The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-18
Accident to Twentieth Century
Limited ReviveS Talk.
How Can Invisible Defects in
Steel Be Detected?
STEEL CARS SAVE LIVES
Railroads to Install Them on
All Trains.
ROadbeds to Be Rebuilt Within
Five Years.

New York, March 1s.-It is less
than three month since a committee
of the American Railway association
held a meeting in this city chiefly
for the purpose of considering de-
feet recently discovered in steel rails.
A careful investigation had been
made by the experts of the interstate
commerce commission into the cause
of the accident on the Lehigh Valley
railroad near Rochester last sum-
mer. That the direct cause was a
broken rail was not disputed. A sec
ton of the rail had passed under the
scrutiny of the Interstate commerce
commissions experts. 1t did not need
a magnifying glass to show that the
rail had broken and that the frac-
ture was the cause of the accident
The train was going at a fairly hlgh
speed. It was a heavy train, IN
equipment, in locomotive weight and
because a large number OF passeh-
gers were in the cars.
What should have caused this rail
to break? 1t was presumed to be OF
standard manufacture. 1t was made
by manufacturers whose reputation is
very high. The microscope did show
an unprecedented condition in the
rail. A little nodule imbedded in the
very center of the rail at the time
of Its manufacture naQ, through
constant pressure and pounding from
heavy trains, gradually sent out Spi-
derlike qualifications, and these in
creased until at last they corrupted
the rail, although there was not the
slightest evidence of the weakness so
far as external inspection was con-
cerned.
1t was a new complaint, so to
speak. 1t may be a danger which
turks in many rails. No known
Il IL tod
to the committee of the American
Railway association. But the fore
most of the American rail experts,
after careful study of this defect.
which was described to the interstate
commerce commission as a trans
verse fracture, was able to report to
the Railway association committee
that this little noduIe was developed
at the time when what is called the
bath of the ingot is in progress.
The description of the bath and
the manner in which it is applied is
too technical to be understood by lay
men. The railway experts without
dissent declared that the only way to
gerous little nodu1e in the steel rail is
to correct certain features of the
bath.
Who Next?
In informal discussion with the
present writer at that time the ex-
perts spoke cautiously, and yet ap-
prehensively, respecting the condition
1t used to be a proverb among rail-
road men that it made but little diff
ference after a speed in excess of thir-
ty miles an hour had been obtained at
what rate a train was running so far
as disastrous accidents were concern
ed "A train running at the rate of
forty miles an hour, if it met with
sudden accident, would probably re-
suit in as great disaster as a train run
ming fifty or even sixty miles. Rail
way operators used to say that the
only fact in favor of the train running
at the lesser speed was that the en-
gineer could bring it more speedily
into control than the one running at
higher speed. But when railroad men
spoke in this way only wooden cars
were in use.
Demonstrations have been made
several times within the past year of
the efficiency Of steel cars so far as
resistance to violent shock is concern
ed. 1t is the common impression
among railway manage that within
a few years all of the trains in the
United States operated at high speed
viii be equipped with steel cars.
Why Not Sooner Equipped?
But for the difficulty which the rail-
way companies of the United States
have met with in the money markets
difficulties which reflect the timidity
of capital so far as large and long time
investment in railway securities is
concerned-there would have been q
much more extensive equipment of
fast railway trains with steel cars than
has actually taken place.
This situation leads up to the sec
ond feature of Importance associated
with the accident to the Twentieth
Century Limited. The impera tive de-
mand made by business men for very
of all rails-at least all which are sub
Jected to the very heavy strains caused
by the operating of fast trains with
weighty locomotives and cars. The
wonder was whether other rails might
not contain this insidious disease
which would not be disclosed until
fracture and consequent accidents had
happened.
Whether the accident near Pough-
keepsie which derailed the greater
part of the Twentieth Century Limit
ed train was due to a defect in the
rail SIMILAR to thai which caused the
fracture on the Lehigh Valley railroad
last summer Will not be known until
the experts have made very careful
microscopic and possibly chemical ex-
animation. 1t may be that the fracture