iiiiiiii 
 
^ mn to 
 
 1303 
 
 A. mm 
 
 ifvfhS} 
 
arV18782 
 Railroad accidents 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 
 3 1924 031 247 947 
 olin,anx 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031247947 
 
RAILEOAD ACCIDENTS: 
 
 THEIE CAUSES 
 
 THE MEANS OF PREVENTING THEM. 
 
 BT 
 
 EMILE WITH, 
 
 CIVIL ENGINBEK. 
 
 "WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 
 
 BY 
 
 AUGUSTE PEKDONNET, 
 
 CBADUATE OF THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX, 
 
 BY 
 
 G. FOREESTER BARSTOW, 
 
 CIVIL ENGINfeEK. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 LITTLE, BE OWN AND COMPANY. 
 
 1856. 
 
A./si^fi 
 
 V^ 
 
 Entered according- to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY, 
 
 In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : 
 ALLEN AND FAKNIIAJI, PBISTEES, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 FACIE 
 
 Preface, by the Tkanslatok v 
 
 Introduction, bt M. Auguste Perdonnet ... l 
 
 I. General causes op accidents . . . .11 
 
 II. Explosion of locomotive boilers ... 12 
 
 III. Carelessness op those in charge of engines . 19 
 
 IV. Running off the track 22 
 
 V. Faults in the construction of railroads . 24 
 
 VI. Bad state of the track .... 30 
 
 VII. Wrong position op switches .... 34 
 
 VIII. Insufficienct op track hands and watchmen 35 
 
 IX. Instability of the train 38 
 
 X. Defects In the rolling stock ... 42 
 
 XI. Breaking of axles 46 
 
 XII. Faults in the bail 55 
 
 XIII. FiBES 59 
 
 XIV. Inattention to signals . , . . . 62 
 XV. Collisions 65 
 
 XVI. Irregularity in the running of trains . 72 
 
 XVn. Interruption op communication by snow . . 74 
 
iv CONTENTS. 
 
 XVIII. Difficulties of -wokking a single track hoad 80 
 XIX. Imprudence of persons travelling or em- 
 ployed ON THE TRAIN . . . . • 87 
 
 XX. Want of communication between the con- 
 ductor AND engine driver .... 90 
 
 XXI. Companies of insurance against accidents . 94 
 
 XXII. Statistics of accidents 104 
 
 XXIII. Summary 113 
 
 XXIV. Conclusion 122 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Explosion of locomotive boilers 129 
 
 Force of locomotive engines 138 
 
 Carelessness op employes 138 
 
 Crystallization op wrought iron .... 140 
 
 Ordinances op the prench government .... 144 
 
 Statistics op railroad accidents 150 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 BY THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
 Some months since, the work of which the present 
 volume is a translation having fallen into my hands, 
 and appearing to me to contain much that would be 
 useful and entertaining to those connected with 
 railroads in this country, and fitted to supply a public 
 want, I have undertaken to translate it for publication. 
 
 When a great evil exists in society, the first step 
 towards its removal, is a careful study of its phe- 
 nomena and causes. It must be mapped out for the 
 public eye. Those of its causes which are under 
 human control must be shown forth, and the public 
 conscience awakened in regard to them ; and when 
 this is once done, an evil that may have been deplored 
 and submitted to, for a long period, as necessary and 
 inevitable, is at last diminished, if not destroyed. 
 
 One of the classes of evils, which are most fre- 
 quently and forcibly brought before the mind, at the 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 present time, is that class, which goes under the gen- 
 eral head of railroad accidents. 
 
 Accidents are defined by Webster to be, " events 
 which proceed from unknown causes, or unusual 
 effects of known causes." Any result, which is the 
 natural and regular effect of a known cause, be that 
 cause what it may, cannot be called an accident. 
 In this light, we are persuaded that the word is greatly 
 misapplied to the various tragic occurrences which 
 take place upon our railroads. 
 
 Words are sometimes things; for persons, who 
 would look upon an accident, as a thing to be la- 
 mented or borne with resignation, but with the pro- 
 duction or prevention of which they had little or noth- 
 ing to do, might feel differently about it, if they con- 
 sidered, that " those calamities which are to individ- 
 uals matter of chance, are to the public matter of 
 cause and effect." 
 
