Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-22
TO PROMOTE SAFETY
Devices to Prevent Railway
Disasters Being Considered.
EXPERTS IN CONFERENCE
Only Three Out Of 500 Inventions
Submitted Worth Trial.
WILL BE TESTED THIS WINTER
Enormous Increase in Casualties,
Notwithstanding the Greater EN-
ployment of the Block System.
WILL BE TESTED THIS WINTER
BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.

| Herald.
The experts appointed under a resolu
| ton of Congress to examine and repor
upon devices for the protection OF railway
passengers held a meeting yesterday tt
prepare their report for Congress. This
board was appointed in accordance WITT
a resolution of Representative Mann o.
Chicago, approved June 80, 1906, and l:
composed of the following members:
| Mortimer E Cooley, chairman. dean o
the department of engineering, University
Of Michigan.
Azel Ames jr. signal engineer, New
York Central and Hudson River railroad
| Frank G. Ewald. consulting engineer
railroad and warehouse commission OF
| Illinois.
B. B. Adams associate editor of the
Railroad Gazette.
W. p Borland, interstate commerce
commission, secretary.
These gentlemen are known as the oiock
signal and train control board. and their
duty Is Ito investigate and report on
the use of and necessity for block signal
systems and appliances for the automatic
control of railway trains in the United
States"
Their appointment was in consequence
of repeated recommendations from the
interstate commerce commission to Con-
gress, commencing in 1903. for law to
require the railways Of the United States
to adopt what is known as 1.-The block
signal system for the protection of pas
senger trains against collisions. For
three successive years the commission
submitted the draft of a bill to accom-
plish that purpose.
the passage of resolution carrying out
the recommendation of the commission
and authorizing it to employ experts to
obtain information that will be of value
to Congress in considering legislation on
that subject. A thorough investigation
and a comprehensive report will be sub
mitted concerning the various methods
that have been adopted to protect pas
senger trains from collisions. derailments
and other frequent cause of>accidents, and
particularly the operation of the present
block systems and other signals to stop
trains and prevent collisions which have
been In use for number of years. The
main facts in the report are as follows:
Main Facts of the Report.
1. Fifty Of the principal railroads of the
country are using the block system on
their lines of heaviest traffic; many of
them are using It on lines Of light traffic
over their entire mileage, with considera-
BILE difference as to details of apparatus
and method of operation.
g Most of them report that it is eco
nomical; that it can be installed main
tanned and operated at moderate expense
g. All railroad officials consider the
block system an improvement over other
methods of guarding against collisions,
and as means of safety m train control.
4. Many of them report that 1t has re-
). Automatic block signals are almost
universally regarded as the best and
most reliable and are being improved
with great skill and liberal expenditures
of money by the railroads and manufac-
turers.
telegraph signals to some extent and are
| likely to do SO with greater increase in
| the future.
Z. Thirty railroads Of considerable
| length and Importance have not adopted
| block signals of any kind
| 8. Railroads should make provision
against the deficiencies of the block signal
| system by continuing train dispatching
regulations which were used before it
was adopted
| O. Railroads should continue in force
the rule requiring fagmen with flags or
! lanterns to go back over the track when
a train is detained between stations. in
order to stop trains that may have
| wrongfully passed block signals
| 10. A number of railways have records
| showing only one dangerous failure of
| apparatus in millions of movements
Faults Of apparatus where developed
have been diligently investigated. and
| manufacturers of signals have cooper
ated with the railroads. at great expense
| in seeking perfection.
II. Nearly all of the larger roads con-
| slider the automatic system preferable to
| the telegraph block system The PennsyI-
vania road has substituted automatic for
| Geographic signals which have been in
use on those lines for twenty-five or
thirty years.
| II. Automatic stops act independently
of the engineer and bring the train to a
| standstill before 1t reaches a point of
danger when the engineman fails to do SO
| himself.
13. Automatic stops are in use on the
Boston elevated and express tracks of the
New York city subway, with good re-
suits.
That the block system is not always eff
| fective was Illustrated In a most shockine
manner while the commission was act,I-
ally preparing its report by the lamenta-
| BILE death of Mr. Samuel Spencer, presi-
dent of the Southern railroad, in a col
| lision on his own road. and at Terra
| Gotta station. on the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad, near Washington on December
80, 1906 in which forty three messengers
were killed on a line equipped with such
| signals.
Casualties From Collisions.
1