The midland journal., 1906-04-13
ACCIDENTS INEVITABLE.
THERE is NO DEVICE WHICH
MAKES COLLISIONS IMPoS-
SlBLE.

the Expense Would Fdghten the
Boards of Directors-Value of the
Book of Rules.
ITO eliminate absolutely the dan
ger of loss of life on passenger
trains is one of the great problems
of the age" said John Aller, who has
been Superintendent of Equipment
on several big Western railroads, to
a representative of The New York
World.
"To eliminate to mechanical GER
tainty the danger of collisions of pas
Senger trains such as occurred on the
Harlem viaduct of the New York Cen
trail Railroad, when several lives
were lost, arouses the deepest con-
Germ of practical railroad men, but
as rule not that of the stockholders.
New devices and equipment cost
money, and stockholders don't like
to see their money spent.
Just how any apparatus could be
devised to make all collisions ina
possible is more than 1 can say, but
at comparatively small expenses all
cross tracks could be equipped with
a style of automatic arrangement
such as is used on the express tracks
in the Subway; much danger could
be eliminated, but an inventor would
have hard time getting board OF
directors to vote to spend the money
necessary to equip the cross tracks
of even the smallest of roads, and
II a board of directors were asked
to equip a whole line with block
system such as the Subway uses to
avoid rear-end collisions and the
vagrant accidents of obscure switches
they would probably ask for an ex-
animation as to the sanity of the man
who made it.
Some day, after enough people
have been killed, we shall have Con-
gress with nerve enough to pass a
national law making railroads equip
as nearly as possible every danger
point with the devices that are al
ready in existence, cost or no cost.
As to whether there is any practi-
cal method now in existence of
equipping engines in such way as
to make collisions impossible many
practical railroad men were asked for
their opinion and experience.
H. 8. Hayward, superintendent OF
motive power of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, said:
IF there was practical mechan-
ical system of avoiding collisions the
Pennsylvania would have it. An in
telligent board of directors will con-
slider the expense entailed by loss OF
life every time an invention or new
plan is suggested, and when it can
be shown that, even at great cost,
new plan will save life they are
likely to be in favor of 1t as an
economy against the large aggregate
expense of one big accident.
$50 far, however, have not heard
of anything that would make such
accidents as we speak of mechani-
cal impossibility. It is fair to state
that you can't make inanimate things
think, and an automatic track-stop
acting on air-brakes would cost more
than a new railroad. II, as seems
probable, when all the transportation
systems OF the country are Nelectri-
fed and the work of re-equipping
roads goes on in way satisfactory
to the financial heads, it may be that
automatic systems will follow at the
same time, and danger of collisions
will be reduced to minimum; but"
and here the gray veteran OF loco
motives sighed, and looked at pho
tograph of freight wreck on an OBJ
scure part of the system-"Tm afraid
that's long way off.
Speaking from my experience, l
would say that the book of rules
beats any device that could ever be
constructed. A man who has just
intelligence enough to follow the book
OF rules will never play part in
an accident except the kinds that
are called unforeseen.
"The book of rules is the outcome
of the life work of many great rail-
road men, and no engineer who FOL
lows his book of rules ever has an
accident made by himself.
"The fallibility of man can never
be overcome by mechanical device,
no matter how ingenious 1t may be.
"a conductor l knew was a sober
and straight-living man; he had been
running a local freight for several
years. For year he had had stand
ing order to go in upon a certain
side track when he was on time, and
wait for passenger train to go past
them in the same direction. One
night he got his order from the last
station to go on, and when he got
to the side track the f1agman ahead
opened the switch and the freight
moved in. When his caboose passed
over he got out and threw the
switch and slipped the hook Of the
lock through the eyes of the switch
handle, but did not snap the lock,
because the freight had to back out
upon the main track when the pas
senger train had gone by. He got
honly IN tho cahOOSn and SAT down