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

| After long consideration of the
| matter the Interstate Commerce Com
| mission, in January, 1922, issued an
order to about fifty 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
J that order was issued the railroad
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 to the fifty railroads
! the Interstate Commerce Commission
gave nearly two years and a half for
experiment and installation. If the
railroad corporations were 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
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 a device which
! would bring trains under control or
to halt upon entering a danger zone.
But practically without exception they
refused to heed, at first claiming that
such a device was impossible. Then
when advances were made in the In
vention and perfection of an auto
matte stop system they raised the OBJ
lection of undependablity, 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-
vanced. This, in turn, was met
with showing of the tremendous
waste through collisions and wrecks
due to faulty signals and faulty judg-
ment, and the last barrier to this
progress was broken down.
Had the railroad companies. or any
one of the big systems, twenty years
ago definitely decided to seek, perfect
Iand install an automatic traln-Stop Sys-
tenn this great reform would have
been assured at least decade and
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
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.