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been paid on a line 381 miles long which stands high in public estimation for comfort and speed; whilst 11,1257. is stated to have been paid by a neighbouring line, 656 miles long, which is popularly supposed to be at the same time more deliberate and more dangerous; and 55,3627. is given as paid by a third line, 968 miles long, which rivals the first line in its speed, if not in its other qualifications.

When a

variably some other very good cause for
every accident of this description, though it
is not always brought to light. Speed is,
in fact, a comparative question. What
would be a comparatively high and danger-
ous speed in one case, is a comparatively
slow and safe speed in another.
train filled with electors ran off the rails on a
line near the north-west coast of England
on one occasion, it was found that a very
unsteady engine, whose trailing wheels had
been removed for greater facility in taking
the curves, had been thrown from a bad per-
manent way by a shaky bridge. The speed
in that case, though not more than thirty
miles an hour, was unsafe, whereas at the
same spot a steady engine might have tra-
velled along a sound road over a rigid bridge
with perfect safety at sixty miles an hour.
The fact is that whatever the speed employed
may be, the permanent way of every pas-
senger line ought to be maintained in so
efficient a condition as to be safe at a speed
considerably higher. In all engineering
works it is a rule that there shall be a mar-
gin of strength of two, three, or more times,
above that which is absolutely required.
Railway bridges of wrought-iron are required
by the officers of the Board of Trade to have
an ultimate strength capable of bearing four
times, and of cast-iron six times the greatest
weight that they will have in practice to

At the same time we must add, that the fastest trains have not in practice contributed to produce the accidents in which the greatest loss of life and injuries have been sustained, and that some of the slower (stopping) trains are obliged to run at greater speed between the stations than the faster (through) trains. We should be glad | to see the speed of all trains diminished through the winter months, as the attempt to maintain them invariably leads to great irregularities, much dissatisfaction, considerable risk, and extra loss of life. Fogs and frosts, sleet and snow, driving winds and slippery rails, are highly inimical to punctuality, and they all cause extra dangerthe more so under defective systems, not sufficiently able to cope with irregularity. In fogs the engine-drivers cannot see sometimes fifty yards before them. During frosts the roads are rigid, repairs and renewals are difficult, and iron is more brittle; and the permanent way is often left in a most unsatis-support. There ought in like manner to be factory condition by the thaw that succeeds it. High speeds at such seasons are more objectionable than during the summer months. Many will remember the disastrous accidents that occurred one after another during the somewhat unusual continuance of hard weather that was experienced last winter. The companies then found it necessary suddenly to reduce their speeds, and to throw the traffic into a state of irregularity from which it was some time in recovering. That state of things was less satisfactory, both to the officers and servants of the companies and to the public, besides being less to the interest of the companies, than if the speeds had been deliberately reduced at an earlier date and the necessary alterations had been effected in the time-tables. The public would not, we are convinced, be otherwise than pleased at any reduction of speed that would during the worst of the winter months enable punctuality to be more regularly maintained.

But we were saying, before thus digressing upon the subject of speeds, that except under certain conditions upon curves, high speed could never be properly considered as the principal cause of an engine or train leaving the rails; and we may add, that there is in

a sufficient margin of strength and stability in the permanent way, which should be safe not merely at the speeds daily employed upon it, but at much higher speeds also. We regret to say that this rule is not always carried out, and that the permanent way of some railways is permitted to fall into a most unsatisfactory condition. After an old line has been worked to the utmost, the renewals occupy a considerable period, perhaps a series of years; and whilst they are going on a train may run off the rails, partly, perhaps, from the defective condition of the road, and partly from other causes.

If no death ensues after an accident of this description, no public inquiry takes place. If deaht unfortunately follows, the coroner and his jury assemble. The evidence is probably conflicting, the causes are technical, and eminent engineers give it as their opinion that the road was in fair working order. They have often seen other roads in a worse condition; the accident ought not to have happened; and no one can be blamed for what has occurred. The jury return a verdict of

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next meeting that the line has been so free | the gauge between the rails ceases to be well from accident.