 Even such an examination into railroad accidents 
 as the accounts published at the present time, imper- 
 fect as they are, admit of, shows very clearly that the 
 causes of most of them are not only well known, but 
 are immediately under human control; being in most 
 cases moral rather than physical ; depending on the 
 ignorance, or recklessness of man, and not upon ma- 
 terial causes, which are beyond the control of ordi- 
 nary human care and knowledge. It is rare indeed. 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 to find a catastrophe occurring on a railroad of 
 which this is not strictly true. 
 
 Let a bridge break down under a heavy train, 
 a coroner's jury decides, that the bridge was not 
 strong enough to bear the weight, or the momentum 
 of the weight moving at a high rate of speed. Can 
 this be called an accident ? It was a matter of chance, 
 as far as relates to the particular individuals who 
 happened to suffer ; but that the bridge was not suf- 
 ficiently strong to bear the weight, might have arisen 
 from ignorance, carelessness, or false economy. It 
 would not have been called the effect of chance, had 
 it proved sufficiently strong ; it was not an accident, 
 that it was not strong enough. 
 
 Let a train, running on a single track out of time, 
 run backward to avoid a collision, at a rate of speed 
 well known to be highly dangerous,* it can hardly be 
 called an accident that cars are thrown off the track 
 and life destroyed, for this is the usual effect of a 
 known cause. Let a single track be used by trains 
 running in opposite directions, and unless their place 
 of meeting and mode of passing each other are regu- 
 lated by fixed, unalterable rules, a collision or a catas- 
 trophe of this description must sooner or later occur. 
 
 * On the Paris and Strasbourg Kailroad, engine drivers are for- 
 bidden, under any circumstances, to back their trains faster than ten 
 kilometres, or about six miles an hour. Eeglement concernant les 
 Mecaniciens and Chaffeurs, du Chemin de Eer de P. a S. 1852. 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 Let an undue economy, or parsimony, prevail in 
 the maintenance of the track, let it be allowed to 
 deteriorate below the proper standard, and in a matter 
 so closely affecting human life, the most perfect prac- 
 ticable standard is the only proper one, and the giving 
 way of a spike, the loosening of a rail, may cost the 
 lives of many ; but for all this the cause is known, 
 and it is not an accident. 
 
 The public is too apt, in events of this nature, to 
 attribute them to causes beyond human control, or 
 to fix the whole blame upon some single individual, 
 and after indulging in a burst of righteous indigna- 
 tion and driving him off like a scape-goat into the 
 wilderness, to subside into its customary state of in- 
 difference. But perhaps a more careful study of the 
 whole matter might make us condemn the individual 
 less, by showing that the fault belongs not so much 
 to him as to a system in which all bear a part. 
 
 The public demands to be carried at high rates of 
 speed and low rates of fare, the stockholders wish 
 for their dividends, and the directors desire to increase 
 receipts and cut down expenditures, and earn a repu- 
 tation for prudent and economical management. 
 
 When we consider that a bridge too cheaply built, 
 a track kept in poor order, a general management 
 inefficient or wanting in system, carelessness on the 
 part of conductors, incompetence in engine drivers 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 must, sooner or later, give rise to accidents, and that 
 just so far as the management of a railroad is marked 
 by any of these faults, just so far is the liability to 
 accidents increased, we can readily see how all, pas- 
 sengers, stockholders, directors, and managers may 
 be, to a certain extent, responsible for the existence 
 or the increase of these evils. 
 
