Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1864-12-02
VOL. XXI.



ascertain the causes, and 10 suggest means of
preventing the frequently recurring accidents
on our railroads.
| read ettentively your remarks on the recent
accident to the New Haven train, and also the
testimony of witnesses before Coroner Ranney
25th of October, from all which it appears that
there are two parties to the case, each interest
ed to find a different cause of the accident-one
party alleging defective rail- and the other par
ty assigning too great speed Of a heavy train
with two engines, as the cause of the accident
This is the latest reported accident, and per-
haps the real causes were those indcated-a
rail too weak from defect to sustain the weight
of the train at so high rate Of speed but this
is only one instance of many, the fruits being
as reported, one person killed and many more
injured, and the forward cars smashed A sim
liar casualty occurred last spring to Harlem
train, by which several persons were injured Tor
| life, and three cars smashed another on the
10Th instant on the Shore Line railroad, Con-
nccticut, causing the death of nine soldiers, the
serious injury of fourteen more, and slighter
| injury OF twenty others.
In all these instances, detection or broken
rails is the cause assigned.
1t is quite natural TO attribute such accidents
to broken rails or ilanges, because such eviden-
ces of cause can usually be found among the
debris after a smashup of the kind but my OBJ
ect in writing this communication is TO call at
tention specially TO radical defect in the struc-
ture of railroads generally.
| The alleged causes are rather results than
causes or, more strictly they are secondary
causes, and the real or primary causes must be
sought further back.
True, broken rail or defective sleeper is
sufficient cause of accident; but because of the
usually careful inspection of rails, machinery
and track, accidents from these causes alone
must be comparatively rare. The condition of
the track itself, when completed for use, is such
as will in a short time, cause displacement of
sleepers, and fractures of rail and axle
As our roads are now built the seepers or
cross-ties are placed in position, and the bars
laid upon them end to end, the ends usually
resting upon iron chairs.
In laying the rails allowance is necessarily
made for the expansion and contraction OF the
bars, caused by varying temperatures, and the
difference in the length of an average rail bar
from its full expansion under the heat of mid
summer sun, and its greatest contraction at
night or i'll the winter, is about n quarter of an
| inch hence so much allowance must be made
as will only bring the ends of the bars fairly
into contact when most expanded. If the al
lowance be less than this, the rails when ex-
panied will be curved out OF line. So that if
sufficient pains be taken to lay the end of one
bar only so near to that of the next that they
shall just meet at midday in summer, we shall
have space between them of quarter of an
inch at each joint when they are contracted by
lower temperature.
In observing the condition OF rails in this re-
spect, have found the ends in actual contact,
and also separated by all spaces up to an inch
and half and am Informed by a gentleman
who has also taken pains to observe, that he
| has found the bars separated from each other
| by the space of two inches, actual measure
ment; and also found bars moved out of posi-
tion longitudinally so far that the end of the
bar was but half an inch from the edge of the
supporting chair.
The train, in passing over the track, depres-
| ses the sleepers, forcing out dust when the
ground is dry, and mud when wet. This con-
stant vibration OF the track loosens the spikes,
breaks the lower edge of the bars and also the
| clamp of the chair, when the latter is made of
cast iron, as may be seen by inspecting our
roads in daily use.
The seepers upon which the ends of the bars
rest having the support only of that part of the
| bar which projects beyond the adjacent sleeper,
are, by the weight of the passing train, de-
pressed below the average level of the other
sleepers, so that the train descends at each Joint
and rises again as it leaves it, producing bill
low like movement of the train.
This depression also increases the space be-
tween the bars, and the wheels strike success
lively the ends of the bars, forcing them apart
to the extreme limit of their separation; and if
from any cause, such as the concentration into
one space of q considerable number of the spa
ces allowed for expansion, and if in addition to
this there has been want of attention to the
temperature at the time the bars were laid, and
which requires accurate Judgment the space be-
becomes increased until it is too great at some
point; the end of the bar is struck the needful
blow by the wheel of the advancing train, forced
off its chair and bent or broken and the sleeper
knocked out of its place. And these results
follow with more certainty il the train have a
side urch at one of these loose Joints.
These are not all the evils resulting directly
from defective structure. There are some who
maintain that the texture of iron is changed by
constant concussion, so that rolled bar which
when new is fhrous will, after period of use,
become crystalline, and hence brittle.
The following extract from newspaper arti-
Gle is to the point:
"Perhaps it may throw some light upon the
matter TO repeat here what veteran railway
engineer of acknowledged skill, said, some siS
years ago, to younger brother of the profes.
sion. Within ten years. said the engineer, you
will hear of frequent and fatal accidents on oul
American railways
They will increase to an extent which will bt
: absolutely appalling. The wood and iron OF
which the wheels of the trains run, can last bu
.. a certain time. At present they are mostly new
and the danger of which speak does not nov
exist; but they will continue to look sound t
tie eye until their texture has been changed b,
the constant hammering of the heavily loaded
- wheels, and then they will suddenly give way
The passage of the wheels owe
the iron rails, is constant succession of heav,
blows. The wheels do not glide smoothly owe
the track If they did, they would run withou
noise; on the contrary they beat the rail witt
IS violence that keeps the train in a constan
jar. The wheel soon loses its perfect circula
! form, combined with rapidity of movemen,
!. converts it into a hammer"
Now this battering of the wheel surfaces
effected much more rapidly it, instead of
smooth continuous rail surface to roll upon, q
- the wheels should have, they. on the contrary
A at every third revolution, strike the end of
/ bar, with the full cross section of the bar ex
posed TO the shock. A space of two inches be
tween the bars will allow car.wheel of ord
nary size to descend into the gap about one
tenth of an inch so that we have in the trai
batterng-ram of immense power, of whic