The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-21
TO AVERT WRECKS
Roads Are Ordered to Install
Train Control Devices.
Santa Fe, From Chicago to
Newton, Is Included.

The interstate commerce commits
sion has issued a sweeping order d.
recting forty-nine railroads to equip
congested sections of their main lines
with automatic train control devices
to be operated in connection with all
road engines.
The carriers are allowed until Mareh
5 to show cause why the order should
not become effective. 1t is speclfled
that under the transportation act tne
installation must be completed by July
1, 1924.
In directing the roads to make the
installations, which Will entail conslu-
cradle expense, the commission states
that Investigation by special tram
control committee has demonstrated
that the devices are practicable IL
contends that many wrecks Would
have been averted had automatic tram
control been installed.
Figures are presented to show the
heavy cost to railroads caused by
wrecks One statement is that the
wreck on the Philadelphia & Reading
railroad, a few miles from Ph1ladeI-
phia, in December, in which twenty
three persons were killed. would not
nave occurred if there had been ade-
quate control devices.
Passed Experimental Stage
''Our investigations have shown that
automatic train control has long since
passed the experimental stage" the
commission reports. In fact, no safe
~ devices such as the automatic
coupler devices, the airbrake and the
automatic block signal were perfected
to as high a degree as the automatic
train control before they were ordered
installed or were voluntarily adopted.
THE fourteen years of investigation
and study, the service tests under
varying conditions, and the results OBJ
tanned in the actual employment Of
these devices over periods of years
upon some of the roads have clearly
demonstrated the practicability of,
and the necessity for, automatic train
stop or train control. The time has
arrived when the carriers should be
required to select and install such de-
vice as will meet our specifications
and requirements"
Santa Fe Is Affected.
Some of the carriers directed to
make the installations are: The Santa.
Pc, between Chicago and Newton,
Kan; Baltimore & Ohio, between
Baltimore and Pittsburg; Chicago &
Alton, between Chicago and SPRING
field; Chicago & Northwestern, be-
tween Chicago and Omaha; the Bur-
lington, between Chicago and Omaha;
Rock Island, between Chicago and
Rock Island, Ill; Kansas City South
efll between kansas CITY ana Tex
arkana, Tex; Missouri Pacific, be-
tween Kansas City and st. Louis;
Pennsylvania system, between Phila-
delphia and Pittsburgh; Frisco, be-
tween st. Louis and Springfield, Mo-;
Union Pacific, between Omaha and
Cheyenne, Wyo.
The carriers are ordered to file with
the commission on or before July l,
1922, complete plans for signal sys-
TENS in use on designated portions of
lines, and a report of the number and
type Of locomotives assigned to or en-
gagged in road service. The carriers
are directed to proceed without nee
essary delay to select and install the
devices specified and to report to the
commission every three months, be-
ginning July 1, 1922, the progress
made