Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-17
A PRESIDENTS CAR
A PRESIDENTS CAR
officials and Directors of the Reading
Railway Had Steel cars--They
Were safe--The Forgotten
Exeter Horror Repeated ...
at Bryn Athyn
BY GEORGE NOX McCAIN

HARRISON MORRIS, anent my refer
IL encc to John p. Dohoney's official dec
laration against wooden cars on all rail-
roads in Pennsylvania, writes me very
interesting letter.
His text, Of course. Is the Bryn Athyn
horror, still vivid in the public mind.
The moral is apparent. Mr.. Morris says:
I'm reminiscent mood venture TO re-
peat to you an episode in comment on the
avoidable disaster at Bryn Athyn. On
certain day few years ago l recall the
interior, dreary and large, of the office OF
Mr.. George +. Baer in the Reading Termi-
nal, where he and 1 we're seated In con-
Yea sutton.
''He was dwelling on a beautiful new
private car which the company had author,
lied TO bo built at perhaps 10000, ana
which was then standing in the station,
where. he would like me to have the pleasure
of seeing Il.
He related that on recent Tuesday trip
to New York, which he made weekly with
Mr.. Stotesbury, they had been much shaken
up in near accident.
1T was thus that the banking represcn-
tative OF the Board Of Directors desired 10
have constructed a new and expensive pri-
vate car for such future service rs these
weekly trips, and suppose others.
Mr.. Baer said to me In the genialty OF
his conversation that he would have been
quite well satisfied with less costly car Of
wooden construction, but the banking repre-.
sentative demanded the safer conveyance oil
u steel car
COME Of the worst wrecks IN the history
~ of railroading in Pennsylvania occurred
on the Reading lines.
The Bryn Athyn holocaust was, the jury
said, the result Of the carclcssness Of oper-
atives and lack of adequate signals on that
N - n Itnn
It wns FOR this same cause that thirty
other passengers lost their lives and nearly
fifty were injured in what for years after
ward was known rs the Exeter crash.
1t occurred twenty-five years ngo. lt
shocked the State because Of tho number OF
victims. Exeter Station, on the Reading
road, was the scene.
The Cannon Ball. Express from Will
Transport for Philadelphia was run into by
special from Harrisburg for Philadelphia
on May 10, 1890.
Tbad. s. Adlc, district deputy grand mas
ter of Masons, who still lives, was almost
hopelessly crippled in that accident.
There are others, well known, whom
might also mention.
There were no steel coaches Of any account
then. There were. however, adequate signal
systems.
But the Reading Railroad didn't have
thcm-just as 1t didn't have steel coaches
on the NewtOwn line or automatic block
Signals eltner.
FTNllE coroner's jury rendered n verdict on
l. the Exeter catastrophe that had long
been forgotten when the Bryn Athyn crash
occurred last month.
It found. as Coroner Grant r. McGlath-
cry reported, that
The Reading Railway Company is pri
marily responsible for this accident for the
reason that il has never established mod
ern and adequate system of communication
by telegraph or telephone between all signal
stations and the main Office.
Had this system been in vogue the ac-
cident. in our judgment. could have been
avoided"
A STARTLING parallel to the above and
"A what follows in the findings Of the jury
and the Public Service experts in the Bryn
Athyn wreck is noted in the verdict OF the
jury of 1880.
1--WE further find that mistakes were made
by employees of the railway company con-
cerned in the running OF the two sections
Of train No. IL on the said night.
If one years dividend on Reading stock
in the twenty-five years that elapsed be-
tween these cGtasnophCs had been devoted
10 equipping the road with steel passenger
cars the railroad managers would not have
had such costly damage bills to pay, nor
be responsible for the loss Of so many human
lives.
Passengers on the Doylestown, Perkiomen.
Pickering Valley. Colebrookdale. Frackville
and other branches still ride in tinder boxes
under this same menace of accidental death.
Practically all the branch lines OF the
Reading road are today equipped with in
flamuNble Out-of date wooden passenger
cars. although fifty or moro new steel cars
have been ordered.
JIROM the Offices of the Pennsylvania
l. Railroad, while we are still on the sub
ieCt OF passenger cars, comes the Following
interc sting communication
'"The management of the Pennsylvania
Railroad System will in the near future place
orders for the construction of twenty addi-
tonal all steel dining cars of the largest size
and most modern type and equipment.
THE new cars will not only make It pos
sible to meet the public demand for increased
dining service, but will. immediately upon
their completion, permit the retirement OF
all remaining wooden dining cars IN use on
the Pennsylvlnia RalrOad
'"rhey will, therefore, constitute another
important step toward all-stccl passenger
train equipment.
"Arrangcmcnts will be made to push the
construction of tho new cars as rapidly as
possible, and it is expected TO have them in
service By spring
TN SOME respects the Reading Railroad
l. Is not only up to date, but ahead.
Take its forest fire safety first work
The greatest menace TO property lying
beside railroad tracks is that Of fire.
1t Is omniprescnt. 1t particularly threat
ems in the late fall and winter, when every
thing is dry.
THen forest and farm fires are kindled by
cinLers poured from the tunnels Of locomo
two engines that run into millions OF dam
ages annually.
Under Clifford Pinchot, State Forester, nm
effort has been made to prevent these con
hagrations and protect property adjacent to
railroads.