Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-20
BLOCK SIGNAL SYSTEMS
By THE INTER
STATE COMMISSION.
Report About Ready to Be Submitted
Recommendations for the Bet
ter Protection Of Passengers.

Investigation Of the block signal system
Of the United States by the interstate COM
merce commission has been practically con-
cluded for the present session of Congress,
at any rate, and is about ready to be sub
| mitted. The work has been extensive, and
as there were only three or four months in
which to work, it was impossible to fully
cover the field. but there has been collected
mass of information, together with
great deal of technical data and a compila-
ton of the railroad accidents Of the United
States since 1903, showing the need Of some
protective system that will really protect.
In accordance with the recommendation of
the commission in its last annual report,
the application of the block signal system to
all the railroads of the United States will
be recommended and the time-for its install
lation will be reduced to three or four years
at the outside. The speed with which some
such system can be adopted will depend
largely on the facilities of the manufacture
ers for turning out the signal apparatus and
the ability of the railroads to get competent
operators The difficulty in this line was
shown by the recent investigation held in
Washington of the Terra Gotta wreck.
There is additional interest in the report,
owing to the pending appropriation in Con-
gress for $4,000 wherewith to install and
test some of the several automatic devices
that have been recommended by various in
Ventors. Up to date the commission has
never had any funds available for test of
new devices But it has recommended this
appropriation, and if the bill providing the
funds is passed there will be a comprehen-
sive test of several of the best of the safety
appliance systems.
1t is understood that the commission will
recommend the ultimate adoption of some
supplementary signal system on the more
crowded lines of the country in addition to
the manual block system It is thought
that law will be enacted on the line of
the present safety appliance law which
compels the use of automatic couplers and
air brakes, simply specifying the results
the apparatus must obtain without any Of
hcial recommendation as to the brand of
appliance.
There is already determined opposition,
both to the appropriation for investigating
the safety appliance devices and to any law
compelling their use. The railroads have
an association, was brought out in the
whose nominal object is to protect the
roads against patent infringement cases.
but whose real object is to fight the pay
vent of royalties and the adoption of de-
vices putting any additional expense on
the roads. A strong railroad lobby has
been maintained at the Capitol as usual this
session. and in addition to fighting the
hours-of-service bill it has been busy op-
posing safety device lesisat ton.
There is every prospect. however, that the
appropriation for investigating the auto
matte signal systems will be put through
and supplementary report will have to be
submitted after this work is finished. A
technical appendix to the block signal re-
port will deal with what has been done I'D
to date in the automatic signal line, show
ing number of automatic and interlOcking
devices that have already been adopted on
some divisions, and indicating in a general
way the progress of this work and the
types of signal that should be looked into.