§'_ _- . - -~ A 111* £1 -E E ,, v-rn . - . ` _` _ »": ".11 ., i i.'..’z. ‘- :‘ > ~‘| ._ av. ' ~,¢¢ _ ‘ __ _ _ _-J ; 't`~. Q.” ., .___-i _~ : :_ _ . ,_ ,ll ne-i~f~@if,, . . e . . l . i k » . minor D V 1 '- M ` ' -» = D - ‘i ' ‘ 1;-I Minnesota _ _M rninalltsils. ... --..,,__.. _-°_=='= 2 ...~ pu .i i""§`iil'oiliii.v ro K ' ‘ "" " ‘=’ " ' _ w3§~w,.~twm.i”i.'fi’ilfY‘iii,.} - cHARLorr1§TowN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, c~ANADiilisA`TURDA' V 3 Ii ` ._&__.,/. _ _= iL._ _ F C __ _. ,_ _*___ __ _ - , _ ._ _ , _ .__, _ _ Y, AUGUST 1,1908. FHLL fobtnlvsiin the opemtion qi , Q railroad none is m important Yhe'_9yU`ten'i` of signals, fl_¥r_ no matter to what state of emciency In other respects' the iiiilmaii may lie, the lives od the pamcngexs and the safety il- - ---_ :; rr _ ___-__-_~-__ _ _ _ __ t. 'Y / ~ ~° -_ #_ ,__-,V - i.. qt-_ ._ _. _1 to equipment, to say nothing of the bdlhti dapimd upon the proper operating of ills ,so that, after all, the oxpcnditurc is war- -muted. For years *the 'question offslgfmig has hm WIC ,Of perplexity to 'Lhe ofiiciols of in the country. It has bean demonstrated, and \vith frightful cin- Dhsab, that the human eloment in the op- eldtlon of signals has been the weakest link; and practically every accident has been duo to the neglect or oversight on the plit' of the men in the signal towers lonttvmd along the roads. ~ R' is tliie that investigations following ' Lzze “'&TI’9a& accidents have shown conclusively that the l'§i;rail men have sormctiincs been sub- 'U"¢l¢‘l' \\ f*Y"¢ff\Y\ l-hm llflfl PY¢V‘1ll@d f0¥`l<‘xtcudiug over two blocks. Thin-i it re- quiiied two opi-nitors to work in conjunc- tion or the sigiialn could not be set for iltitd in too muah strnin by reason of long lwllm, and the same has been found in the ease of engine drivers; but, never- theless, this -but brings to the fore thot fading that wherever the-re are men plac- gil ln positions of greut responsibility Chefs is it certain percentage of lapses re- lnltinq in oatastrophies. The great advances tliat have been made in the methods of applying electric- ity to cvory-day needs have been helpful to railroads, and the lending roads, the Bsltimunrimd Ohio, Pennsylvania, Union Pdoifio _and others, are now equipping their lines with an entirely new system Of Bkllixlllng of an electrical niitum that gives promise of being more than 09 per cent. accurate and may prevent entirely that.most awful of accidcnt¢i~t.lic reor- end collision. The cost of installing the new system is pidiligiousf but the cost of accidents, w“id|"t.hc settlement of suits and thc re~ pairing of equipment, is also enormous, 'l-QQ-O§'§..rA9 , i ~.- - fzaak Jihanfaz-}.%2sZ scvcml yL-aiu trains have been dcspntcliedl one uftcr another at intcrvuli-i, according f-0 u prezirmngcd schedule, nllowinii; #oi many minutes lictwccu siiccrssivo ti'uiu=~,| '1`his is known as thc time interval sys- tem. ily nuoihci- system trains ure run so that one is allowed to pass n given point only when u preceding tmin has posed n certain other point a predeter- mined distance in udvancc. This is the space intlarvol system, or, as commonly. known, the block system. \Vhen rigidly observed thc block system is absolutely perfect in theory, hut it iii, in the practice-tlint there is the failure. One of the earliest methods of operating the block system was by telegraph, there being operntois ‘at each block signal who were constantly in communication with each other and who noted thc passing of trains hy their stvitions, setting their *sig- nals uccordinigly Accidents occurring as n result of neg- ligence on the purt of signal men csuscfl the instiillntion of thc "block nnd block" system hy which the blocks were con- trolled hy electro-magnets with s_vsti~in»i infer:/2:0222): ¢7'_¢`z94Z _7’aJk.rJ.‘[¢`z.f? Go`v'a.rm1n£J.‘?‘Zszn ii clear triwk. Even this syaicin has proved to bi- un- ntisfuirtory on the lurgc roads on which fast. passenger service is uiuintnincd, und now it is l-<-lio\'ed that u real ailito- ini-itic i-iiignul oliiuiuattiug nininst. entirely the huuuin olmnont luis hevu found. (ln the grcut steel higliwaiys lwtivccn New York and Wnshington the l‘i‘nnsyl\'uni:i, llultimore und (lhio and Rciuling roads have equipped their lilies with this new device, which is u most interesting as well ns n.novcl system. The signals tlieiiisrlves are snmf-what ill`i-rent from the uid type. They :irc light painted wooden arms nttncliril to li framework in whit-li :irc set three glasses of ililforent rnlorf+~\vliitiz green :ind ri-il --which show by night the position of the nrm indicating "l’rocced ou schedule lime," "l‘rocm\il i‘nutioiisly" rind "-\`l0p." lly day thc nrin itself inilicatvs the situ- ntion by its position. Standing at right angle to thc insist it is the “stop” nig- S li il `nul. At 45 degrees it signifies caution und in a vertical position it nlimvs n clear track. i The new system supersede-= the old tol the extent; that it is vii-tuully ii three- block system, for when :i tiuiu passes the ariu goes to the right single, \Vhen the train goes i_nto_ the block heyond, the arm goes to 45 di-gives, nud only gow to the vertical po.~