Out of the average before alluded to, of seventy-six accidents per annum, thirteen arise from engines and trains leaving the rails, in consequence, principally, of defects connected with the permanent way of different descriptions. One defect, that has been the direct cause of several prominent accidents, is the decay or shearing of the trenails, or wooden plugs, by means of which the chairs are attached to the sleepers. Trenails have been, and are still preferred by many engineers to wrought-iron spikes for this purpose, but they have proved themselves to be treacherous. They are found to give way more or less quickly, according to their quality and the positions in which they are placed, at the part between the chair and the sleeper, where strength is most required; and experience has amply shown that they ought never to be trusted on curves, because they are apt to be cut off by the edges of the chairs, which are generally sharp. Even on a straight line they sometimes give way suddenly after having been in use for six years and upwards. An express train from a watering-place of much resort on the northwest coast of England ran off a straight portion of line solely from this cause; and a fatal accident happened, also on a straight line, in the south of Scotland, not long since, from the same cause. In both of these cases, other parts of the permanent way proved on examination to be in a dangerous condition from this source of weakness. Wooden trenails possess the advantage of holding better in the sleepers than iron spikes, and therefore of retaining the chairs more firmly in their places as long as the timber is sound; but it is clear, after the experience that has been obtained of their liability to failure, that whenever they are used in future, a proportion of wrought-iron spikes-say two in each sleeper-should be used with them.

Amongst other defects in the roadway that lead more or less directly to accident, may be mentioned weak rails, or rails laid upon sleepers too far apart; and employed perhaps, when of a double-headed section, first with one head and then with the other head uppermost. The rails have frequently been fractured under these circumstances by the weight and momentum of a passing engine, and often without the engine or the train being thrown off the line. Points and crossings, again, are badly put in, or are allowed to get out of order. When sleepers decay, the beds of the chairs become uneven, or the fastenings get loose in consequence of the holes in which they are inserted becoming too large for them; and in the latter case,

kept. The joints of the rails also are more difficult to keep up, and the ends of the rails acquire excessive motion as the trains pass over them. As each part becomes loose and shaky, the keys which keep the rails in the chairs are more apt to drop out, the chairs are more liable to fracture, and accidents of all sorts are more likely to occur.

It is surprising how bad a road the trains. will sometimes traverse day after day without accident, and how the working platelayers will manage to keep them on the rails under the most adverse circumstances, though of course reckless engineers tend to engender careless foremen, and careless foremen to make neglectful platelayers. In many cases individuals, or local authorities, have complained with good cause of the condition of different lines of railway, and have asked for an inspecting officer from the Board of Trade to report upon them. In one of these cases of complaint, in which the permanent way proved to be in a very bad state, one engine had run off the line four times, and another once, within twenty days.

Our remarks apply, in spirit, to every one of the many descriptions of roadway that have been laid down. In one and all, the same points require attention in order that a reasonable degree of safety may be maintained.

Safety in such matters is, after all, principally a question of margin. There must be a sufficient margin of strength, of stability, and of good repair; and it is important also to select that form of permanent way in which fastenings are least likely to get loose, if it possesses other good qualities. We would specify the fished-joint, as it is termed, as being the greatest improvement that has been effected of late years in permanent way. The most common and most efficacious mode of 'fishing' the joints is by placing a slab of wrought-iron on each side of the ends of the rails at their point of junction, and by securing them with four screw-bolts which pass through both of the fishplates and through the rails between them. It is an advantage to employ a section of rail to which the fished-joint can be applied. Where the rails are not united in this or some other efficient manner at the joints, every tyre of every vehicle receives a greater or less blow in passing every joint. Each end of each rail is depressed in turn as a tyre passes over it, and rises again as the tyre proceeds onwards. Each tyre receives a blow as it leaves one rail and comes against the end of another, and the ends of the rails are forced down one after another against the bottom of the chairs. This action causes a rapid succession