 It is easier to save money for a time, by reducing 
 the number employed upon repairs, than by a careful 
 oversight, to see that every workman gives a full 
 equivalent for the wages paid, and that the work is 
 thoroughly done. It is quite a simple form of econ- 
 omy to lower the standard of efficiency in the em- 
 ployes generally by lowering their wages, and it is to 
 be feared, that the present depressed state of railroad 
 property may induce companies to take this course. 
 Those accidents which arise from carelessness or in- 
 competence of employes^ and imperfections in the 
 track or rolling material will, under such circum- 
 stances, be likely to increase, and whenever they do, 
 the managers of roads upon which they may occur, 
 will doubtless be severely blamed. But let these 
 same persons undertake to raise their fares, dimin- 
 ish the number of their trains, or lower their rate 
 of speed, in order to guard against the occurrence 
 of these very accidents, and they will be perhaps 
 even more severely blamed. 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 A careful study of the causes of railroad accidents 
 would, we are persuaded, be of benefit to all. It 
 would show those in charge of roads the dangers 
 they are to guard against, and their own personal 
 responsibility with respect to them ; it would show 
 passengers how many of the fatalities occurring on 
 railroads are justly chargeable to the carelessness of 
 the sufferers ; it might show them also, that if they 
 would travel safely, they must pay enough to main- 
 tain the road in perfect order in all its departments ; 
 and it would show stockholders that the surest pro- 
 tection against accidents, which even in a pecuniary 
 view are often so embarrassing, is systematic man- 
 agement and the most perfect maintenance of their 
 road in all its details. 
 
 Judge Potts of New Jersey, in the trial of the 
 engineer of the train at the time of the late accident 
 on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, in charging 
 the jury, held the following language on the. legal 
 obligations of railroad operatives. 
 
 " These dangers, — of which scarce a week passes 
 without some example more or less disastrous — 
 call loudly for the checking and restraining arm of 
 justice. It is time that men assuming the high re- 
 sponsibility connected with the popular and almost 
 universal mode of travel, should come to know that 
 dismissal from employment is not the only penalty 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 of gross negligence involving the destruction of hu- 
 man life ; and the sooner this is understood the bet- 
 ter for them, for it will induce greater caution — the 
 better for companies, for it will save them from great 
 losses — the better for society, for it will secure more 
 safety. There is no question about the duty of courts 
 and juries to convict and punish these offences where 
 guilt is proved. I say guilt, for gross negligence 
 which produces death, is guilt." 
 
 It is to be regretted that the returns of accidents 
 in the railroad reports to the Massachusetts Legis- 
 lature are so imperfect. They supply but scanty in- 
 formation as to causes, and any calculation based 
 upon the number of cases reported to show the num- 
 ber of killed and wounded as compared with the 
 number carried would, we are persuaded, be alto- 
 gether deceptive. This deficiency is the more no- 
 ticeable in returns so valuable in other particulars. 
 Enough is shown however, to prove that the chance 
 of injury to a passenger seated in the cars is very 
 small indeed. 
 
 If the publication of this little work should direct 
 attention to the subject of it, and should lead to a 
 more careful examination into the causes of acci- 
 dents on railroads, and more efEcient means for their 
 prevention, the object of the translator will be ef- 
 fected. 
 
EER AT A. 
 
 Page 24, line 10 from bottom, after spoken of insert as occurring. 
 
 32, 
 
 84, 
 
 84, 
 
 95, 
 
 109, 
 
 143, 
 
 14 " " for wedge read wedges. 
 
 14 " " for hut read for. 
 11 " " for is read are. 
 
 9 from top under word Premium erase $. 
 
 15 " " for measure read measures. 
 3 " " for sways read swages. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 TtiE construction of Railways, now so common^ 
 met at first with great opposition, especially im 
 France. Scarcely twenty years ago, the men then in 
 power, treated with ridicule, propositions for building- 
 these iron ways. I could furnish more than one 
 proof of this from my own experience. The strug- 
 gle in relation to them was animated and prolonged.. 
 
 In 1826, Mr. Seguin obtained with difficulty per- 
 mission to build a railway for the transportation of 
 coal from the mines of St. Etienne. No one then, 
 thought it possible for these roads to be perfected so- 
 as to carry passengers ; and this was excusable, for 
 in England even, where the industrial instinct is- 
 more developed than in France, this opinion was- 
 held ; but in 1830, when thousands of travellers had: 
 already passed over the road between Liverpool and' 
 Manchester, it is astonishing that faith did not spring- 
 up in the minds of the statesmen and public of 
 France. It was, however, at that time, that I was. 
 treated as a madman for delivering at L'Ecole Cen- 
 trale a course of lectures on railroads, and announc- 
 ing that the invention of them would bring about ai 
 
 1 
 
<i INTRODUCTION. 
 
