New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-09-05

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS A
THEIR GAUSES.

The discussion which Is now carried on IN
reference to the railroads and their mountebank
management must certainly produce good.
The time has come for the American press to
take hold of this subject, and so centralze and
intensity public opinion that reform viii be
compelled We have contributed our share OF
facts toward a proper understanding OF the
question and propose to continue the inyeStiga-
ton. We have heretofore confined ourselves
to general criticisms on railway management;
to-day we shall speak of those accidents result
ing directly from the recklessnesS or careless
ness of employees, such as collisions from trains
out of time, or ears running off entertainments
into rivers or stone walls, and endeavoring, as
we'll as may be, to point out some OF those
caused by improper construction of tracks and
lrolling-st0ck, and by neglect to keep the same
in good working order. We often record rail-
road casualties, the cause of which Is unmls-
takably apparent; but every now and then We
see the announcement of one resulting from
some unaccountable cause correspond
ent who is practically familiar with the
whole subject, enables Us to give a special
illustration of our meaning. " Recently,
(he says) while waiting at tho depot OF
one of our important railroads, / happened
to look at the wheels under some Of the
cars. In three trains which were then wait
ing to start, saw four wheels unfit TO be run,
being very much broken on the outside of the
bearing surface, or tread. so much as to be liable
to drop into the openings at the angles OF the
frog-crossings, whenever the broken section OF
the wheel happened to reyolye so as TO come
upon them; or to drop in between the rails at
any place where the track was too wide, espe-
cally if the wheels were put on their axles to a
narrow guage, in regard to which there is not
enough care taken. 1t is no uncommon thing
TO find wheels, which should be four feet eight
inches apart, to be really only four feet seven
inches apart. Not week had elapsed when
I saw a notice in one of our newspapers
that one car passing over that very road had,
| from some unaccountable cause been thrown
from the track at point where the rails were
perfectly clear and in apparently good order.
There can be little doubt that the one car
thrown of had a broken wheel which dropped
in between the rails, while the rest Of the cars,
having good wheels, kept on, the track probably
being also spread apart at that place"
A fact like this needs no comment. There is
another matter, very trivial apparently, which
should never be neglected by railroad men,
although it is rarely considered by the mounte-
banks who now control this science. We all
know the influence Of heat on iron. A 2i-ioot
rail. for instance is about one-fourth OF an inch
longer in the hottest days of Summer than in
the coolest DAYS OF Winter, and, Of course,
when the track is laid in cold weather without
leaving room enough between the joints of the
rails to allow them to expand lengthwSe in Sum-
mer, the whole track becomes too long, and will
not lie in a straight line. We can readily de-
duce the effect. The force exerted is ire
mendous, and the whole track must be displaced
sidewise. Sometimes, the whole superstructure
is in this way moved several feet laterally from
its proper position, and the rails are often spread
apart from the same cause. This may be In
creased by the crawling" as railroad men
term it, or pushing of one rail against the end
Of the next, and so on to the third, induced BY
the traction of the driving wheels of the engines.
A railway track in this condition is source OF
constant danger. In addition to this, and
eoually dangerous, is the fact that the distance
between tho two tracks OF double-track rail-
roads, and at sdings, is, almost without cxcep'
ton, entirely too little.
However nice in theory it may be to see how