Evening star., 1911-08-26
OverWorking the Rails.

Evidence accumulateS with appdlnnS
rapidity that the American railway sys-
tenn is operated on dangerously narrow
margin of safety. Within few weeks
three wrecks, two of them of shocking
magnitude in point of the destruction OF
life have occurred directly attribute BILE
TO the overtaAing of the equipment with
high-speed trains. At Bridgeport a train
was derailed while passing at top speed
over a cross-over switch. and thirteen
lives were lost A few days later two were
killed and thirty were injured at Fort
Wayne Ind, when one Of the fastest
trains in the country left the tracks at
a switch owing undoubtedly to the strain
on the rails under the high speed. Yes
terday thirty-seven were killed and sixty
or more were injured at Manchester.
N Y, when a double-headed train OF
fourteen cars moving at fifty-mile rate
left the track on a trestle. As far as
can be ascertained. this latest disaster
was due to the spreading or breaking OF
the rails. The train was derailed in the
middle, the engines and two coaches hav-
ing passed the point of the break before
the accident occurred. 1t Is quite prob
able that the rail was broken under the
tremendous impact of the driving wheels
of the two locomotives rushing at top
speed with the weight of fourteen heaV-
lily loaded cars behind them.
This accident, like that at Bridgeport
and that at Fort Wayne. is traceable
directly to the overworking OF the equip
ment. 1t may be explained technically
on the score of latent flaw in one of
the rails, 'hard spot or an air hole
In the steel unbound by inspectors. But
the fact remains that such flaws are
known to exist, and that stin. with this
chance of rails giving way without warn
ing, tracks are put to the severest tests
in service at the expense of human life.
A familiar railroad plea in extenuation
Of wrecks due to high speed is that the
public demands rapid rate of travel
and will not tolerate slow going. In
point Of fact. the great majority of rail-
road travellers have no desire for high
speed. They take express trains as
matter of course, trusting to the supposed
safeguards against disaster, but realizing,
perhaps unconsciously, the risk involved
In the crowding of schedules. They take,
in fact, the trains that are offered to
them by the railroad companies. and
they have little choice in the premises.
They must travel, and they will go by
the shortest and cheapest routes. The
day may come when they will go by
the safest, and when railroads can show
clean records for long periods in the
matter Of the ''preventable" or ''unpre-
ventable' wrecks they will attract traffic
to them on the score of their greater in
surance of security, even though their
trains may move at slower rates.
A large percentage of American wrecks
occur in just such cases as that of yes
terday, when railroads are trying to
haul unusual crowds from places of large
assemblage. Excursion trains are the
frequent victims of disasters OF all de-
scriptions. They are sandwiched in be-
tween expresses, are normally behind
their allotted times. and are rushed when
ever they get clear tracks, sometimes
running into trains ahead of them and
again being bumped by trains behind
them. In this wreck on the Lehigh val
ley an effort was made to dispatch sew
eral hundred people by too heavy and
too fast a train. Whatever may have
been the immediate physical circumstance
that led to the derailment, the general
cause lies in the almost murderous dis
position of the railroad companies to
overwork the equipment