Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1905-11-24

road club at Buffalo, N. v, last week,
a paper on the cause and, cure OF
railroad accidents was presented by
=, q Morford. assistant to the general
manager OF the Michigan Central rain
road. Its subject Is OF such serious
Importance and Is from the pen of a
railway officer OF such long expert
ence that 1t inspires a close analysis
OF the facts and the authors inter.
pgetation OF them.
by way OF suggesting means for the
prevention OF accidents, Mr., Morford
sub'diyides his paper under several
heads, The more important OF which
are as follows.
First-use the middle order, (the
telegraph sisnal,) Connect II with a
repeater, Sc that when the telegraph
signal Is turned in II will write over
the wire to the dispatcher the word
blocked and sign the operators
call Then the dispatcher positively
KNOWS the signal Is out for holding
trains, and can give his order to the
operator, conductor and engineer.
This rule Is given To prevent head-on
collisions.
The author gives also a summary Of
the rules which have prevailed on the
Michigan Central's Canada division
Tor twenty-three years, and In sup
port OF their efficiency, offers a rec
ord OF but two butting collisions and
no passengers killed during that
period. These rules are:
"All orders for the movement of
trains should be addressed TO the
conductor and engineer and written
by the receiving operator on yellow
manifold paper, so arranged that three
impre ssions can be taken.
"The conductor addressed must
read the order aloud to the operator
and II understood. sign it,; 1t will then
be repeated back over the conductors
signature to the person giving It. who
Will, II the order Is correctly under
stood, reply (correct), which must be
Endorsed over the proper signature
upon the order countersigned by the
receiving operator, and the exact
time OF receiving the word complete
Two impressions of the order, when
properly Endorsed, will be given to the
conductor, who will retain one, and
give the other to the engineer, per.
sonally. and the engineer must read
1t aloud to him, (the conductor) be-
fore proceeding. The other impress.
ion will be kept by the operator in
the manifold book In case there is
more than one engine on a train each
engineer must have a copy Of such or
der.
Engineers must not receive train
orders from any person excepting the
conductor of their train.
In asking for train orders, conduc-
tors will give their name and initials
to operators. Operators, when send
ing back train orders to dispatchers,
will repeat the address in addition to
the body Of the order.
Freight conductors will, in all
cases, hand train orders they receive
to rear brakemen and passenger en-
gineers to their firemen. to be read.
Engineers of freight trains will hand
their orders to the firemen and head
brakeman for reading.
.Second-Adopt the automatic block
signal. Whenever a collision has oc-
cured under automatic block sig
nails, it has been shown to have re-
suited from disobedience Of the sim
plest rule.
"Third-Do away with every facing
point switch possible. At all facing
point switches, adopt a mechanical or
electric %semaphore interlocked with
the switch