The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-05-20
FRIDAY MORNING. MAY 20.
THE Saturday Review.l
Railway Dangers.

Kindness to danger produced by living
among it with IMMUNITY seems almost nniver-
sal. We believe that the best authorities re-
commend that night watchmen in big build
iugs should be frequently changed, because
when man has made certain round every
night for years, or even months, and has never
found a fire or a thief, he becomes quite blind
TO either OF these should he chance to meet
them later oil. See how this blindness would
tell in the case OF driver of an express train.
He has, perhaps, to make journey of 100
miles, and stop, perhaps, three times, but he
has to pass 30, 40, or more signals If the traf
nc is well regulated he may travel this road
Tor months together without ever finding one
OF these signals of danger; but were he to
get in condition of danger-blindness and not
look out for these signals the result would
probably be that there would be terrible &C
cident He must go on assuming that every
signal is at danger, though never in his expe
rience has 1t been found to be so. He must
also exercise patient and untiriug vigilance in
inspecting and testing his engine; trust no one.
eot see that all is right for himself 1t is real
ty matter for marvel that men are found to
do this work, and it becomes even more SO
when we read what Mr.. Reynolds has to tell
driver has TO go through. After an appalling
story OF hard work, irregular hours, and no
little danger, he goes on to say "If we were
10 sum up the conditions on which man can
command the regulator of an engine it would
read fhus-miles to run, 200, 600: Goals to break
up and put into the fire-box in their proper
place, 5000 tons; day work, years; night
work, years; Sunday work, 25 days per year:
snnumerable hair-breadth escapes, eyes con-
stantly on the roll, the mouth shut and the
ears Open. constitution xuh;
the lips, warm heart, and an Intelligent
head, with the motto Watt" As with the
engine-driver, so with all the rest of a railway
staH-they must always assume that things are
wrong until they are proved to be right. Not
long ago an accident happened from signal
man not having proper railway mind. A
train was in the station waiting to 90 out:
this signalman tried to lower the starting
signal, but found it locked, he looked at his
locking-frame and saw that the lever moving
the points of siding was pulled over. thus
locking the starting signal; he tried to put it
back, but could not; he now made the fatal err
TOR OF thinking for himself, instead of acting
as part oil the machinery; seeing truck on the
siding ne Jumped to the conclusion that the
wheels were foul of the points, and that that
was the reason why the point-lever would not
move, and without further verifcation signaled
the train on by hand. Now, the real reason
why tnls polnt-iever would not move was that
the signal on branch line was down, thereby
locking the lever of the siding points and that
OF the starting signal. AS soon as the mainline
train, which had been SO recklessly sent on.
got well on to the line, a train came along a
branch line. and. the signal being down, did
not stop, and ran into the other train, doing
great damage. In many instances it is possible
to test the workings of men and machinery in
unusual circumstances. At sea, fire drill and
man overheard" drill are carried out. and i'm
the military service false alarms of fire or at
tack are given to exercise the men in vigilance
and promptness of action; but OH line of rail-
way this is impossible. Punctuality in the
running OF the trains is of the first Importance
so that when something goes wrong the staff
must deal with it as it were by instinct and
how well they do it is obvious from the COM
paratively few accidents that happen. How
danger is often warded off by courage and in
telligence the general public seldom learn.