The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-18 00:00:00

RAILWAY PASSENGERS' SIGNALS.

Another attempt is being made, though on a
small scale, with some of the trains that run on the
London and North-Western, to test how far a sys-
tem of signals between passengers and guard can
be worked with certainty, and also with safety to
the rest of the train. With the alarm created by
the most exceptional crime of Muller the cry from
the public was loud and general that passengers
should have an easy and reliable means of either
stopping the train in case of accident, or of calling
the attention of the guard to a particular carriage,
and in reply to this demand all sorts of inventions
sprung into being. Upwards of 250 different plans
were put forward, out of which number some 240
were so unutterably absurd as to require only a
glance to discover their futility. All these were
referred to the Railway Clearing-house Committee,
of which Mr. Forbes, manager of the London,
Chatham, and Dover, is chairman, and it was then
conclusively shown that each passenger in each
compartment of each carriage must have the power
of stopping the train, and nothing less, as it was
impossible, from the narrow space between the
carriages and the abutments of bridges, that any
guard could be expected to risk his life by trying
Ito come along the foot-boards to any particular
carriage that might want him. In the end the
committee declined to recommend the adoption
of any plan, and mainly on the ground that to
give all passengers the power of stopping trains
would in a great measure transfer the practical
working of the line from officials, who were re-
sponsible, to passengers, who were not. An excep-
tional recommendation was, however, we believe,
given in favour of one or two plans as worthy of
being tried—among others, that of Mr. W. Preece,
which is working with thebest results on some trains
of the South-Western line, and another, which is
now being tried on the North-Western, the inven-
tion of Mr. Howell, the well-known secretary of the
Peninsular and Oriental Company. This plan is
purely a pneumatic one. Each carriage is supplied
with a length of elastic air-tight tubing, which runs
under it longitudinally, the ends of which are joined
and made secure when the carriages are coupled up
by means of a simple screw joint, which locks by
the sixth of a turn. From this main tube, thus made
to run the whole length of the train, branches are
brought through the floor into each compartment,
terminating in a small box having an air-tight lid
for the main tube, and all its branches are main-
tained in an almost perfect vacuum by being con-
nected with a steampipe of the engine itself, which
keeps the air exhausted. Thus, on the first symptom
of danger or alarm, the passenger has but to pull a
string, the air-tight lid of the box is opened, andon
the pueumatic despa principle, the ball is driven
tch
through the tubeinto a receptacle in the guard's-van
next to the engine, passing into which it liberates a
detent that fires a cap, and instantly calls the atten-
d tion of the guard to it. By a very simple contrivance
the opening of any of the lids of the air-tight boxes
opens also a small steam whistle on the engine, thus
warning the driver of the guard having received a
danger signal from a passenger, and giving him no-
tice to be ready to stand by when the guard's signal
comes, and instantly stop his engine, or reverse it.
Every ball placed in each air-tight .box of each com-
partment bears on it the number of the carriage to
which it belongs, with its class, so that the guard,
if careful about observing the make up of his train,
can give a pretty good guess as to the part it comes
from, and possibly even the nature of the danger it
intimates. The balls, it is said, may be coloured to
indicate fire, assault, &c., but this is supremely
ridiculous. The idea of any elderly gentleman or
young lady who might be assaulted coolly looking
about for the proper colour of the ball with which
to intimate the exact nature of their danger to the
guard is childish. That the intention is singularly
ingenious none can deny, though we very much
doubt, when compared with others of a similar kind,
if it can maintain the high claims it advances on
the score of simplicity and cheapness, efficiency, and
rapidity of action. On almost all of these important
points the invention of Mr. W. Preece is certainly
superior. One radical fault in Mr. Howell's plan is
that to work it at all the engine and tender must
always be followed at once by a guard's van, a rule
which as yet is so far from being invariable on rail-
ways that quite as many trains start with a guard's
van following as with the guard's van leading. Of
course, railway managers might easily endeavour to
alter this arrangement, or rather want of arrange-
ment, though the liability of its not being always
done in making up short trains at junction stations
would be very great indeed. All experienced
engine-drivers and railway-guards, as a rule, look
with disfavour on any plan intended to give passen-
gers the power of stopping trains, and there are, no
doubt, enormous practical difficulties, and even
risks, in affording such facilities. These, of course,
may be overcome in time, but they certainly have
not been as yet, and Mr. Howell's invention, inge-
nious as it is, can hardly be said to entirely supply
the great want of the age. The London and North-
Western, however, are acting with great spirit in
giving the invention a trial ; for it is only by prac-
tical every-day working that ultimate success is
likely to be arrived at.