The New York herald., 1921-01-23
GUARDS NOT NEEDED
In NEW SUBWAY IDEA
Conductor Only on Eight Car
Train, and He Phones All
Station Calls.

Subway guards are rendered super
device and multiple door control equip
ment that the Brooklyn Rapid Transit
Company will put into service on q
regularly scheduled train for the first
time tomorrow Experiments under the
direction of John j. Sinclair, assistant
superintendent of equipment. have con-
vinced rhe company officers that 1t is
entirely practicable to operate an eight
car train with but one conductor and =
motorman. Although this is fthe goal
aimed at. Mr.. Sinclair. who has worked
out the details of the plan. said yester-
day that it would be several years be-
fore the company could hope to equip
all its cars with the new mechanism.
Two cars only have thus far been
fitted with the telephones and multiple
door control system. For the last four
or five days they have been operated as
an extra train on the Fourth avenue
subway line, running from Eighty-sixth
street. Brooklyn, through the Montague
street tunnel and up Broadway Man
haitian, to Queens They will be used
in the rush hours for the first time to-
morrow and it is intended to operate
them for twenty hours each day there
after.
Two more cars are expected to be
ready this week and others will be
placed in service as soon as possible.
Eventually they will be made up into
eight car trains, each train requiring
only motorman and conductor.
The conductor is equipped with tele-
phone apparatus similar in appearance
to the ordinary transmitter. A cord and
plug, much the same as used on an
ordinary switchboard. is attached The
conductor inserts this plug in telephone
jack on the keyboard beside the centre
door of a subway car. When this plug
Is in place it connects the telephone sys-
tenn through the entire train.
Every word spoken into the transmit
ter by the conductor is amplif1ed and re-
produced through receivers at each end
Of every car. The conductor Is thus able
to announce stations or communicate
with the passengers for any other pur-
pose in each ear of the train.
The test trips have demonstrated that
the announcements could be heard
clearly not only in the cars but on the
station platforms. The receivers are
about eight inches in diameter, are
screened with heavy wire and show
nothing to indicate what their pur-
pose Is.
=. r. L. subway cars are at present
equipped with an apparatus by means
of which one guard controls all three
pairs of doors at each side OF the car.
The new equipment. however, makes 1t
possible for one trainman to open and
close all doors in two or more cars. In
conjunction with the telephone device it
becomes simplicity itself for single
man to perform all the functions which
hitherto have required a guard for every
car.
Danger for passengers has been
guarded against in every possible way.
Warning lights outside and inside the
doors are flashed several seconds be-
fore the doors are closed. Safety de-
vices cause the doors to reopen from
slight pressure received as they are
closing This will prevent persons from
being caught in the doors, the company
officers say.
A signal light tells the conductor
when all doors of the train are closed.
The motofman's signal light is on the
same circuit. so that there is no danger
of his starting his train prematurely.
The keyboard from which the con-
ductor operates the doors is in the panel
between the middle doors, so that he can
step to the station platform and have a
clear view of all the doors on his train
and at the same time keep his hand on
the keys. 1t is possible for him to close
the doors of the other cars of the train
and then step back into his own car and
shut it's doors
John Horgan, a y. r. 7. inspector,
operated the two equipped cars on their
trial runs last week, but several other
men have already been trained to the
work.