 revolution like that effected by the invention of print- 
 ing. The success of the St. Germain road gave the 
 lie to the adversaries of this new mode of travel ; and 
 M. Thiers, Minister of Public Works, returning from 
 a journey in England, Avas willing to admit that rail- 
 roads presented some advantages for the transport of 
 passengers, so long as their use was limited to a few 
 short lines centering in some great city like Paris, 
 but the public did not need great lines. " For me 
 to ask of the chamber to give you a charter for a 
 road to Uouen," said M. Thiers to me, when I pro- 
 posed with some associates to build this road, " I 
 will take care not to do that; they would throw me 
 out of the tribune." " Iron is too dear in France," 
 said M. Passy, minister of Finance. " The surface 
 of the country is too broken," said the deputy M. 
 AUier. " The tunnels would be injurious to the 
 health of the passengers," said M. Arago. 
 
 Power was, however, soon to yield to evidence, 
 Companies marched more rapidly than the adminis- 
 tration of bridges and roads, and that had at last to 
 follow. Great lines were undertaken. It was then 
 denied that they could compete successfully with 
 navigable waters in the transport of freight. Facts 
 soon destroyed this opinion, but still the antagonists 
 had a heavy accusation to bring against them. 
 Travelling on a railroad is exposing oneself to great 
 danger, and in support of this opinion the terrible 
 accident on the Versailles road, then that at Fam- 
 poux, then that at Poitiers was cited. Nothing is 
 more consoling howeverthan the statistics of railroad 
 accidents ; they, prove that, compared with, the im-- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 mense ntirabers passing over these roads, the number 
 of killed and wounded is remarkably small; but even 
 if there was but a single passenger killed, timid men, 
 without reflecting upon the much greater danger 
 they are daily exposed to by other modes of convey- 
 ance, would still fear the risks they incur by seating 
 themselves in a railroad car. It cannot be disputed, 
 that the causes which may produce accidents upon 
 railroads are still numerous, but whoever has studied 
 the circumstances of the different accidents which 
 h^ve happened upon our roads, ought to wonder that, 
 setting aside the accident on the left bank of the 
 Seine, their results have not been more serious. Who- 
 ever is familiar with the mechanism of, and mode of 
 working a railroad, will be inclined to consider the 
 rarity of accidents when compared with the number 
 of passengers as miraculous. We cannot praise too 
 highly those who, like Mr. Emile With, the author 
 of this work, have employed themselves in seeking 
 out and guarding against their causes. 
 
 If accidents are now, owing to the wise precautions 
 taken by the companies, and the watchfulness of the 
 government, less frequent, and less serious to the pas- 
 sengers, they still strike too many victims among 
 those employed on the roads, and it is painful to con- 
 sider, that in spite of these precautions and this 
 watchfulness, a concurrence of circumstances such 
 as that which the other day brought about the ac- 
 cident on the left bank of the river, may occasion 
 most serious disaster. It is not easy to settle whai 
 means should be made use of to diminish the num- 
 ber of accidents. Mess. Couche and Mathias have 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 already brought their talents to bear upon this ques- 
 tion ; and Mr. Emile With has rendered a great ser- 
 vice to the public by coming to the assistance of the 
 government, and the railroad companies, who are 
 considering this question with great anxiety. 
 
 Let us pass rapidly in review the different chap- 
 ters of Mr. With's book. It first treats of explo- 
 sions. This kind of accident is exceedingly rare, and 
 never takes place except while the locomotive is at 
 rest.* This depends upon the peculiar construction of 
 these machines. A great portion of the heat being 
 transmitted to the water to be vaporized, by means 
 of small tubes passing through the water, a very 
 great thickness, and consequently great strength, so 
 as to render rupture almost impossible, may be given 
 to the outer shell, which is not traversed by the ca- 
 loric. The steam may indeed in some cases burst 
 the small tubes, but then there is no explosion, and 
 the water spreading over the fire extinguishes it. 
 The mode of draught peculiar to locomotives con- 
 tributes also effectually to prevent explosions while 
 they are in motion, for this draught, produced by the 
 passage of steam through the chimney, becomes the 
 greater as more steam is used, and the production 
 and consumption of steam are always proportional 
 to each other. 
 
 Accidents produced by running off the track are, 
 after those resulting from collisions, the most fearful. 
 They are occasioned by a bad condition of the track 
 or of the rolling stocic 
 
 * See Appendix, A. 
 
