Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-04
RAILROAD WRECK
AT TERRA GOTTA
Testimony Adduced Today Before
the District Coroner's Jury
of Inquest.

| was justified in running past Takoma at
| 6:31 o'clock, one minute after the time
! set for the closing of the station, under the
| belief that it had been closed and was
! then dead station.
| Dissecting Block Signal System.
| Officials who attended the wreck inquiry
today manifested an inclination to dissect
| every feature of the elastic block signal
| system under the operations of which such
| a terrible disaster that of last Sunday
| evening was possible. One strong point
| brought out was why an empty equipment
| train, which is said to have been of no
| immediate consequence, was permitted to
| run close upon the heels of an accommo-
, dalton train, which is required to pick up
| passengers at all stations, and at time
when confused conditions were resultant
from the closing down of the day signal
| stations.
1t is said that many of the great railroad
| systems run most of their freight trains
| at night when the passenger traffic is not
as heavy as 1T is in the daytime, to minimize
| the risk of accidents. well as to have
| clear track. 1t has not been shown that
any necessity existed for the rushing of en-
CINE 212o with its 'dead-head'' train of
"emptieS' toward Washington so close in
| the wake of a live train filled with pas
| sengers. and that. too at the most crucial
| time of the day. far as the signal syS
| tenn is concerned, because the blocks We're
| being heightened by reason of the closing
of the intermediate signal stations, such as
| Takoma and Forest Glen.
Trains in Same Block
Railroad men who had read in the train
| dispatcher's testimony yesterday that two
| trains are never allowed in the same block
| at the same time, declared that it is an
| everyday occurrence to have two and
| sometimes as many as three trains in
| block at time. The conductor of a train
receives proceed orders from the dis
patcher, it was explained, which permits
| him to take his train into the block the
| train at the other end of the block is sup
| posed to be pulling out Whether the train
| hauled by locomotive 212O received pro
| ceed' orders as train 66 was supposed to
| be pulling out of Terra Gotta has not yet
/ developed.
The mixed condition OF the block signal
! system hieroglypics, shown in the tes-
| timony today, was another matter of I'M
| favorable comment at the inquiry. One of
! the law officials declared that such mat
tiers, affecting human life and limb as they
| do, should be as clear as daylight"
Plans for New System.
AS result of the terrible disaster on
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, there was
submitted to the interstate commerce COM
mission today, by Mr. Edwin A Newman,
plans of double block and torpedo sys-
TEN, which he says he believes will abso-
! lutely prevent the possibility of railroad
| collisions. He says:
| MY plan is not to trust the lives of the
| travelling public to individual or me-
! chanical device. the failure of which is the
| cause of the disastrous accidents so fire.
| quently occurring under the present single
block system but to provide that the mis-
! take or negligence of one can be checked
| by another. which is not possible with the
devices now in use.
First, l provide two or more clear blocks
! between each railroad train instead of one,
| as at present.
law
| which may work automatically and stimuli
| taeously with the danger signal to set tor
| pedoes at suitable distances from the signal
| station operate separately at the will of
| the operator.
Two Blocks Between Each Train.
by this system there would be two clear
| blocks between trains and, if by acct
dent or otherwise, the first operator should
! give a wrong signal, the second operator
would stop the train. On the other hand,
if the operator had put out the danger
signal and the engineer did not see or heed
| ii for any cause, the auxiliary torpedoes
would give warning to both the engineer
and fireman TO stop the train. If the first
! signal and topedo mechanism should fail
the second would certainly stop the mis-
| guided train.
| by this system it is impossible for two
| trains to enter the same block at the same
| time as in case of the failure or inability
| of one operator il would be checked by the
next operator. If by accident to the engi-
| neer. negligence or failure on his part to
! see signals on account of storm fog smoke
| or otherwise, the auxiliary torpedo system
| would give warning and avoid the dreadful
| consequences of the present single block
system. where an accident may. and very
| often does, result from the negligence mis-
| take or Inability of one man.
May Be Used Separately.
Either the double block or the torpedo
I
rately, but they should both be used as an
abundant precaution under the most I'M
| favorable conditions.
IF my system had been in use on the
metropolitan branch of the Baltimore and
| Ohio railroad at the time of the accident
at Terra Gotta station the catastrophe
I would have been avoided by a danger sig
| nal being displayed at Silver Springs If
the engineer had passed the signal at Sill
| yer Springs without seeing the same the
automatic torpedo would have given him,
/ as well as the fireman, warning to stop
| the train at that signal station.
| But in, for any reason, the opera tor or
| the automatic torpedo failed to give warn
! ing at Silver Springs, the engineer would
still have had to pass the signal station at
| Takoma to make an accident possible 1t
| Is too remote possibility for two men or
two mechanical devices to fail at nearly
| one and the same time. The use of NV sys-
| tenn would furnish four checks to prevent
| accidents, instead of only one, as at pres
ent, besides giving greater distances be-
| tween trains.
| My system would also have prevented
the recent accident in Kansas which oc-
| Cured for the reason that after the first
| operator had made a mistake the second
| operator would have stopped the train In
| other words, the train would have had to
pass two operators and two signal stations
| before an accident would have been possi-
| bic
Mr.. McCauley Recalled.
AT the opening of the third day of the
| inquiry by Coroner Newt, into the causes
of the wreck on the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad last Sunday at Terra Gotta d. c.;
Assistant Division Operator w. E. McCau-
ley was recalled to the stand The coroner
handed to him the block sheet kept by the