Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-04
A FEDE RAJ INQUIRY
Another Investigation of the
Terra Gotta Wreck.
TWO WITNESSES HEARD
Examination Begun by Interstate
Commerce Commission.
THE BLOCK SYSTEM OPERATIONS
Train Dispatcher Dent Declares That
Disasters Occur Only Through Dis
regard of Railway Rules.
HE BLOCK SYSTEM OPERATIONS

The interstate commerce commission to-
| day took up the inquiry ordered by Con-
| gress into the block signal system and be-
gan the Washington end of the investfga-
| ton by a specific inquiry into the circum-
| stances of the recent Terra Gotta wreck.
| There was a cloud of witnesses at the hear
| ing and two were finished with at the
| morning session. T F. Dent. the train dis
patcher of the B. & o.. in whose division
| the wreck occurred. and L. Vermillion the
engineer of the wrecked local. No. 66.
| The inquiry went into much the same
| detail as the evidence given before the Dis
| trict coroner's jury, but had more to do
| with the working of the block signal sys-
| TEN, and will form part of the basis for
| the commissions report on the general SUBJ
| ject of block signals.
| Judge Clements was the only one of the
commissioners on the bench. L. M. Walters
| one of the special attorneys for the COM
| mission questioned the witnesses and the
| interests of the Baltimore and Ohio were
| represented by J. G. Wilson, assistant gen.
| eral attorney for the road. The other wit
| nesses and officials present were Charles
J Selden. superintendent of telegraph John
| G. Wilson, assistant general attorney; u
| S. Potter, third vice president; j. w. Kelly
| IT,, tranmaster; H. s. Peddicord road fore
man; F. P. Patenall, signal engineer, and
| Thomas Fitzgerald, general manager, all
| of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad j. s.
Hitchcock. a locomotive engineer of this
| city, and Eli c. Forester of Denver, Col
| John P. Broderick. secretary to the third
vice president; r. R. Enman, secretary to
| the general manager of the Baltimore and
| Ohio and w. ]. Berland also were present
| C.. H. Wilkins. special agent, commission;
| Luther NJ. Walton. attorney, and j. j.
| Doubts, inspector of safety appliances were
| present on behalf of the interstate COM
| merce commission.
| Deliberate in His Responses.
| Attorney Walters had a hard time with
| Dent as a witness. He was sometimes al
| most a minute before he could make up
| his mind what answer to give to ques-
| ton, and then frequently it had to be
| repeated in order to make the question and
! answer fit. 1t was not till after the direct
examination by Mr.. Walters was over and
| Mr. Wilson took the witness in hand and
| asked him questions that could be an
! swered yes and mo" that much INTEL
| lgible information could be got out Oh
| Dent said that he had been dispatcher
| about five years. having come up from a
| block signal operator. He had chief DIS
| patcher over him and copy operator under
| him, and his tour of duty was eight hours.
| His description of the block signal system,
| after considerable questioning, amounted 10
| this:
| There were two telegraph lines through
| each block station. One of them was the
! line that simply connected the block OPP
! orator with the station on each sioe OF MIN
| and the other was the railroad wire into
| the dispatcher's office. If the dispatcher
| wanted to get any one of the block stations
| he had to call them on this single line OF
| wire and he got them If the line was not
busy with other matters or the operator
| was not doing something else
Communication With Operators.
| ho 1tnr
answered promptly when the dispatcher
called them, and Dent said they usually
did Pressed for an explanation of what
| he considered a prompt answer, he finally
said that he would consider that half an
hour was not prompt answer
| He was asked whether he had ever re-
| ported a man for not answering his cal
| promptly. and said that SO far as he recoi-
| Iected he had done once. He did NOT
| recollect just how long the operator had de-
! layed answering him, but thought 1t was
| about ten minutes. There was something
in the way of discipline done to the man
| Dent did not know what it was, but thought
| he was reprimanded.
| There were certain offices in the division
| that were not night offices and where the
| operator was at liberty to close at half
| past six or seven and go for the night
| This, of course. left the offices on each side
| as the respective ends of the block. The
| operator supposed to report to the
|
the dispatcher when he closed his office and
| left for the night. Sometimes he reported
| to the dispatcher and sometimes he did
not Dent could not tell how many times
| his men had failed to report to him, but
| had never reported any Of them for it.
| He said there were some woman operat-
ors In the service, but did not know how
many He was only sure of one at Silver
| Spring.
The Terra Gotta Wreck.
| Getting down to the actual incidents OF
| the wreck at Terra Gotta, Dent said that
| he was notified at $40 by the operator al
| Takoma that the empty 2120 had run by
| his red signal at $3.50. This was actually
after the accident had happened but Dent
| did not know of the disaster until between
6:45 and $50.
| Asked how 1T that the operator al
| Takoma had any signal out against 212C
| after $50, when his office supposed to
| close. Dent said that so long there was
a train in his block he could not close the
| office.
| and asked him If he did not think it was
| a very dangerous thing to lay out a train
| schedule under adverse weather conditions
| with a fast light train running behind a
| full passenger train that had to stop al
| every station. 1t had been shown in the
| evidence that 2120 had been catching ur
| forty minutes 60 between Washington
| Junction and Silver Spring.
| heSaroS SyStem as feTIect.
Dent replied that it was not that the
block system was perfect protection sc
long as 1t was observed, and that as the
| signals were properly set there no pos
sibility of collision, except through the
engineer of 2l2o doing just what he die
and running past danger signal
| Both Judge Clements and Attorney Wal.
tiers tried to make Dent a.mit ii would
have been better to put 2i20 ahead of u
and let her run clear into Washington but
he was firm on this point and. after a LONG
technical discussion on making up sched
ules, still stuck to his original point thai
the block system was a perfect protection
SO long it was observed, but that M
system was a protection ii engineers dis
regarded it
Engineer Vermillioa's Story
| Vermli!Dl. the engineer of the wreck a,
local. told his story of the wreck He sal,
that he had got the double green signal a
Silver Spring and supposed from that tina
the station at Takoma closed. He SAX
that at Takoma the fog was bad, but h
could see the signals at distance O
about eighty feet. He found the whit
| light out at TakOma, and after discharg
| ing and taking on passengers, had pro
ceeded, knowing he had clear track. II
| knew nothing of the equipment train fol
lowing him. knew of nothing that was be
hind him in fact till he was struck a