Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-15
RAILROADS ARE INCREASING
SAFETY-STOP INSTALLATIONS
Automatic TranC Control Systems Being Put Into Use
Much Faster Than Ordered by Commission
New York Central Takes Lead.

the path of ultimate freedom from
preventable accidents.
| Publicity and more publicity has
aided the commission in it's work of
enforcing on the railroads the neces-
sity for train-control and nstop
installations. And the roads have
seen the light, for even though the
| cost of such devices is heavy, and in
some cases an almost unbearable bur.
| den, damage suits cost much more
and the resulting unfavorable pub
| licity is even worse.
Accident Emphasizes Need
This accident again forcefully calls
| attention to the need of an automatic
train-control appliance which will
| cause a train to be brought to a stop
| in case an engineman for any reason
fails to obey the stop indication of an
automatic block signal. Had an ade-
| quate automatic train stop or train
control system been in use on this
line. this accident would have been
| prevented"
Ominous words, when couched in
the formal language Of an Interstate
| Commerce Commission report, the i'm
personal finding of a group of highly
trained technical men who have no
! ak to grind, no thought of recon-
pense, except to protect the travelling
| public. Yet these words conclude
nearly every one Of the accident re-
ports Of the commission. They Oc-
CURED only. the other day in that
exact language when the commission
| found that a dead hand proba bly,
guided the Cincinnati Limited on the
night of June Is when 1t crashed
at so miles an hour into the rear
coaches Of the stalled Washington
| Express near Gray station, so miles
east of Pittsburgh. Sixteen lives were
| snuffed out as the twin engines of the
Cincinnati Limited plowed through
the steel cars of the Washington
train.
Train stop and control installations
are the newest and probably the most
expensive developments of modern
railroading. Commission officials re-
call the time required to equip the
major railroads with block signal
| systems. steel cars, etc, and predict
| that train control in it's entirety will
come faster and farther than did the
block signal systems which have pre-
vented many disastrous accident.
More improvements Needed.
"Railroading is a comparatively
young art they say, land even
though 1t has reached a remarkable
state of efficiency in a relatively short
space Of time, the way is still open for
/ greater improvements that will bring
added safety to the travelling public"
| Eighteen complete installations of
a train-control+ or train-stop system,
covering many hundreds of miles of
track on scores of locomotive divi.
sions, have met the eXacting require
ments of commission inspectors and
received final approval of the rail reg
ulatory body. Ten other roads, max
ing % in all. have completed installa-
lions on at least one locomotive divi-
sion, meeting the requirements of the
commissions first order of June, 1922
The Association of Railway EXecu-
| tives, in closer touch than the COM
mission, says that on July l train
! control devices were either in actual
| operation or under construction on
1903 miles Of the 7.770 miles, of track
affected by the first installation order
Of the commission, which required
work to be completed by January I,
| 1925, on as railroads. A second or.
der requiring installations to be made
on a second locomotive division by
February l, 1926, finds construction
work now under way on 1902 miles of
track. a total of more than $4,000
miles. There is some discrepancy be-
| tween the two figures, but the COM
mission deals only with completed In
stallations, while the railroads con.
slider those which have made a begin.
ming of the work. Thirty four rail-
roads, covering 5,S41 miles Of track,
have the work entirely completed, ex-