The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-21
AS Pegler Sees 1t
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER
fCopyright by King Features Syndicate, 1nc.)

quickly reduce to the preWdf Inquire lie Idii-
ty of railroad wrecks in the United States.
Blu. most of the men who operate the rail-
roads have done absolutely nothing to abase
the smashups which. since the war and es-
pecially in the last few months, have made a
dangerous adventure of an experience which
had been almost entirely relieved OF FISK.
Thew clear away the wreckage, their claim
agents and lawyers quietly call on the heirs
of the dead and the shattered and shocked
survivors, the Interstate Commls-
sion surveys the scene and the next day
another pretentious string of gaudy junk
strews itself over some distant right-of-way.
The causes of these wrecks are various, but
they fall into a few main groups. One is
the cynical carelessness of men. BY constant
warnings to the railroad people in the shops,
on the trains, in the towers and in the section
gangs, the American railroads for a long
time kept them alert and sensitive to the
CHASTITY consequences OF seemingly unlmpor
tan: acts and omissions of carelessness. A
brakeman learned that he was responsible
for his own life and the lives Of the other
men working in the same business and the
lives OF the passengers. He was schooled
not to give a signal on a guess that every
thing was all right. He learned to be abso-
luttly sure. to take the trouble to look and
see that everything was all right. A fagman
never forgot his flares and torpedoes, or got
left. A mechanic learned that if he didn't
give a nut an extra twist, something might
come loose, fall on the tracks and pile up a
train going 100 miles an hour.
Two recent bad wrecks were caused by
big metal objects falling on the rails, dis
lodged from the engines. Two were caused
by careless or inefficient loading of freight.
That is just bad railroading. The managing
executives certainly are responsible, but the
work has to be done by railroad workmen
Foc many years they did their jobs care
fully. Now they don't.
A railroad executive whose own line had
just hae a series of three bad snashes re-
marked that there was a superstition that
wrecks ran by threeS, and added brightly
that his outfit should be immune for a while.
One Of these three wrecks was avoidable. 1t
was caused by a broken rail. The break was
hidden by a plate and bolts and had been
invisible to an eye-check. But they just hadn't
got around to a check with electrical equip
ment, which would have spotted the trouble
and averted the smash.
TT is mostly due to a letdoWn," the execu-
tive said 1.-The working people are just care
less We have had twice as many duplicate
sales OF reserved accommodations this winter
as we ever had before"
He, the boss, then evinced the same let
down in himself by an overcharge which
wasn't caught until the next day. A COM
parable error by another man might have
wrecked a train.
Dilapidatjon of freight rigs Of all types-box-
cars. flats, %gondolas and all-is shocAingly
apparent to the naked eye.
MANY freight cars are loose and almost
ready to fall off the right-of-way,". an old and
retired locomotive engineer writes me. Cor
ners are loose and when the corner bracing
in a freight car, be it wood or metal. works
loose, the car is dangerous and rapidly comes
apart"
Passenger cars look more dashing and they
probably are a little more carefully inspected.
That means nothing if a boxcar collapses
across the track OF the passenger train. New
ertheless, many passenger trains are no bet
ter than junk, some of it polished on the
outside but worn out far beyond the stage
where it should be scrapped or rebuilt. Still,
the railroad companies have stepped up the
speed of trains that already were going too
fas-, and whip these Gathering old julks along
weary rails lightly spiked to crumbling ties.
Comp etition is no excuse for this. On the
contrary, passenger business has fallen off
badly. Last winter the railroads gained some
passenger business when the airlines we're
losing planes in bad weather. Now they are
losing it back to the airlines, SO the COM
petition between railroads and between the
roads aud the airlines is defeating its own
purpose.
The same retired engineer, now 10, agrees
with me that speed and the old age of en-
glneers are important causes of the smash
ups. Even younger engineers take desperate
chances to maintain their dangerous sched-
ules in spite OF delays which are not their
fault, lest they be charged with inefficiency
in their records when they should get credit
for safe operation.
u think" my friend says, that the main
trouble is with the engineers. What hope has
a fireman of ever getting set up if the man
on his right is going to hang on until he is
70? That is far too old for the Job. Our
get slower as we get older.
cat 70 miles an hour a train is making
a little over 100 feet a second. A good en-
gineer does not have time to think. In the
face OF danger, he shuts off and gives her
the ait. It it takes him three seconds to do
thinking, he has gone 300 feet. With
another three to five seconds for the brakes
to operate he has moved nearly 1000 feet.
l am very quick. Recently l went through
some reaction tests. l am four times slower
than l was in 1918, but l am still far quicker
than most men. l am 70 years old.
1T takes strong, quick men to do these
jobs. Make railroadlng safe. Give the fire
man a chance at the right side before he
reaches the retirement age himself"
In the present state Of equipment and road
beds, the Pennsylvania and the New York
Central could drop their maximum speed be-
tween Chicago and New York to 20 or even
"a hours. Other roads which run shabby de-
luxe trains at high speed should simply an
nounce that they won't take chances. How
much OF that beautiful new postwar equip
inert have you received?" l asked a friend
whose line had clipped about IL hours off
a long haul for its fast passenger train.
Not a single, damned carr he said. 1--WE
haven't even replaced the cars we have
smashed up"
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