Morning journal and courier., 1893-02-20
RL0CK SIGNALS.

BLOCK SIGNALS.
 0. H. pIatt, General Manager of the
 Consolidated Road, Addressed the
 Conductors Yesterday-An AbIe anu
 Instructive Discourse.
 Yesterday afternoon MT. 0. H. fiatt, l general manager of the Consolidated rsll- road, delivered an able and instructive ad- dress on "Block Signals" before the mem bers of New Haven division No. 1, I, 0. k. O., at their hall on Grown street. About 200 of the members were present, as were were also Vice President Lucius Futile, Civil Engineer F. s. Curtis, John Henney, o. M. Shepard, E. H. Trowbridge, 0. 5. Ostrander, James N. States and others.
 Mir. Platt said: Within the lifetime of some yet in active service, the first known fixed signal entered upon It's short career. It was common tallow candle and when placed in station window indicated that trains must stop. This was but one of the constantly recurring indications or illus trstions of the weakness-not to say per vereity-of human nature. The natural way was the wrong way; and thus in large measure it has always been. In the mechanical world as we'll as in the moral or spiritual, it is easy to do the wrong thing and task or study to do the right. Many an inventor and would-b million aire has entered the office of railway manager with visions of wealth before his mind and a signal model under his arm, to see how eager the company would be to secure the absolute protection his invention was sure to give against any possible accident, to honor him age,' to reward him with an amount of the, currency of the realm that would make him independent through life and to enable him to defy the "wolf" which he had & dim notion haunted the doors of lees fortunate mortals. In every case that has come to my knowledge the foundation principle of the appliance wrought out by amateur inventors was wrong. The sys- tenn or plans were 50 arranged that if everything worked as intended, if no rupture or fracture occurred, if none of the various parts failed to do their l work, and If the person in charge well, danger signal would be dis played when one was required. To dis illusionizs these inventors it has only been necessary in most cases to state the first article in the modern signal creed, namely, "that in case of failure of man or machine | the signal must assume and maintain the | danger position"
 The waste basket has been the reposi- ! tory of more than one of these models, asd many visions of luxury and renown have suddenly vanished.
 l If the candle referred to in the station | of the English town some sixty years age
 had been borrowed by traveller 10 enable
 him to read his evening paper, or had been
 who infest country stations, this primitive
 signal system would have disastrously
 failed. How much better it would have
 been if the first signal rule had provided
 thst the presence of the candle meant
 safety" or "proceed," and it's absence
 "dsnger" or ''stop." Whether anything
 occurred during the life of this eigna
 system to point out the error and cause
 the reversing of the original rule, we art
 not informed; but the men employed b,
 the signal companies ct home and abroad
 roads, have learned much by experienc
 since, and much of the experience ha
 been of the most expensive kind.
 We cannot follow-as it would be of in terest to do-the development or evolutio
 of this primitive signal to the systems nov
 employed.
 Here MT. Platt explained at length tn different systems of block signals and tn
 manner in which they are operated. , conclusion he said: "The block signs
 system now under construction on tn
 New London division is as complete as an
 to be operated under similar conditions i l this or any other country.
 The improved anti-gravity, or gravit ! lifting bl0cka ara tO ha nae6 and th same provisions are to be made as in tn Fourth avenue tunnel for cutting out tn 2 lock wire, except when in actual use, so g to avoid interference by lightning or othe
 accidental currents. The only other lin
 so equipped is the New York Central an Hudson River, between Spuyten Duyv and Albany, the signalling of which ? now about completed.
 On the New London division a switches, either at or between station
 are interIocked with ths block signals f 2 l that when signal Is clear all switches co1 ? l meeting with the main line are closed an '. derailing switches opened to prevent cal or trains standing on sidings from reacl ] | ing the main track. The arrangement
 control outlying switches is entirely nev B | and decided improvement on any pla
 elsewhere in use. The conductor Of 8 trai
 which Is to take siding between station q will have to enter a cabin near the switc 3 and ask the operator in the rear tower, b
 bell signals, to release the switch loci
 This cannot be done unless the block sign
 l is in danger position, and after the switc , lock is released, the block signal controlliD 3 | that section canRot be cleared until th , l train has taken the siding passe Z beyond the clearing point, the d. railing switch opened to prote'
 the main line, and the main line switc l closed and locked. When all this iH dor the regular block signal can be cleared an other trains admitted to the section IT
 same safeguards are provided for when l. train on 8 siding is to again take the mai 8 l track. After the tower operator has p,
 his signal to danger, he can unlock th
 main line switch, allow the dersiling switc to be closed and the train to take the mai 9 track. After the switch is unlocked, u e block signal at the entrance of the sectio cannot be cleared until the train comin
 from the siding hss passed the next towel What the next improvement will b. ] I time alone can tell, but it is not probab b
 that any other single generation will see great an advance in the development of tt . art, but no doubt greater progress will | t made in the near future in the adoptio l l of signal systems now in successful oper, l tion on few of our most important line
 and the next generation see an almost un : verssl application of the principles aud a] pliances already developed.
 Whiting May Recover.