Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-06

semaphore blade stands normally at safety
and shows danger only when the train
ahead Is too near.
AN engineer running between Philadel-
phia and New York gets about 100 signals:
Under the normal danger system he would
get danger signals about every half mile.
but while running under the normal safety
he seldom gets danger signal. and his
nerves are in better condition on that &C
count. At the same time the engineer who
becomes accustomed to seeing danger sig
nails all along the line finally becomes 30
hardened that he does not get the same
shock at danger as the engineer accus-
toned to safety. The normal safety, how
ever, may have this disadvantage: Water
may freeze in the exposed apparatus or the
elements may otherwise clog the parts SO
that at some crucial moment they may re-
fuse to come to danger On the other hand,
If the elements clog the normal danger
soma phones they will simply remain as they
are and stop the train.
I'm comparing the manual and automatic
systems we will take a busy railroad with
manual signal stations five miles apart and
trains running thirty miles an hour. At
this rate you couldn't possibly get more
than six trains an hour over such a track.
Put in automatic system with your block
sections one-half mile apart and you could
have your trains mile apart and run thir-
ty instead Of six an hour on the one track.
OF course you couldn't use the manual sys-
tenn in such case because you wouldn't
have time to telegraph signals for one train
every two minutes. The above comparison
is given merely to illustrate the greater
traffic possibilities of a road operated with
automatic signals.
Many railroads employ spoilers to see
who disobeys signals, but experience has
shown that fear Of these sleuths causes
engineers to go to the other extreme Of slow
running and break up schedules very badly.
Automatically Applies the Brakes.
New York subway express tracks use
the automatic system with very short
blocks, and the trains run on two-minute
Roadway. Thus there Is very little time for
action in case of sudden danger. So to do
away with the personal equation Of the
motormen bar projecting from the track
is so arranged that 1t automatically applies
the airbrake in case the motorman dis
obeys the signal directing him to apply 1t.
It Is perfectly possible for ordinary rail-
roads to install such a device, also one on
the distant signal, so as to blow whistle
cautioning the engineer to slow down and
come to control.
THE only difficulty is that by adopting
such automatic devices you are apt to sac
rifce the human element of care. One great
railroad introduced fusible safety plugs for
the crown sheets of its locomotive fire
boxes. These plugs would melt out before
the fuse sheet could get so hot as to drop
and explode the boiler. After this road had
introduced these plugs Undiscovered that Its
engines were blowing up frequently and
that the fusible plugs were melted at the
rate of one a day. Thereupon the superin-
tendent Of motive power took out all of
these fusible plugs and reduced the number
of explosions from hot crown sheets to al
| most nothing. The plugs not being in, the
engineer knew that he would be killed In
case OF a too hot sheet and was more care
full. whereas while they were in place he
had some assurance that he was personally
| safe, although the engine might bow itself
| out and become disabled"
! JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS.