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better effect on such men than the fear of punishment; and on this principle a premium, dependent on their good conduct, is sometimes wisely paid to them half-yearly.

The want of a sufficient proportion of break-power to the trains is a defect which is constantly pointed out, not only in the case of collisions, but also with reference to accidents of other descriptions. When an engine-driver suddenly finds an obstruction before him, or a signal against him, or when any failure takes place in any portion of his engine or train, the amount of danger that is caused to the passengers varies very often directly as the distance at which he is able to bring his train to a stand; and that distance depends upon the weight of the train, the speed at which it is travelling, the state of the rails, the nature of the gradients, the power of the engine, and the proportion and weight of vehicles to which available breaks are attached. If the train be light, the break-power ample, the rails dry, and the gradients favourable, the driver may pull up within a short distance, and may avoid an impending collision. If the contrary be the case, he may not be able to pull up under a mile or a mile and a quarter, and he may, if the warning afforded to him have not been sufficient, meet with a serious accident at some point within that distance.

Trains are habitually run, on the principal lines in the country, without a suitable amount of break-power, and they are constantly despatched without any break-van behind them. Vehicles to which breaks are applied should be properly distributed in a train. If they are all in the front of it, the carriages from behind are liable to run forward upon them when any accident occurs; and the results are more serious to the passengers. Or when a coupling gives way in the middle of a train, the detached carriages, having no controlling power, may run forward upon the front part of the train, or may run back until something occurs to stop them. A powerful break at the tail of a train is, on the other hand, of the greatest use in every sort of accident. If an engine leaves the line, if a tyre gives way, if an axle fails-on the engine or on any of the carriagesthe hind guard, by at once applying such a break, stretches the couplings or tends to do so; keeps the carriages back; prevents the disabled vehicle, perhaps, from being overturned, and the other carriages from mounting upon and fracturing one another; and converts what might otherwise be a very serious accident, into one which is attended with only slight results.

On some parts of the Continent, and in America, where more guards are employed in proportion to the number of vehicles than in this country, each guard is able in general to apply the

breaks

breaks of two adjacent vehicles; but the description of vehicles in use among us, and the defective communication which exists between them, do not admit of this being done; and on certain lines, where the gradients are steepest, and the necessity for additional break-power greatest, other means have therefore been resorted to. Continuous breaks, as they are called, have been constructed, which can be applied simultaneously to several vehicles by one guard riding in one of them; and they have been used on some lines for many years with excellent effect. A great number of inventors, English and foreign, have spent much time and money in producing different designs for these breaks; but three descriptions of them have been principally adopted in practice, those of Messrs. Newall, Fay, and Chambers. Without attempting to discuss in this place their respective merits, we may safely say that they are all superior to the ordinary single break, and may any of them be employed with advantage.

A recent case in South Durham strongly proved the advantage of continuous breaks. As 300 passengers were returning in an excursion train from the Lake district, the engine suddenly left the rails whilst it was descending a steep gradient at considerable speed, mainly in consequence of a defect in the permanent way. After running down the side of an embankment, it fell on its right side, at 82 yards only from the point at which it first quitted the rails. The driver was killed, and the fireman nearly so, but the passengers were comparatively unhurt, only six of them having complained after the accident. Continuous breaks of Mr. Newall's pattern were there used on three vehicles connected with the van at the tail of the train. They had fortunately been fully applied before the accident happened, to check the speed of the train in descending the incline; and to their action the safety of the passengers was chiefly due.

A system which has been found after long experience to be good for lines with heavy gradients, cannot but be good also for more level lines. The expense of fitting up a great number of carriages with such breaks would no doubt be considerable. Some extra trouble would be incurred in marshalling the trains at terminal, and in attaching and detaching carriages at intermediate stations; and, which is the great difficulty, several companies would be obliged, in order that they might be employed to the greatest advantage, to agree in adopting one particular form of break. But these difficulties are, after all, more apparent than real. They may be got over on any of the great lines by arranging that a van and two or three post-office, or other vehicles, shall be run through from one point to another, backwards and forwards, without separation. The companies

would

would thus effect an important saving in compensation for accidents; and also, if the breaks were properly used, in the tyres of the wheels, and in the permanent way. The employment of continuous breaks renders the skidding of the wheels (or their being caused to slide over the rails without revolving, in order to bring a train to a stand) to a great extent unnecessary. Those breaks save much time in pulling up a train to stop at intermediate stations; and they form of themselves an admirable means of enabling the guard to attract the attention of the driver, in the event of anything happening to render it necessary for him to do so. A driver will constantly fail to notice the application of a single break, but he will always feel the simultaneous action of breaks upon three or four carriages.

The system of continuous breaks has not yet been extensively applied. The carriages of several different companies are constantly combined in one train on the through lines; and they are not as yet fitted up to correspond with one another. It is the same with systems of breaks, and train communication, as with station arrangements, and signals, and junction arrangements. What an officer of one company considers good, is believed by an officer of the next company to be dangerous and undesirable. In the mean time, the trains are habitually run without the observance of easy precautions which would tend in an important degree to increase the safety of the passengers.

