El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-03-26

lines automatic block signal systems
with automatic train stops have been
installed, and with these safeguards the
trains are operated at a speed of 90
miles an hour, with only so seconds be
tween them in busy hours. The railroad
officials declare that not once has a
train cot by the combination of signal
and-stop when the order was for stop.
On the marlborough the device has
worked many million times.
Another train stopping device that is
being experimental with consists OF
heavy iron bar suspended over the track
1t is of such weight that when it IS
struck by a lever on top of the engine
cali it pushes the lever far enough out
of position to put on the air brakes
and stop the train. Another device
makes use of wireless electricity.
heavily charged wire is placed along the
track, and it will transmit enough power
by wireless to operate the brakes, turn
Oh light or ring bell.
To give the dispatcher direct connec-
ton with the engineer, as well as with
the station, is the aim OF another de
vice that IS being tried cut. At each
signal station there are contact bars ar
ranged SC that a shoe on the engine
comes into contact with the bar, just
as the shoe on an underground trolley
car comes in contact with the bars IN
the slot. In the engine cab and in the
station there are Green and red lights,
and by these the dispatcher orders the
engineman to proceed or STOP
In addition there is a telephone in the
cab by which verbal orders can be given
The success of such a system Is said 10
be Questionable in foul weather and
under high speed conditions.
Cab Signals.
Cab signals are used in Europe but
not in America In England the Great
Western is trying out cab signal sys-
tenn which Is said to work well, all or
safety A wire and contact shoe fur
nish the means of operating a whistle
and bell in the cab. While European
tests with cab signals and American
tests with automatic stops have proved
highly successful, the general attitude OF
railroad signal authorities in the United
States Is that neither Is feasible
Will Recommend Safety.
Once the interstate commerce commits
sion finds satisfactory appliances, 1T will
recommend to congress that law be en-
acted recurring tae railroads to equip
their service with such appliances. This
will be fought to the bitter end, but
finally congress Will adopt it, then the
railroads will fight it cut in the courts,
and after that will comply with the law
as graeiously as defeat is able to do
That has been the history OF all protee-
tive legislation
When the states tried to enforce auto
matte coupler laws the railroads claimed
that such authority was vested in the
federal government, and when the fed
eral government enacted and attempted
to enforce such laws the railroads de-
clared it the province of the states TO
do these things 1t was the same way
with the airbrake law, the employers
! liability law, the hours OF labor law AM
the ash pan law. The latter requires
that every locomotive shall be equipped
with an ash pan which can be dumped
without an employe going under the en-
CINE TO do 1t.
Supplant Airbrakes.
Experience has demonstrated that
epoch making as was the invention of
the>airbrake, its failure to work is suf
ficiently frequent to iustiA a search for
something better. This search has been
successful in at least one instance. The
new idea is that the power by which
/ the brakes are controlled shall lie in a
number CT powerful coil springs. Air
pressure is to hold the springs in check
so long as the brakes are not used. As
soon as it is desired to apply them, the
simple release of valve does the work.
The only fault is that no method is Of
fered for holding the brakes off the
wheel when car Is being moved by
gravity or otherwise switched without
connection with the en"ine.
Commission Hindered.
One of the things that has most Sc
riously hindered the work of the COM
mission in its investigations is the lack
of accurate data coSeerning accidents.
| The law requires that railroads report
I all accidents and their causes, but the
reports that come In are about as Iumin-
Gus as A black hat on q dark night. The
/ commission hopes to be given the au-
/ thority to investigate accidents on its
own initiative and thus to ascertain real
| information on the subject.
Some time ago two foreign railroad
men visited the United States for the
purpose of studying railroad conditions.
| After travelling about the country they
found that only very small percent of
the trains are run on time. and that
there are only $4,000 employees working
for the safety of travel They figured
out that if the United States had the
same proportion of men to look after
the safety of its trains that England
has, instead of $4,000 it would have
$4,000 engaged in making train opera
ton safer.