of blows as a train passes along the line, and the noise and rattle which are thus produced will be at once recognized by our readers. A strong permanent way, kept in good order, is a pleasant sight; it gives satisfaction to all concerned, and it forms a marvellously safe road to travel over. It is moreover an economical thing in the long run. Where a weak road in bad order casts 2007. per mile to get into proper condition, or 150l. per mile to keep up, a superior road will only cost 100l. per mile for its maintenance. The rolling-stock suffers, also, most materially when a road is out of order. Engines and carriages complain bitterly of it. Tyres, axles, and springs fail more frequently upon it. Engine-drivers and guards do not like it. Passengers perceive excessive oscillation, or unpleasant motion, or rattling joints, and become afraid of it. It is a constant source of anxiety, annoyance, and expense.

Of the accidents that have been caused by the failure of the machinery of trains, the greatest number have been due to the fracture of the tyres of the wheels. Accidents of this nature were a few years ago classed as non-preventible; but now, fortunately, they need no longer be so considered.

The tyres in common use, after being rolled out to the required shape, and cut to the desired length, are turned round into the form of a circle and welded at the ends; and their inner circumferences are made rather smaller than the exterior of the wheels to which they are to be attached. They are heated before they are applied to the wheels, sufficiently to allow of their being slipped over them; and they contract in cooling, so as to grasp them tightly. They are finally secured to the wheels, partly by the firmness with which they thus grasp them, and partly by rivets, or bolts, which are passed through the tyres as well as through the rims of the wheels.

The great majority of the tyres that fail give way either at the weld or at the boltholes, which are necessarily their weakest points; and the most dangerous tyres are those which are shrunk on the wheels too tightly. In a season of severe frost, when the roads become rigid and are uneven, the tyres are more severely tried than at any other time, as well on these accounts as because they have then also inferior powers of resistance. Besides having to encounter more constant and harder blows from the | roughness of the permanent way, their tensile strength is decreased in proportion to the lowness of the temperature, because the strength of wrought-iron gradually diminishes from a temperature of something like 600° of Fahrenheit's scale; and further, they are apt

to shrink into a state of greater tension at such times, because the colder the temperature the more they become contracted.

When fracture takes place, they are liable, in suddenly opening out, to fly off the wheel; and they occasionally break up into a number of pieces. The mode in which accidents chiefly happen is by the vehicles to which they belong being thus thrown off the line; but in some cases, passengers in the trains, and others, have been killed or injured by the fragments; and in one case, a passenger in one train was killed by a tyre which flew from a second train as the two trains passed each other in opposite directions. When a tyre flies from the leading wheel of an engine, the engine invariably leaves the line; and the results are likely, in such a case, to be very disastrous. There was a fatal accident of this sort not long since near Tottenham, which has already led to much litigation, and is said to be likely to produce still more.

When a tyre flies from one of the carriages of a train, the carriage so disabled is frequently dragged for a considerable distance before the driver discovers the mishap, to the excessive discomfort, and sometimes to the serious injury of the passengers and their effects, as well as of any other passengers who may be in the carriages behind it. Among the numerous instances of this sort that have been experienced, may be mentioned an accident that occurred in the north of England. The wheel-tyre of a first-class carriage gave way, and the driver did not know anything of it until after he had travelled for three miles. The guard's van broke away from behind this vehicle at an early stage, and was left standing in the ballast; but the carriage itself was dragged for two miles and three-quarters further, till all its wheels and axles had been knocked away from under it, when its couplings at length gave way. Then again there was the 'notorious carriage' accident in one of the Midland counties, which will long be remembered by some gentlemen residing in Sheffield. The tyres of a wheel belonging to a first-class carriage, which had been previously stated by one of the officers of the company to be notorious' for having a disagreeable motion in travelling, failed while the train was proceeding at a speed of 35 or 40 miles an hour. The train consisted of an engine and tender and nine vehicles, and the carriage that became disabled was third from the hind end of it. After it had been dragged over the sleepers for about 400 yards, the axles got loose, and were doubled up and broken; while the two last vehicles were separated violently from the hinder part, and the engine and tender from the front of the train. Seven

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detached vehicles were then running down a gradient of 1 in 131 at considerable speed, without a break before or behind them, and with no other check than that which was afforded by the bumping or sliding of the wheelless first-class carriage over the rails. They only came to a stand, finally, near the entrance to a tunnel, at 900 yards from the place where they had left the van, and 1300 yards from the point at which the first portion of tyre flew off.

Accidents of this description are suggestive of another precaution to which we shall refer; but we must first explain the mode in which accidents arising from the failure of tyres may be prevented. It is not the mere fracture of the tyre, it will be observed, that occasions the mischief, or causes the vehicle to which it is attached to leave the line; but it is the way in which the tyre flies open, and in which it is either thrown off the wheel at once, or broken gradually to pieces during its revolutions over the rails and ballast. To prevent this result, numerous modes of fastening have been patented and put in practice, which have for their object, both the dovetailing of the tyre to the wheel to prevent it from flying when it fails, and the avoiding of the bolt-holes, which weaken the tyre to the extent of 20 per cent. of its section, and render it more liable to fail. Different methods are preferred upon different railways, which have been introduced or invented by the officers of those railways. They are all superior to the old method above described; but they require various degrees of attention and good workmanship, and are more or less efficient. We would particularly specify, as amongst the most secure, the two rival modes upon the South-Eastern and the Brighton Railways, known as Mansell's and Burke's Patents.

It will be a long time before the means of security that are thus placed at the disposal of locomotive and carriage-superintendents come into general use. Vast numbers of old tyres have to be worn out, and the new and best modes of fastening have not yet succeeded in gaining a footing on some of the longest of the lines of railway. But the travelling public should understand that there is no necessity whatever for their being dragged helplessly along for miles in a disabled carriage, at the peril, perhaps at the cost, of their lives, behind an express or any other train, in consequence of the fracture of a wheel-tyre; because, in the first place, the tyres can be so effectually secured on the wheels that it is not only impossible for them to fly in case of fracture, but that they may even be broken into several pieces without endangering the safety of the train; and because in the second place, the train can with

out difficulty be provided with good means of communication from one end to the other, by the use of which the driver may at once be apprised of any accident.

This last is of itself a subject of importance, and one which merits a brief discussion.

The business of the engine-driver and fireman of a train is to attend to the engine and keep an incessant look-out ahead for signals and obstructions; and this is quite as much as they can do properly. When they are travelling at speed, the rattle of the engine and train and the rapid rate at which they pass through the atmosphere (which is equivalent to a hurricane blowing in the opposite direction) often render it impossible for them to hear any sound from the carriages behind them. A guard may at times attract the attention of a driver by putting on a break and suddenly taking it off again; but so little effect has this operation upon the momentum of the moving mass (which may weigh from 100 to 200 tons) that the driver will more frequently not notice it at all. It is true that if a guard has the means which he ought to possess, of applying breaks to two or three carriages as well as to his van all at the same time, he can, by making use of them, always cause the driver to look round. But breaks of this description have only as yet come into partial use; and even when they are einployed it is desirable to have a means of communication independent of them, because a guard may find it necessary to make a signal to the driver when these breaks are applied and when he cannot safely release them.

A great number of suggestions have been made from time to time, and many inventions patented, for providing means of intercommunication in various ways between different parts of a train. Some would employ electricity, others air-tubes or water-tubes; and others, again, would have signals on cach carriage, which should attract the attention of the guard, and indicate the compartment from which they were given; while powerful bells, or whistles worked by air or steam, supplied by the revolutions of the axles or fresh from the engine, or pieces of ordnance, or explosive signals to be dropped under the wheels, would be more appropriate and effective according to the views of different inventors. A simple means of accomplishing this object has now been in use on several railways for some years, with slight modifications of detail on the different lines. The apparatus consists of a hemp or wire rope, by means of which the guard from behind either rings a bell on the tender or pulls the handle of the steam-whistle on the engine. The rope is sometimes passed under the middle of the carriages, with an allotted portion to each

