The Washington herald., 1906-12-02
HOW BLOCK SYSTEM WORKS.
Railroad officials Explain system of
safeguarding Trains.

The wreck on the Southern has led to a
number of inquiries being made about the
block system. which nearly always fig
ures in "a railway wreck. Practically all
railroads use the system, and while its
workings are familiar 20 railroad men,
the average layman knows little Of how it
is used TO safeguard trains.
There are two kinds of block systems
n use" said an official of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad yesterday, the auto
matte and the manual The latter was
tie kind i'm use on the Southern at the
place where the wreck occurred. With
either Of the systems the railroad is
divided into a certain number Of sections,
which are called blocks. With the auto
matte system the blocks vary IN length
from 800 to 100 feet, while with the manual
/ they run from One-quarter to four or five
miles. With the manual system there IS
/ ii signal tower at the beginning of every
block. In each Of these towers there is
always supposed to be telegraph opera
+ tor. who also attends 10 the operation Of
/ the signals. switches, &c.
Now. as a general thing, two trains
/ running i'm the same direction are never
/ permitted in the same block at one time.
/ OF course. where there is a double-track
/ line there may be two trains going in
/ opposite directions. but in speaking of
/ the block system now I have in mind
more particularly the single-traCk roads.
/ As soon as a train enters a block, the
I operator in the tower at the entrance to
/ il wires TO the operator ahead that train
/ No. or train No. 10 as the case may be.
/ has passed him. The danger signal is
then kept up, and the rules say that #
cannot be moved until the operator at
the other end of the block wires back
| that the train which last passed the first
| operator has gone by his station. No
matter how late trains may be the oper-
ators are supposed to observe strictly
/ the rules about not permitting another
1 train in the block until the first train has
cleared it.
This rule is very rigid as regards
passenger trains. There are. however
what are known as permissible blocks
! These are usually long ones, and some
times two freight trains going in the
same direction are allowed TO use then
at the same time, but always with tht
knowledge of the operators at either enc
and the engineers of the TWO trains
/ As soon as a train has cleared DlocI
the operator is supposed to put up The
| Albright signal. But until he gets tht
word that the train which entered tn,
block first is entirely clear of it, he is
supposed to stop all trains, no matter
how important they may be. even If i
takes a week for the first train TO ge
out of the block
Now. the automatic SYSTEM is similar
., +be manual only il works autOmat
tcallv. This system is very costly l eX
meet i. costs from $1,000 to $3.50 sigma
for this system, and as they are some
times placed very close together som'
idea of what it costs TO equip a diYislol
of a railroad may be obtained ms sys
tar, eon,etimes gets out OF order jIs
like any other will, but ali railroads hav'
men ont TO inspect it so as to try an'
keen every part in working order It i
.the. system. and railroads are installing
if as they are able to bear the expense