The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-05-01
QUEEN & CRESCENT
 VERY SAFE ROUTE Railway Age Thinks it is Un- equaIed in United States
BLOCK SYSTEM THE CAUSE
Road from Birmingham to Chatta- nooga is as Perfect Piece of Riding Track as
 Can be Found.

The Current Railway Age pays the as follows:
 Tt Is not an eXaggeration to say that for safety of method, combined with simplicity of operation, the S36 miles from Cincinnati to Chattanooga, is not equalled or even approached on any other railway in the United States, and probably in the world
 The article refers to the block and signal system of the Queen and Crescent and is accompanied by several large illus trations.
 "rhe composition of this line is peeu- liar" says the Railway Age, "since 1t involves three distinct railway compa- nies namely, the Cincinnati Southern, the Alabama Great Southern and the New Orleans and North Western. or these the last is owhed and operated entirely independently from Meridian to New Or leans, while the two former are operated by the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Tex as Pacific railway whi' l is merely an or ganization and leases the Cincinnati Southern, built and owned by the city of Cincinnati, while the Alabama Great Southern is operated under a contract with the owners.
 "The Cincinnati Southern Is the busiest portion of the line and extends from the city of that name to Chattanooga, Tenn, a distance of 336 miles. With so little double track as to be a negligible quantity in the scheme of operation; with frequent curves of six degrees; with grad i. n ta the mile, nevertheless, this line earned at the rate of more than $2O,000 per mile in the year ending on June 30, 1904 When it is stated that the speed of the trains Is very high; that owing to the lightness of the bridges the important passenger trains are double-headers, and that, nev- ertheless, the operating expenses average but about 73 per cent of the gross earn ings. d question is aroused as to how this is possible. The answer is simple, and should be known by every railway operat- ing officer in the United States Signals Up to the year 1889 there were long periods when collisions occurred eVcry day and in one month of thirty days the-o is a record of thirty-one collisions Yet today they are almost unheard of, although the traffic amounts to thirty trains each way every twenty-four hours (and in actual operation this amount Is often exceeded; ; although trains run with remarkable reg ularity, wrecks are scarcely known and collisions have practically disappeared as a class of accidents. The reason for this still is--slgnals.
 Physical Characteristics.
 "The most difficult part of the line is the Chattanooga division, from Somerset southward to Chattanooga, distance of TIT miles, which embraces nearly 40 per cent of curvature and 4R per cent of bridges and tunnels On this 1U miles nearly miles of passing track exist, and by this means only is 1t possible to han dle the traffic. From an engineering standpoint the line is magnificent, and except in very few cases the invesuga- tions which have been made to improve it-lessen the grades or reduce the curV- ature-have shown that few alterations, even at very great cost would ameliorate the conditions. As one officer expressed it. we always ran out, either against q mountain with a two-mie tunnel, or 5O0-foot precpice and million-dollar bridge"
 "To make such speed as is the rule on messenger trains, the attention devoted to maintenance of way must be very great, and the manner in which train moving at the rate of sixty miles an hour enters and leaves a 6-degree curve is sufficient demonstration of the effective ness of the methods Two of lnese are sufficient All curves are spiraled ac- cording to the Searles formula, and the track is laid with Weber joints Stone ballast prevails on the Cincinnati dvi-