carriage, and sometimes inserted in eyes at the sides of the carriages, under the doors. The coupling is effected in the former case by means of spring-loops, and the eyes in the latter are made of a metal spring to admit of the rope being readily slipped into them. In either case the rope can be attached and detached whenever it is necessary without any practical inconvenience or delay; and by making it a rule that the signal to start the trains shall always be given by means of the rope, it is easy to insure that the arrangement shall be kept in working order. This system of communication is at once so simple, inexpensive, and effective, that it is impossible to understand how any manager can allow his trains to travel without it; more particularly when those trains run at the highest rates of speed, and sometimes for a couple of hours without stopping.

On one of the great lines of railway, a travelling-porter has been habitually employed on the fast through-trains, to ride in a recess constructed on the back of the tender, solely for the purpose of keeping a look-out along the carriages during the journey. This system was commenced in 1853, in consequence of an accident to a train in the early part of that year which occasioned the death of a director of the company and injury to five other passengers. It was afterwards discontinued with a particular train; but that train ran up on fire in 1857 towards the London ticket-platform, in consequence of prolonged friction between the casing of a wheel and a wheel-tyre; and a first-class carriage was almost consumed. In spite of the cries and signals of the passengers, neither the driver nor any of the guards (of whom there were three) knew anything of what was going on until after the driver had shut off his steam to pull up at the ticket-platform. He then, in looking back, saw a gentleman waving an umbrella out of a carriage window. He thought at first that he had lost his hat and was beckoning to the platelayers; but afterwards, supposing that there was something wrong, he sounded the break-whistle and pulled up the train. Twenty persons were then able to alight from the carriage in question, which was rapidly consumed; and it was clear that they had had a very narrow escape of being roasted alive.

The disadvantages of placing a porter as a look-out man in that position, are-1. That in a fog, or in the dark, he may be quite ignorant of mischief going on in the middle of a train, or near the hind end of it. 2. That he is not available as a breaksman, and is therefore not made the best use of. 3. That he is helpless in the event of a coupling breaking, and some of the carriages being left behind.

The present practice upon most other lines is for the guard or guards of a train to look after luggage, and to sort letters and parcels on their journeys. These guards are not expected to see at once any danger that arises, or at least they cannot be blamed for not doing so, because they always have the excuse to offer of having been engaged upon other duties; and even when they do observe that anything is wrong, they are too often helpless. They are perhaps in the front of a train instead of behind it; or if behind it, they can only apply their own single break, and they have no means of attracting the attention of the driver.

One step in advance, from this state of things, is the employment of the travellingporter, and another improvement is that of having break-vans constructed, as they now frequently are, with portions raised above the roof, extended beyond the sides, and glazed in front and at the back, through which a guard can always see along the roofs and sides of the carriages which form his train when there are no intermediate vehicles of undue height or width to intercept his view. The only measures wanting to afford a tolerably perfect arrangement are that a guard should be placed at the hind end of every train in a van of this description, with instructions to keep a constant look-out along the carriages and attend to nothing but the condition of the train, with a rope to communicate with the engine-driver, and with continuous breaks to apply at once to his van or two or three other vehicles in case of sudden obstruction or accident. A guard thus placed and thus provided would be able to prevent much risk. These precautions ought, we conceive, to be adopted in all cases; and there can be no doubt that they would greatly increase the comparative safety of travelling.

We have instances of the advantages of such arrangements in the case of some, as well as ample evidence of the want of them in the case of other accidents; and, looking to the disinclination of railway companies to adopt them, it would seem desirable that they should be enforced by law. We are not disposed to advocate, at all events in the first instance, any special means of communication between passengers and guards.

There are many symptoms which notify to a guard on the look-out from behind when anything is amiss, such as disturbance of the ballast and its flying up against his glasswindows, or unusual motion in the carriages communicating itself to his van, when any of the wheels in front of him are off the rails; or the smell of fire, in case of fire; or the smell of grease, in case of axles becoming hot;-which would often not be noticeable to, or noticed by, a guard in the front van or

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