New-York tribune., 1871-09-22
RAILROAD KISHANAGEMENT

As tho Convention of Railroad Manage
called by tho Massachusetts, Railroad Com
missioners to consider the means for pre-
venting such slaughter as that at the Revere
catastrophe has begun its session, tho public
mind may proftably DO directed to some
points which the late examinations have made
prominent. Much was expected OF the Coro-
ner's jury in the Revere case; but their YER
dict can hardly be called satisfactory. 1t
wholly failed to place the respons-
bility anywhere. The different MEM
bers of the Jury seem each of them to have
had somo especial theory as to the particular
official Of tho road whose negligence occa-
stoned tho disaster; and, being unable to
agree upon any one person, they compromised
the matter by impartially blaming cvcly one.
From tho President and Board of Directors as
a whole, who had failed to supply the road
with adequate rolling stock, down to the
| depOt-master, who was suspected of having
| repeated O verbal message not in tho precise
| words in which it was given to him, all are
ccnsured AS q consequence of this infinite
subdivision, the force of the censure is largely
divided away, and thus great opportunity OF
establishing a principle of corporate response
blity has apparently been lost. The members
of the jury were. doubtless, fnirly intelligent
and right-minded men judging by their ver-
dict, however, they seem to have been un-
equal to the occasion.
Tho very thorough investigation which has
been had of this catastrophe has revealed
singular condition of affairs existing in New
England railroad management. 1t may unre-
sorvedly be said that in everything, except de-
tails, the roads of Massachusetts are now
equipped and operated exactly as they were
twenty years ago. Here was first-class New
England road, transporting five millions OF
passengers q year, operating 1G5 miles OF
track, making handsome dividends, and run
ming on it's main track and branches az
many as 100 trains in single day; and
yet this road had but % miles of double
track, and all tho remainder of its line
143 miles of single track, crowded with
passenger trains. freight trains, and excursion
trains-was operated solely on the time
without tho assistance of the telegraph, and
relying wholly upon the caution, intelligence,
and discipline of subordinate employees to
avoid disaster. The answers of the Prcsl-
dent and higher officials of the road to some
of the questions put to them in the course
of tho examination had Rip Van Winkle
flavor truly astonishing. They said they had
| heard of the telegraph as a useful auxiliary
in safely operating a sngle-track road, but it
had not occurred to them to use it in con-
nection with their own road; they could not
say why, but no roads in New-Engand had
ever mado much uso of the telegraph. AS to
signals in common use elsewhere, regulating
| the distance from each other of trains upon the
| same track, that iscems to have been wholly
| new idea to them, no less novel than it was
| gratifying. So also of the improved brakes
which are operated from the locomotives; they
| had heard of them, and felt no doubt that If
their express tram had been equipped with
| them tho collision could have been prevented; |;
/ they had, however, never considered the ques-
ton of adopting them.
| Indeed, the simple truth seems to have been
that the Company have been so very fortu-
nate, it's employees seem to have been 80 careful
| and so intelligent, and disaster had so long
been avoided, that the necessity of any ad-
ditional precautions to secure the safety of
their passengers had been wholly lost sight of.
Such condition of affairs, as natural con-
sequence, made disaster inevitable. 1t was
only question of time. 1t 30 happened that
the road was peculiarly crowded with business
during the week which ended with the 26th of
August-the day of tho collision at Revere.
The whole timetable was ont of gear. Spe-
cial trains were running TO and fro to camp
meetings and musters; the Summer pleasure
travel was in full tide; the regular trains were
delayed and ovcr-crowded; there was no order,
no system, and no telegraph to produce them.
Just outside Of BostOn-Only two miles from
| the terminus of the road-a cross-road,
known as the Saugus Branch, some
ten miles long, leaves the main track.
and returns into it again near Lynn.
1t is a single-track branch, without q
telegraph, and the rule of the Company was
that no train could enter upon it from one
end till the train from the other end had
come in. The confusion and delay Of Aug. %
caused train from Lynn to Boston over this
branch to be one hour and forty minutes late
| train from Boston had gone out at the
usual hour, and was unable to enter upon tho
branch until the train from Lynn had arrived.
No siding had been provided by the Company
and the main track was accordingly blocked
up by the waiting train. The block was
wholly unnecessary, for had the Company
been in telegraphic communication with Lynn
it would have known that the whole branch
was clear, and that for an hour and forty
minutes trains could pass over it in perfect
safety. This, however, was not known, and
80 the branch train stood on the main track
and more trains followed it out, until at last
no less than four trains and locomotive were
crowded together.
| Presently, just before the express train came
in sight, the Lynn train arrived, and as the
engineer of the express train passed the juno
ton he saw the light of the train for which