the
car, between each two adjoining seats, so that the occupants can
read comfortably either when sitting in their seats or lying in
their berths.
* * * * *
It is not to be supposed that so large a subject as that of safety
appliances can be exhaustively treated within the limits of one
article. It has been thought best, therefore, to give most of the
space available to the two or three devices of greatest and most
useful application. There remain various others that are in daily
use, and that have important offices, which have not even been
mentioned. If the reader has gleaned from these very incomplete
notes some clearer notions than he had before of the means by which
the power of the locomotive is guided into safe and useful paths,
the writer's object has been accomplished.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] The statistics of train accidents used in this article are
those collected and published monthly for many years by the
_Railroad Gazette_. In the nature of things such statistics cannot
be absolutely accurate, but no others are in existence for the
whole country. These are sufficiently accurate for all practical
purposes.
[21] See "The Freight-car Service," page 267.
[22] See "Railway Passenger Travel," page 249.
RAILWAY PASSENGER TRAVEL.
BY HORACE PORTER.
The Earliest Railway Passenger Advertisement--The First
Time-table Published in America--The Mohawk and Hudson
Train--Survival of Stage-coach Terms in English Railway
Nomenclature--Simon Cameron's Rash Prediction--Discomforts
of Early Cars--Introduction of Air-brakes, Patent Buffers
and Couplers, the Bell-cord, and Interlocking Switches--The
First Sleeping-cars--Mr. Pullman's Experiments--The
"Pioneer"--Introduction of Parlor and Drawing-room
Cars--The Demand for Dining-cars--Ingenious Devices for
Heating Cars--Origin of Vestibule-cars--An Important Safety
Appliance--The Luxuries of a Limited Express--Fast Time in
America and England--Sleeping-cars for Immigrants--The Village
of Pullman--The Largest Car-works in the World--Baggage-checks
and Coupon Tickets--Conveniences in a Modern Depot--Statistics
in Regard to Accidents--Proportion of Passengers in Various
Classes--Comparison of Rates in the Leading Countries of the
World.