Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-07-26
ASKS BLOCK SYSTEM
INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMITS.
SION BELIEVES ALL ROADS
SHOULD USE CAUTION
The Burlington Is Making Experiments
With the Oil Burning Engines-May
Take Place of the Gasoline Motor
Car Proposed for Fl. Madison Line.

In the accident bulletin which has
just been issued by the interstate com
MERGE commission for the three
months ending March 81, 1906, a
strong plea for the general adoption of
the block system is made. The bulletin
shows the total number Of casualties
to passengers and employees to be
LIPS killed, and 1910 injured. This
is an Increase of seventeen in killed
and fifty-two in injured over those re-
ported in the preceding three months
The number of passengers and en-
ployes killed in train accidents was
274, against $40 in the preceding three
months.
The total number of collisions and
derailments was 1921 collisions and L.
500 derailments of which 2S9 coils
ions and 1877 derailments affected pas
senger trains. The damage to cars, en-
gines and roadway by these accidents
amounts to $2,929,785. There was a
decrease of 232 in the number of col
lisions and derailments over those re.
ported in the preceding three months
The numebr of employees killed in
coupling and uncoupling cars and en-
gines was eighty-four, one less than
the number killed in the last quarter.
In closing, the bulletin says: "The
most disastrous accident reported in
the present bulletin was a collision
causing thirty-four deaths and injuring
twenty-four, and was due to a striking
failure of the train dispatching system.
The telegraph operator at a small
lonely station, who had been on duty
all day and more than half the night,
fell asleep and on awakening misin-
formed the train dispatcher as to what
had occurred while he was asleep. 1t
is pertinent to observe that the block
system has been repeatedly advocated
by the commission and that it ought
to be adopted for the prevention of
such distressing disasters"
Burlington on New Tack.
There is nothing new about the oil
burning locomotive. 1t has been in
use for some years by roads in south
eastern Europe and in the oil dis
tricts Of Texas. Now, however, the
Burlington is making experiments with
this form of locomotive. 1t is thought
that perhaps In the oil burning engine
a practical substitute for the gasoline
motor car suggested for the FIT. Madi
son branch, proved impracticable, has
been found. Concerning this the
Galesburg Republican-Register has the
following:
A steam locomotive with oil as the
fuel, in place of coal, is being tested
In the c., B. & @. yards by M. A. Toltz
OF st. Paul, an expert engineer sem
to this city by James j. Hill, president
of the Great Northern, to experiment
with the engine.
THE locomotive was built in the c
i B. & @. shops under the supervision
of General Foreman Stoll and is prac
tically the same as the engines now ii
use on the road with the exception O
: the fuel for heating the water oil be
ing used instead Of coal.
Passenger Car Combined.
"The boiler of the engine has a ca
pacity Of 10 pounds of steam and i:
100 pounds horse power. The boiler /.
fed from a large water tank under the
combination passenger and baggage
car, which is built on the engine, hav
ing a capacity Of $50 gallons of water
Next TO the water tank is large
oil tank with the capacity Of 10 gal
Ions. Leading from the tank are pipe
which carry the oil to the fire, hun
dreds of small burners having bee,
placed in the interior Of the fire box.
THAT the burning of oil is mucl
cheaper than coal Is shown by the fac
that but two gallons of the fluid Il
used to every mile it being necessar,
to fill the tank at the end Of every fit,
: miles.
mo fireman will be needed on thu
new engines and there is no smoke
!; nothing but the exhaust coming from
the stack of the engine. The cars ar,
now used successfully on the Northern
Pacific railroad and it will be shut
few months before the engines will b