The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-10-05 00:00:00

Dudley

Etc g)tourbage ehserber.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1872.

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

During the last few months there have been
several railway accidents of a more or less seri-
ous character. We see no reason for any excep.
tional alarm or declamation on this score.
Whether the casualties on our iron roads have
either been more numerous or inure serious than
usual during the same portion of the year, we
have no means of ascertaining, and any special
outcry on the subject would be uncalled for. But
it may be said that we are always having railway
acceidents, and we are not believers in those hal-
cyon days or in that Utopian Government which
would be unmarked by any such calamities.
The prcaibility is that we shall have railway ac.
cideuts of some kind or other. If there be then
any plan or system which is calculated to lessen
the chance of railway casualties, the proposal
certainly demands attention as a matter of per-
opulent interest. Now we cannot but think that
the railway inspectors of the Board of Trade—
gentlemen who unfortunately appear to dovote
more attention to the circumstances of a past ac-
cident than to any scheme for the prevention of
accidents for the future—gives us very valuable
information on that point; mind it will be our
own fault if we do not draw practical conclusions
from this information. It appears from the re-
ports of these railway inspectors that a very
fruitful cause of accident is the working of
goods and passenger traffic on the same line of
rail. Out of six serious accidents on railways
four occurred from some modifications or other
of this oue great cause. The moral is obvious.
Railways ought to be adapted for two entirely
different classes of traffic passengers and
goods, or, in other words, quick and slow traffic.
But this would be a very serious matter to at-
tempt. To add two more lines to those that
already exist, so that passenger traffic and goods
traffic may be kept quite distinct, would be a
matter of such enormous expense that it is un-
reasonable to expect it to be incurred as a rule.
There are surely, however, parts of our railways
—those portions of our steam highway where
the traffic is thickest—where extra accommoda-
tion for traffic might be added, so that the sepa-
ration to which we have referred might at least
be partially carried out. And it is earnestly to
be hoped that Parliament will learn wisdom
from the past, and will grant permission to no
railway company, as a rule, to make new lines
or branches, without this wholesome separation
of traffic is duly provided for.
The railway inspectors moreover show us that
out of those same six accidents five would have
probably been obviated had the traffic been
worked on the block system. This system may
be described as the preventing a train from
starting when there is the possibility of a colli-
sion—a most desirable state of affairs. To carry
out this system a great deal of signalling is re-
quired, and there are perhaps more delays and
rather slower travelling, on the whole, than under
the absence of the block system. But on lines
worked on this plan there are fewer accidents
than on those on which it is not adopted; and
this one fact is more powerful than any on the
other side. The value of the block system has
been proved so ineontestibly, and it has been so
perpetually recommended by the Board of Trade
that the conclusions are obvious—that railway
companies, or rather railway boards, shrink from
incurring expense even to procure the greater
safety of life and property, and that the Board
of Trade is not sufficiently powerful to carry out
their own suggestions, or make others carry
them out. It may therefore become a question
whether this Board should not be modified, or
whether we should not have a special Railway
Deppartment capable of initiating such legisla-
tion as would tend to the management of rail-
ways in the interest of the public. The railway
companies are too great to be handed over to a
new administrative department, but they are also
two great and important for the Board of Trade
to deal with.

PRIM or DoMESTIC ARTICLES. In almost every
branch of trade an advance in prices has taken place,
nor M there any present prospect of an Improvement in
favour of the consumer; it is therefore, with much .at.
ivfaction Meters. Horniman announce the fact that their
Pure Teas are still being sold at the cid prices, which
will remain unaltered, and are now so moderate as to
meet the wants of all classes. Purchasers must remem-
ber that when an article of food increases in price, adul-
teration also increases, therefore an additional saving to
couvumers is secured by baying of Hornimmis Agents,
as their Tea is free from the injurious facing powder.
.11 Blue, Plumbago, ke , generally used to pros of
•-, , ic,•.detl t reference fer Horniman's
'rem arises from its producing a strong dark-coloured
liquor, rich and full flavour, grateful to tbs palate, awl
invigorating to tie wan&