New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-10-11
next day as before. There may be month yet
before another grand smash-who knows
Wa no n 70 making nreaf nrnCrasa in Railroads

that lie, In multiplying and extending them 1--we
have pushed The speed Of our Express Trains to
tie very verge OF safety and little beyond that OF
economy; we talk (ratber h'perbocally) Of do
ipe the distance from New York to Chicago in forty
hours and to ST. Louis in fifty; we shall soon have an
unbrok,n line of rail from Bangor and Quebec to
Lake Superior and the Nebraska border but the Sc
cuTity the comfort, the ease of Railway travelling
do not improve 30 fast az they ought. And thus we
see our Hudson River ROai-One of the best ap-
pointed and best run in America-drooping and
rather falling of in business because the steamboat
though a slower mode of conveyance, is at the same
time both cheaper than railroads can be made and
more comfortable thsn they have yet become. Or
to state the more plainly while the firstclass
steam boat Of each season is more commodious more
agree able more elegant, than it's predecessor, our
Railroad men generally consider the stocking of
road its fnaity, and are content thereafter merely
to repair and replace without continued study how
to improve and perfect. Hence there are many
railrosds on which-thtir first equipsge having be-
come feeble and rickety By use-traveling is less
comfortable than it was six or eight years ago.
And whenever a smash does happen among lot of
DID, decay Ing powdeI.posted cars, the slaughter is
like that of tie storming Of the Malakof
We have a newly created Board of Railroad
Commissioners in our State who are to cost some
$4,000 year, and ought to be worth to the
public many times that sum. How much they
really are worth, we shall have some means Of
Judging when we read their first Annual Report
If they fancy their duty is confined to looking on
L.. tbn Da;f IA
public will receive from them good deal less than
its moneys worth. If they understand that they
are chosen to devise, suggest aud secure radical
improvement 10 railway man agement the creation
of such Board will be fully justified and its con-
tinuapce demanded. Meantime, let us proffer
few suggestions
!. Carwheels and axles are liable to break while
a train is running; nothing can absolutely and ut
terly prevent accidents of this kind. We have,
however, learned how to lose wheel BY fracture
while in rapid motion without throwing of train
or letting down a car to tear up the track and
mangle the passengers. Why not provide in like
manner against the breaking of an axle We will
not attempt to show precisely how this may be eff
fected; but we arc very sure it can and should be.
single undetected Jaw in an axle ought not to put
in serious jeopardy the lives Of hundreds. Will in
ventors and engineers look to this We do not
assume that the means of advertng this peril have
not been already devised, but we are quite sure
they have not been generally adopted.
IL Perfect control of running train, so as to
stop it suddenly in the presence Of unexpected
danger, is of the grayest Importance. The great
Norwalk disaster. with ever 80 many others,
might have been prevented or at least greatly
mitieated, had the engineer been able to stop the
train in the course of half minute. Now in
ventors claim to have disco vered and perfected the
means of stopping an Express Train at full speed
in the course of twenty seconds from the instant
that the conductor or engineer realizes that such
stoppage is desirable. We do not here decide that
such improvement has been made, or, fit has, by
whom but if it has, or whenever it shall be, the
Railroad Commissioners should proclaim the fact,
aid give the Railroad managers no rest until they
shall severally have adopted the most effectual
method of stopping train suddenly on the brink
Of destruction.
III. Turn-outs likewise require careful and thor
oueb consid GRAFTON. Too Otter has a train pro.
ceedpg at rapid rate in undoubting security been
piled up in Oyenwood against some rock or down
some Observation-Disclosures heads, legs arms, &c.
protrudng here and there from the wreck Now,
10 our judgment, every switch should be so con-
structed as to lead train off the main track only
so long as the s,citehenaer rih bar forebiy holds
the siderail in contact ,cith that track The moment
the lever or bar is withdrawn, the side rail or turn
oil should fly back from the main track, leaving it
in condition for the safe, unimpeded passage of
trains
". We are weary Of urging Ventilation; yet
still more averse to breathing poisonous air. Ten
years of exhortation and Of invention have yet
effected little for the comfort sanity of human
lungs confined in our ordinary passeDger-cars. No
savage, no swine Of any creditable breed could
live week in one ofthose cars, for want of decent
air. To enter one at midnight is a more perilous
feat than old Putnam's at the wolfden, and ten |
times more revolving 1t is fearful to think of the
little children daily and nightly imprisoned in these
huge collins, destroying their lungs before they
conscious of having any. 1t should be State |
Prison ofense to construct and sell passengercar
that did not provide amply and unfailingly supply
of pure air for so many passengers as it would |
hold To cay that windows may be opened, in |
view of the frequent inclemency Of the weather
and the repugnance of the stupid and ignorant is
to add insult to injury Few like to sit with hot
fire on one side and cold wind on the other and |
he who prefers even this to the horrors Of polluted