The travelling public can only wonder at, and regret, the way in which they are helplessly dragged along in a disabled carriage; or the extent to which the carriages over-ride each other, and are smashed to pieces when a train is somewhat suddenly brought up. They are forced to learn with what contentment they may, that a driver could not bring his train to a stand without a serious collision after having had notice for half a mile, threequarters of a mile, or more, of an obstruction ahead of him. The coroner charges his jury to the effect that they must not expect this particular company to adopt further precautions than those which are in general use. The same opinion is reiterated from the bench when a case comes on for compensation, with the addition, perhaps, that the question of such extra precautions, however desirable they may be, is not one with which the Court can deal; and that, if the gentlemen of the jury are of opinion that the company have used such reasonable care and attention in providing for the safety of the passengers as under these circumstances might fairly be expected from them, then they must record their verdict for the defendants; and the questions involved in cases of this sort not being popularly understood, the system is continued as before.

After

After the accident first referred to under this head, for which upwards of 20,000l. was paid in compensation, for deaths, injuries, and damages, the general manager of the railway to which the train belonged, issued instructions that one break to every seven vehicles, should be employed with excursion - trains for the future; but this was so little attended to, that somewhat later another inquiry brought the circumstance to light, of an excursiontrain having been taken over gradients of 1 in 93 and 1 in 100, with only two breaks to thirty-two carriages. About the same time another case is recorded, in which seventeen people were injured, of an excursion-train in Gloucestershire conveying a thousand passengers in twenty-seven carriages with only two breaks. These were quite insufficient to check its speed in descending an incline, containing gradients of 1 in 50 and 1 in 70, which it met with in the course of its journey. The guard placed 'spraggs,' or logs of timber, between the spokes of two of the carriage-wheels to assist the breaks; but the driver could not, with these additions to his break-power, do more than slightly reduce a comparatively slow speed in a distance of 900 yards; and the train could not, for this reason, be stopped in time to avoid a collision with a coal-train, which was an hour and seven minutes before its time, at a junction where the excursion-train was not expected. Goods-trains, also, are frequently very insufficiently provided in this respect.

We are averse to legislation on railway matters if it can be avoided, and particularly in regard to the details of railway management; but we believe, nevertheless, that much benefit would result to the railway companies as well as to the public, if a certain minimum proportion of break-power were required by law to be employed with all passenger-trains, at the rate, say, of one break-vehicle to every three carriages; and if it were rendered imperative upon railway companies to attach a break-vehicle with a guard in it at the tail of every passenger-train, under a penalty for non-compliance made easily recoverable by any person who chose to sue for it.

The next defect to which we would refer, is the want of means for preserving a safe interval between the trains, coupled with a want of information as to their actual position, and with unpunctuality. As the traffic upon all railways is of a mixed character, and as goods-trains, mineral-trains, and cattle-trains cannot be made to keep time absolutely, any more than passenger-trains, it is evident that there must exist a certain amount of unpunctuality. If a line be not so worked as to provide for the safe running of unpunctual as well as of punctual trains, continual danger will be incurred. At the same time it is not to be denied that great

reforms

reforms might be made in this respect with advantage. Punctuality with passenger-trains is not only very much within the control of the management, but may also be taken as a tolerably good indication of its state of efficiency.

When delays do occur, it is important that they should be made known by telegraph; and, indeed, the times at which the trains may be expected, or those at which they start from or pass the principal stations, should be regularly announced at the different stations, junctions, and sidings, on all lines traversed at high speeds, and by mixed traffic. On some railways this is done; but in the majority of cases it is either omitted altogether, or not done to good purpose. A goods-train, or a slow train, or a shunting-train, is therefore kept waiting perhaps for half-anhour, or until it can wait no longer, in anticipation of the arrival of an express passenger-train. It then blocks the main line by shunting over it, or crossing it, or starting along it, just as the expected train comes up and runs into it. If the signalman is made aware by telegraph of the time when such an express train may be expected, he is able to judge how far it is desirable to send a slow train forward, or how it may best be kept out of the way; and he need not expose it to any risk. For the want of this knowledge he may, in his uncertainty, waste time and cause danger at the same moment. This is the way in which many collisions occur, and the simple mode by which they may be avoided. Not only should a statement of the time of departure from each stopping-place be telegraphed down the line, to show how late the trains are, if they are behind time, and when they may be expected in all cases; but this information should also be properly exhibited at the stations. On one line of railway a slate is affixed to a wall at each station expressly for this purpose; and the necessary information being constantly inscribed upon it, is always at the service of any one to whom it may be of use. On another line a still further improvement has been for some years in force,-of giving notice even to the gate-keepers at the level-crossings of the approach of a train; and this system might be extended with great benefit. The trains are telegraphed on special wires from station to station; the voltaic current rings a telegraph-bell in each intermediate crossing-lodge on its way; and it thus announces to the inmate, that a train is at a greater or less distance from him, according to his situation with reference to the telegraph-station from which the signal is given.

No collisions between following trains could, of course, occur on any railway, if a sufficient distance were always strictly preserved between them. In some parts of Germany this object is

sought

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