Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-06

Ohio Every possible detail of his actions
| on the evening of the wreck was gone into.
| All the phases of his management of the
| block signal station We're discussed To
| about seven-eighths of the questions asked
him he replied Il don't remember" or Il
| can't tell But as to the one crucial
point Of his having displayed red block
signal against the extra train 2i2J. he re-
manned firm, positively contradicting Engi-
neer Hldebrand and his fireman, McClel-
land, who had testified earlier in the day
that they saw no signal light displayed at
Takoma.
Contradictions Of Witnesses.
One important contradiction Of his story
with that of the engineer and fireman is
that both of the latter men say they did see
a white platform lamp at Takoma, while
| Operator Phillips says there has never been
| such light there. The whole of the tes-
| timony seems to be mass of contradic-
| tons. Some of the other witnesses who
will be called have already contradcted
| each other in interviews and before the
coroner's jury One 2laring instance OF
this sort is that of the block operator at
Silver Spring, who says that both train &c
and train 2l20 were given white light on
the night of the accident, while the ensi-
neers of both trains swear they received the
double green.
The one thing that did stand out clearly
in the whole of the investigation yesterday
was that the block signal system has been
run Just about as the operators pleased.
that violations of orders were frequent and
not reported and there was no inspection
| and checking worth a name. Operator Phil
lips testified that trains too numerous to
mention had run past his red light. though
till the fatal dash of 2i2o they had always
finally stopped and sent back fagman.
But he said though this was violation of
the rules, he had nevar reported any one
for it But when he was called down by
the attorney for the railroad and told to
cite specific instances, he fell back on his
customary answer of being unable to re-
member except in the case Of two trains.
Operator Phillips Many Duties
Operator Phillips is a small, youngish
man. and his features were wrinkled per-
petually into something that looked like a
smile. but that might have been Indicative
: OF either laughter tears He said that
he had been an operator for about three
years He was the Poo Bah of the Takoma
office, being the station agent, the block
signal operator. the telegrapher. the bag
gage master, the express agent and the
mail clerk.
Judge Clements asked him if this COM
bina ton did not keep him rather. busy. The
operator replied that sometimes he was
rather pressed for time. but he managed
to get through with it all. He had about
| thirty trains a day to handle. tickets to
sell, average of five or six commercial
kilograms to handle and the express and
freight to bill. There were an average of
fifteen express packages and the railroad
paid him $3.50 month and the express
company 10 per cent on the business he
handled for them.
He said there was rule of the railroad
company against having anybody come
into his office, but that he had friends
who called on him, and that the night
of the wreck he had one of the name of
Page. who came about and stayed all
night.
Asked If this was not a violation of the
rules he smiled and said that it was, but
that he violated the rule whenever he
wanted to. There was also a rule to re-
port all violations of the block signal sys-
tenn. but he said that he had never report
ed any engineer for running past his red
target. though that was happening all the
time. He explained that they always came
back or sent back a f1agman, though some
of them ran half mile beyond his sta
ton.
Assistant Set the Signals.
He had one assistant the gateman Fred
Lumkum. He was fifty-three years old
but, Operator Phillips testified. very ac-
| tive" The operator let him light the signal
lamps and put them In position and knew
that they were all right, but he had not
gone out to look at them on the night in
question till after train 2I20 had dashed
by his red block Then he said that he
went out and saw that the block was really
red and had stepped off the distance at
which il could be seen. finding that it was
visible at thirty-eight PAGES.
Judge Clements asked him IL he did not
think that he was very remiss in not at
tending to the lights himself or seeing
personally that they were in position but
! he said that he trusted the old gatekeeper
entirely and he did not think anything
more was necessary.
The clock in the railroad Office. he said
might get IS much as two minutes out OF
the way. either fast or SLOW and that he
set it once or twice or three times a week
The noon time signal Was flashed through
his office every day except on holidays and
Sundays. but he was not always there to
catch it and could not remember when his
clock was set by it. He thought IL might
have been on Tuesday. the week of the ac-
cident He explained that time did not
really matter with the block signal system.
and Attorney Wilson for the railroad tried
TO make this plain also In his cross-exami-
nation. but Judge Clements said that in
this particular case. having the clock right
probably would have averted the accident
Official Inspections
Phillips said that an inspector came
around every couple of months to check I'D
his accounts and look after the general con-
dition of the station. and that an inspector
of signals came around two or three times
year to look after the signals. Nobody
ever looked after his clock. He did that
himself.
Phillips took the stand after the morning
recess.
After explaining the duties devolving upon
him. Mr.. Phillips in reply to questions of
Mr. Walter. the special counsel of the COM
mission, said that he was expected to open
the office at ESQ am. and close at $50 pm.
He said it was RUE of the company to
give good night to the train dispatcher
but he had not always lived up to the or
der. He admitted that about one-third of
the month he closed before $50 pm. be-
cause everything was all right on his block.
Mr.. Walter then went into the question
of the correctness of watches and clocks,
pursuing the same line OF inquiry devel-
oped during the morning session Mr.. Phil
lips admitted that the clock in the Takoma
station was irregular in its habits, having
of occasions He said the clock had neither