Evening journal., 1913-02-24
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The PeriIOuS Feat Of a
Railroad Engineer
By HolIsud.

"Many Of the problems which were
necessary for the railway managers
who were in authority from about
1850 to the time of the invention Of
the air brake, coupler and bumper
to solve were both interesting and
very complicated" said the late James
D. Laying TO me in the course OF a
conversation in which he narrated
many anecdotal "reminiscences Of his
early life as a railway manager.
Mr.. Laying began his career as a
railway man in 1S4S at Pittsburgh. He
was very prominent at the time Of
the great railway strikes in 1877 at
Pittsburgh, and was part influential
in bringing that great and insipid re.
vOlutiOn TO a close. For the last
twenty years of his fifty years as a
railway manager Mr.. Laying was the
vice president and general manager
of the West Shore Railroad OF New
York State.
Said he; ct was chatting one day
with George Westinghouse upon the
subject Of railway signals. Mr. West
inghousc had worked out the problem
of safety so far as safety depended
upon the eye Of an engineer and the
observance by that eye of railway sig.
nails.
MI Westinghouse told me that he
had demonstrated scientifically that
IL was practically impossible for a
railway engineer 90 observe a signal
set at the danger point in time 10
bring a train running sixty miles an
hour TO aEtop. Some other method.
Mr. WcsiinghOuse said. besides dis
tance signals that could be read by
an engineer was necessary II safety
was to be assured lie told me that
his computation showed that about
forty-five miles an hour was the linn
tied speed for a train il IL were de-
sired 10 bring that train TO stop be-
fore "A danger signal was reached
II was reminded by this chat with
Mr.. Westinghouse of an experience
related TO me by a railway manager
of New England. This manager said
that upon his line there had been
many computations for the purpose of
determining the distance in which a
locomotive could be stopped whether
running al fifty miles an hour or &C
any speed less than that. These COM
putations were made before the in
vention OF the automatic air brake.
All OF our computations, however,
were set at .naught by the experience
of an engineer Of our road this man
ager said to me. Tho engineer had
orders to take his engine from Bos-
ton TO some point near New Bedford.
The order compelled the engineer to
look out for the rights of way of
other trains and to keep his way IN
between.
"'He was running at a pretty fair
rate and upon certain stretch when
he discovered that a drawbridge over
q small river or creek was open. He
knew intuitively that If he ran the en-
gine at the speed he was then going
he would so into the river. He made
a quick computation mentally which
showed him that he could not slow
down in time to stop the engine be
fore reaching the bridge He also d.
cided that IL he put on all speed he
might possibly leap the chasm Now
all those computations were made in
an iRstants time. I don't suppose the
engineer had ever made a mcthcmat-
ical calculation OF that sort
lie Instantly opened tho throttle
wide. The engine plunged ahead nc
terrific speed. The engineers calcu-
lation was that the speed would take
tho engine at least more than half
way over the chasm.
He was absolutely correct Whom
the chasin was reached, tho engine
gave n terrific leap. II jumped the
river and landed upon the bank hut
the tender was half buried in the
water. No particular damage WAS
done TO the engine, and the engineer
was only slightly shaken up The
opposite bank happened to be soft
gravel
THAT experience, however, made
possible a series of computations re-
spectlng speed of locomotives and the
kind of friction necessary to stop
them at various rates of speed whcn
proved to be Of great value to our
company
Copyright. 1913. by e. J. Edwards
All rights reserved.)
Tomorrow Mr. Edwards will tell -
"The Earliest Notable Railroad Dis.
aster in the United States"
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