The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-08 00:00:00

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

A FURTHER report on railway accidents presented by
the Board of Trade contains some observations and
suggestions made by Captain Galton on the cases
ascribable to " undue economy, an inefficient system,
and a defective state of discipline." Upon the first
head he remarks :

Under this head may he classed a reduction of the num-
ber of servants below what was required for the efficient
working of the line, the postponement of the requisite
repairs, alterations, or additions to works, &c., and the
overworking of the carrying stock.
When the servants have been reduced in number below
what the efficient working of the line has required, the
remaining servants have been overworked. This practice
involves considerable danger, because the safe working of a
railway depends upon the servants being always on the
alert. The signalmen and pointsmen must always be on
the look out for trains, and attend carefully to their signals
and points ; whilst the guards, engine-drivers, and firemen
should, whilst on the road, have their attention continually
directed to the safety of the train ; and it is utterly impos-
sible for men, however strong they may be, to keep a
proper look out if their energies are paralysed by fatigue
Yet, amongst the accidents which occurred last year, it
will be found that in one case men who came on duty at
six am. were sent out with a train after having worked to
between ten and eleven p.m.; and in another, men who
were sent out with a train in the middle of one day were
continually on duty till the evening of the next day. The
reduction in the number of servants has also contributed
to accidents, by causing engine-drivers and firemen, un-
acquainted with the road, to be sent with trains.
Several of the accidents occured from the permanent
way on some lines having been allowed to become very
much deteriorated. In other cases the results were attribu-
table to the insufficiency of the siding accommodation, the
inadequacy of the signals at newly-constructed sidings, and
to the servants of the company not having been supplied
with a means of measuring time.
In many accidents to which unpunctuality has been a
contributing cause, this unpunctuality can be traced to
undue economy. In some cases the supply of engines has
been limited, and the trains have been worked upon a
system which entailed that the unpunctuality of a train in
one direction affected that of the corresponding train in the
opposite direction. In other cases heavy trains have been
forwarded with an insufficient supply of guards and of
breaks, &c.
It has been the practice on some lines to effect a saving
in the working expenses by contracting with engine-drivers
for working the trains, and in others by giving to engine-
drivers a direct premium for reducing the consumption of
coke below an average amount. These practices, unless
guarded by very carefully-framed provisions, contain im-
portant elements of danger.
Respecting the catastrophes arising from a bad
system of management, or the lack of discipline
amongst the working staff of the railway, Captain
Galton says :
On some lines of railway, in an efficient state of repair,
accidents have occurred which were due either to the de-
fective system under which the lines were worked, or to
the rules not having been strictly enforced.
In some of the cases it would appear that the regal*
tions have been such that the inferior servants of the com-
pany have great difficulty in complying with them, under
even the ordinary exigencies of the traffic ; and other ac-
cidents have arisen from a violation of riles, which would
appear to have been permitted on previous occasions with-
out rebuke from the superior officers.
In many cases the rules have been inoperative from the
responsibility of carrying them into effect not being clearly
fixed upon particular individuals.
In other instances accidents have occurred owing to the
system of issuing regulations having been loose and neg-
ligent.
Of the accidents which have been classed as those due
to the management of railways, a very large proportion
have occurred to trains following each other upon the
same line of rails.

THE PRESS.

If the trains had been always punctual, and if no train
had been allowed to start without the driver having been
furnished with carefully-framed timetables, to be rigidly
adhered to, these accidents would probably not have
occurred; under such circumstances the use of signals
would be of leas importance, and they would occupy
the position of being auxiliaries to safety ; but the reports
on accidents show, that on some railways mineral trains,
and even occasional goods trains, have been allowed to
run, without the engine-driver having been furnished with
any instructions as to the time at which he was to pus or
stop at the several stations; and on other railways where
carefully-framed time-tables have been published regularly
for the mineral and other trains, these time-tables have
been allowed to be practically disregarded. The effects of
unpunctuality might in some cases have been remedied to
a considerable extent, had a very much more extended use
been made of the electric telegraph in conducting and or-
ganising the traffic. It will be found that in the ordinary
condition of railways at the present time punctuality is not
sufficiently attended to, and that in order to secure a suffi-
cient interval between trains lines are practically worked
to a very great extent by signals.
It will, however, be found that in nearly one-half of the
cases of collisions between trains following each other on
the same line of rails, the lines do not appear to have been
worked under a proper system for ensuring a sufficient in-
terval between trains ; and an examination of the cases of
this class of accidents will show that the method which
has been adopted on almost all lines of exhibiting at sta-
tions a signal for a specified time after the passage of a
train has been in some cases insufficient for the purposes
of safety. This subject is a most important one as re-
gards the traffic upon lines of railway where the trains are
numerous and travel at different rates of speed.
On some lines of railway immunity from this class of
accident has been secured by the use of the electric tele-
graph. According to this system the line is divided into
portions, the length being determined according to the
amount of traffic and the frequency of trains ; a signalman
is placed at the extremity of each portion, with a simple de-
scription of telegraphic instrument, and no train is allowed
to enter any one of these portions until the preceding train
haspassed off that portion. A special telegraphic wire must
be appointed to this service. This system is in use on
almost all railways for working the traffic through tunnels.
Accidents from collision between trains following each
other on the same line of rails have been attended in some
cases with very serious results in consequence of the com-
panies not having enforced the plan of placing a break-van
in the rear of the train.
The accidents on single lines appear to have been nu-
merous during the past year, and to have been due to in-
sufficient regulations. A single line to be worked safely
requires to be worked under very special regulations, and
those regulations are such as to be incompatible with run-
ning a large number of trains.
As a general conclusion the writer reports his opi-
nion that

a careful consideration of the several accidents will show
that many have arisen from the want of individual respon-
sibility. In many cases the responsibility has not been
clearly defined in the rules, and in other cases it has not
been practically enforced, and hence, in many accidents,
evidently due to positive errors, the blame cannot be fixed
upon individuals.
In the case of two accidents which occurred last year,
attended with fatal results, the coroners' juries returned
verdicts of " Manslaughter " against the superior officers
of the companies ; but in neither of the cases were these
verdicts sustained in the courts of law.