The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-03-25
A WILD LOCOMOTIVE.


locomotive burst three miles outside
of Montreal, the other day and forced
the fireman and eng .neer to leap from
the cab 10 avoid being scalded to
death In their haste to escape the
steam they failed to shut off the throt-
tie and the engine, drawing a heavy
express train, ran on, it's speed only
slightly diminished when the conduc-
tor set the air brakes, until it reached
the Montreal station, where it plunged
through bumpers and a heavy granite
wall into the women's waiting room.
A large pillar finally brought the To-
conceive to stop, but not before II
had killed four people and seriously
injured thirty others.
Here is another demonstration of
the necessity of a block system of
railroad operation, which will inter
pose an automatic check upon the
power, regardless of the judgment or
skill of the men in The cab, when a
danger zone IS invaded. Collisions have
frequently occurred as a result of en-
gineers misunderstanding or disobey-
ing orders, which would have been
averted had the lines been equipped
with automatic stopping devices. Other
accidents have been caused by the ILL
ness or disablement of engineers with
out the knowledge of their firemen.
stationed on the other side Of the
boiler. The Montreal catastrophe fur
aiShes a new argument in favor Of the
mechanical prevention of block tres
pass. 1t is beside the mark that such
an accident is without exact precedent,
and that the chances are strongly
against a recurrence in the same cir
cumstances. What has happened this
time is, in the net result, what has
happened often before, and the public
is justified in demanding protection
from occurrences.
The avowed reason offered against
the adoption by the railroads of one of
the several automatic stopping de-
vices is that none of them is project,
hat they are all subject to derange-
ment, and that it is unsafe to install
an unreliable check on the engineers
lest the enginemen lose their own
sense of responsibility and rely on
the possibly untrustworthy stopping
apparatus. This does not appeal con-
vincingly to the patrons Of railways,
whose lives are constantly imperiled
at present through unjustified reliance
in the moral checks imposed upon en-
gineers. 1t may be true that an auto
matte device that viii stand up under
service conditions in all conditions of
the weather has not yet been demons
trated. But neither has the block sys-
| TEN proved itself perfect. Even the
most trustworthy engineers and sig
| nalmen make mistakes. Sill the en-
ginemen and signal operators are not
discarded as a class.
! Probably if the best devi.e now
known were generally adopted and in
stalled the imperfections would quick
| ly be overcome. There IS no cause
leading to the correction of faults so
effective as daily, prac ical reliance
upon machine. The inventive genius
is quickened under the spur of ne
cessity. Virtually even yfeature Of the
transpor alton equipment of today is
the resultant of years of service test
ing.
1t is reasonably suspected that the
real cause of the unwillingness to
adopt the automatic stop is the rail-
roads desire to avoid rigid adherence
to SCI conditions and to hold their op-
eratives up to their maximum per-
tormances of speed and schedule MAX
| ing. successfully stolen switch is
not condemned now at headquarters
The missending or MISUNDERSTANDING
of an order is not necessarily reckoned
as a punishable offense unless troub E
results. When the engineer piles up
the cars he is disciplined, if living
When he brings his train through on
time despite block warnings he is
rated as a smart man.
Congress can compel the adoption G
an automatic stopping device on in
terstate roads if it so wishes. The in
terstate commerce commission has
been studying the question. and there
must be in hand now large volume
Of illuminative Information bearine
upon it. With the Montreal acciden,
MS fresh instance of the danger now
present on every railroad line perhaps
something will be done to force the
issue.