Evening star., 1923-08-02
Train Control in Sight at Last

matter the Interstate Commerce Com
mission, in January. 1922, issued an
order to about nfty railroad companies
that on or before the 1st of July,
1924, IAN automatic train-stop or train
control device" should be installed on
their lines, applicable to or operated
in connection with all road engines
running on or over at least one full
passenger locomotive division. Ger.
tain sections Of the main lines of these
roads were designated within which
this installation should be made. Since
companies designated have been pro-
ceeding with experiments and tests.
Some of them have Professionally
adopted already existing devices and
others have been working out their
own experiments. 1t has just been
announced that the Pennsylvania
railroad has had an automatic stop
system in operation for the past three
weeks on one of the branches near
Philadelphia and that the results JUS
tify the hope that the problem of auto
matically preventing train collisions
has been solved.
In its order 10 the fifty railroads
the Interstate Commerce Commission
gave nearly two years and a half for
experiment and installation. If the
railroad corporations We're heartily in
sympathy with the requirement this
would be ample time. But it is known
that some of them are not in SYM
pathy; that the railroad companies
have in the past stoutly resisted
the adoption of this system. just as
they resisted the adoption of the air
brake, the automatic coupler and even
the installation of proper hand holds
on freight cars for the protection Of
brakemen. In fact, the history of
American railroading has been para
doxical in respect to the mechanical
advances making for security,
More than twenty years ago this
subject of automatic train control was
brought to the front, in consequence
of the frequency of disastrous col
lisions. and the railroads were urged
TO seek to perfect q device which
would bring trains under control or
to a halt upon entering danger zone
But practically without exception they
refused TO heed, at first claiming that
such device was impossible. Then
when advances were made in the in
Of
matte stop system they raised the OBJ
lection of undependability, and then
protested that it was undesirable to
substitute the mechanical DEVICE for
the judgment OF the operative. Finally,
when the collision records proved the
absurdity of the human judgment
argument the plea of economy was ad-
yanced. This, in turn, was met
with a showing of the tremendous
waste through collisions and wrecks
due to faulty signals and faulty judg.
mert, and the last barrier to this
progress was broken down.
Had the. railroad companies. or any
one of the big systems, twenty years
dSO uClililtCls uctlucu W Scchs pSIlctl
and install an automatic train.stop sys-
tenn this great reform would have
been assured at least decade and a
half earlier. There is no reckoning
of the saving in life and money that
would have resulted. Even now the
installation ordered by the Interstate
Commerce Commission is for only a
single division within a section of
each Of the fifty named railroads, and
it probably will be several years, even
if this present. order is fully carried
into effect within the next year, be-
fore this system is carried throughout
the great trunk lines Of the country.
But the start has been made and, slow
as the record has been. it is crafty.
ing at last to see results.