The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1907-09-10

me one day that brakeman's nerve
was the only thing that saved him.
The poor fellow had been pinned fast
under a broken freight car, and an
amputation of the leg was necessary
where he lay. The surgeon put 1t to
him bluntly. and the victim retorted:
L can stand it if you can
Nerve Replaced Anacsthetic.
Ihere were no anaesthetics,
either. The brakeman was a little
fellow, but as game lad as I've ever
seen. He lived, too, and now he
wants to be a surgeon. Says he is
going to study, and believe he will. 3"
One wreck is as bad as another to a
railroad man, although, IL train
jumps the track and rolls over an
embankment, there is no delay
caused by n resultant blockade Of the
rails. The job of the wrecker then
is only to dispose of the remnants.
Where, however, two heavy trains
come together head on, there is q
clinch and lock of steel that takes
engineering skill to pry apart. While
single-track railroads have a great
many wrecks, 1t does not follow that
four-track railroads are without &C
cidents.
Recently the two and four-track
roads have been quite as heavily in
volved in accidents as any others.
-Four tracks give an element of adj
vantage in that pair of tracks are
provided for speed. Fast trains con-
sumo trackage. Experts point out
that IL all trains moved at a uniform
speed, as on n surface road, the vol
ume OF business that one pair of
tracks could do would be amazing.
The difficulty presents itself when
the operator or dispatcher tries to
move a "sixty-mile" train through a
column Of "twenty-milers." The track
must be cleared for some minutes
ahead of the fast train, and It should
leave wake OF unoccupied track be-
hind 1t. The slow trains all have to
beswitched to sidings to let the fast
trains through. In moving this mass
OF weight is presented the great OPP
portunity for accidents.
On four-track roads the danger. of
head-on collisions is seemingly re-
moved, but with the greater traffic
there is the increased danger of the
fast train smashing into the slow one.
There is also the chance of imparting
the accident OF one track to the track
next to it. This sort of an accident
Is the worst possible, and they are
not decreasing in number.
Not long ago a train in New York
State was derailed and several sleep
ing cars tipped over, but no person
was killed or seriously injured, al
though the coaches were "skidded"
along the rails on their sides for some
distance. Had this been a single
track line, the trouble would have
been over, but as the sleeping cars
were thrown onto another track the
on-rushing freight train ground into
them, killing several persons.
Variety of Wrecks Recently.
The following instances give one
an idea of different kinds of wrecks
and how they are caused:
Collision between freight and work
trains; dispatcher, twenty-seven
years experience, overlooked east
bound extra when giving orders to
westbouud.
Southbound train waiting on side
track as northbound train APP
preached; q train porter became un-
accountably confused and threw
switch for side track.
Blocksignal operator (experi.
enceO gave clear signal when block
section was not clear
Engineer (experienced) ran past
three automatic stop block signals:
signals were 641O feet, 1880 feet and
1880 feet from point of collision;
fagman also 1000 feet back from his
train.
Cars of freight train left standing
on main track while switching was
being done on side tracks, engineer
of freight in service only two weeks.
Eastbound train had orders TO run
six hours twenty minutes late, ran
six hours five minutes late.
The past months have been re-
markable for the number OF railroad
disasters. From August 1 to Febru.
airy 1 there were forty-nine wrecks
W. 'SN GO "Si iOuo thvhHH W cause
injury or loss Of life, and this mum.
Der is probably far short These for
ty-nine wrecks resulted in the loss Of
3J1 lives and injury to 474. Since
February 1 there have been several
more accidents notably that on the
Harlem Division I'm the Borough of
the Bronx. and the dcrailment OF the
Pennsylvania's eightcon-hour train
for Chicago near JOhnstown, Pa
The wreck that caused the greatest
loss Of life occurred ON tho Baltimore
and Ohio near Washington ON Dccem-
Der 30, when ffty-ninc persons were
killed and between fifty and sixty in
jurcd.--Ncw York Evening Post.