INTRODDCTION. 
 
 Too great care cannot be used in the construction 
 and maintenance of the track, of the engines, and of 
 the cars. The strength of all of these has been 
 greatly increased within a few years. 
 
 But this is not enough. We must still be careful 
 in the selection of good material for construction, 
 and upon many lines this has not been sufficiently 
 attended to. The Board of Control, who often inter- 
 fere in very trifling details of construction, should, it 
 seems to me, oppose the use of improper materials, 
 such as chairs of white cast-iron, or rails of which 
 the iron is too granulated. On the road from Paris 
 to Strasbourg, a great quantity of chairs, and a cer- 
 tain number of rails were broken. The company 
 stipulated in its contracts that the chairs should be of 
 gray cast-iron, easily cut by the file. The courts, 
 nevertheless, on the evidence of an expert, com- 
 pelled them to receive chairs of white cast-iron. 
 The Board of Control might in this instance have 
 prevented a decision, which compromised the safety 
 of the passengers. 
 
 It is also of the greatest importance, in order that 
 the track may be solid, that the road-bed v/hich sup- 
 ports it should be perfectly dry. It is necessary 
 then, at any cost, to procure ballast of good quality, 
 and to secure the discharge of water by means of 
 ditches sufliciently deep and suitably placed. 
 
 On the Versailles road, (on the right bank,) the 
 working of the road has been suspended and the 
 track taken up, in order to replace the clay in the 
 road-bed with ballast of a better quality. 
 
 The rolling stock of railroads has been improved 
 
fi INTEODUCTION. 
 
 •even more than the road-bed and track. Breaking of 
 portions of the engines and cars have become more 
 and more rare, and their effects less injurious. It 
 would be imprudent however not to examine them 
 frequently, and to replace those which seem through 
 "Use to have lost a portion of their strength. I do not 
 ■agree, however, with Mr. With, who advises frequent 
 "testing, which seems to me to diminish the strength 
 ■of the material. 
 
 The choice of manufacturers is essential. There 
 ■are certain shops whose reputation is perfectly estab- 
 lished. These should be employed even at an in- 
 ■creased expense. 
 
 The most serious results upon railroads are caused 
 by collisions. They may occur upon single track 
 roads between trains travelling in opposite direc- 
 iions ; or either upon single or double track roads, 
 between trains going in the same direction, the second 
 train going at a higher rate of speed than the first. 
 There may also be a collision between a train and 
 any fixed object upon the track, as a carriage upon a 
 grade crossing, or cars at a station. 
 
 Collisions between trains running in opposite di- 
 rections are the most terrible, but they can only occur 
 upon single track roads, and they may be prevented 
 by proper organization of the service, and a good 
 system of signals. After the accident at Poitiers, 
 on a part of the road where there was no double 
 track, the public was needlessly alarmed at the dan- 
 gers incident to single track roads, and it was even 
 proposed to suppress them entirely. 
 
 But to do away with single track roads would de- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 prive of a great improvement in travelling, a great 
 number of places where the business is not extensive 
 enough to warrant the construction of a double track. 
 In Belgium, millions of passengers are carried on 
 these roads without a single collision, and in Ger- 
 many, where the roads are almost all single track, 
 these accidents are less frequent than in England, 
 where they are double. 
 
 Collisions upon single track roads can be easily 
 avoided, where the trains are not too frequent, if cer- 
 tain precautions are taken, as they are upon German 
 roads. 
 
 Collisions between two trains, going in the same 
 direction, are less dangerous than those of which we 
 have been speaking. The shock is much less vio- 
 lent. There is no other mode of avoiding them, than 
 a proper organization of the service, and the use of 
 the telegrapih. 
 
 There is still much to desire in regard to watching 
 upon most of the great lines. The night watch is 
 especially imperfect. Superintendents of roads should 
 be very strict in this particular. 
 
 Grade crossings are almost without danger, when 
 they are so placed as to be seen from a distance ; but 
 they should not, where it can be avoided, be placed 
 at the mouth of cuts, and especially in cuts where 
 the line is curved. On many lines they are much 
 too common. It has not been sufficiently considered 
 that in many places the interest on the cost of a 
 crossing under or over the railroad, would be less 
 than the interest on the cost of the grade-crossing, 
 added to the salary of a watchman. 
 
O INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Out of ten collisions between trains and objects 
 standing on the track nine are occasioned by a wrong 
 position of a switch. These switches often lead a 
 train, which should keep upon the main track, upon 
 the side track, where it dashes against cars standing 
 there. On double track roads, these accidents may 
 be prevented, by always placing the switch at one 
 end only of the side track, so that trains on the main 
 track must back down to it. This makes more 
 trouble, but gives very great security. On the Stras- 
 bourg road we are governed by this rule, and there 
 is no side track there which is not entered in a dif- 
 ferent direction from that which the train follows 
 while on the main track. On the Northern and on 
 the Lyons railroads, on the contrary, trains go di- 
 rectly upon the side track; this appears to me dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 A good organization of the service, a good system 
 of telegraph, and the most severe rules, will fail of 
 producing the desired end, if the agents who execute 
 them are wanting in intelligence or care. The 
 choice of employes on a railroad is, as Mr. With re- 
 marks, of the highest importance for the safety of 
 the passengers. 
 
 The business of the road is managed by the chief 
 engineer, and the master of transportation. The 
 directors appoint them. One of the principal merits 
 of a good director, is to know how to surround him- 
 self with men of ability. In the transaction of a 
 great business, it is impossible that the directors 
 should watch over the details of the service ; they 
 must, therefore, place great confidence in, and give 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 great power to the chiefs of the service, and if they 
 do not select very intelligent and very industrious 
 men, a great injury to the stockholders and great 
 danger to the passengers may result from their choice. 
 The merit of a superintendent is reflected in part 
 upon the directors who have been able to discover 
 and make use of him. 
 
 The board of administration, and the committee 
 of directors are in the habit of appointing the inferior 
 as well as the superior agents ; but this nomination 
 should be merely a matter of form. The inferior 
 agents should be selected by those who directly em- 
 ploy them. It often happens that the directors oblige 
 the superintendent to nominate certain persons, or 
 use their influence, to keep indifferent or even bad 
 agents in offlce. The principal superintendent, who 
 feels his own responsibility, should resist this. It is 
 not that he should entirely disregard the recommen- 
 dation of the directors, who represent the stock- 
 holders, and who, on this account, have a right to 
 claim some preference for their friends ; but in no 
 case should these recommendations prevail to the 
 injury of the service. Favoritism is the scourge of 
 great companies. 
 
 For certain employments of active service there 
 should be some limit as to age ; for example, for 
 engine drivers, firemen, brakemen, conductors, — from 
 thirty to forty-five years ; and forty to fifty-five for 
 watchmen, etc. 
 
 Some great companies, to secure good service, 
 have established funds for assistance, and for pen- 
 sions, with very good effect. 
 
 AUGUSTE PERDONNET. 
 
IIAILEOAD ACCIDENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENEEAL CAUSES OE ACCIDENTS. 
 
 For some months, railroad accidents have become 
 so common, that it seems as though science was al- 
 together powerless in preventing them ; in truth, they 
 are always occasioned by the imprudence of passen- 
 gers, the want of foresight in those employed on the 
 road, or by a concurrence of fatal, but very natural 
 circumstances. Nevertheless, it is consoling to think, 
 that in spite of the frequency of these accidents, it 
 is never impossible to prevent them by a due exer- 
 cise of intelligence and discretion, as I shall attempt 
 to prove in the following pages. 
 
 The part the press should play in these sad affairs, 
 is not to excite, by its dramatic recitals, fear in the 
 minds of travellers, and of agents of transportation, 
 who are charged with such responsible duties ; it 
 ought, if it would be useful, to examine these acci- 
 dents, both in their particular character, and in refer- 
 
12 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 ence to the management of the road upon which 
 they occur, and discuss fully the causes of these 
 irregularities, and the means of preventing them. 
 
 At present, no methodical classification of these 
 accidents, based upon their causes, has been under- 
 taken, except in scientific dissertations. Separating 
 for a time those which are due to malice, and to per- 
 sons not in any way connected with the road, we 
 shall divide them into four classes, namely: — 
 
 1st. Accidents caused by the locomotive. 
 
 2d. Those resulting from a bad condition of the 
 track or of the rolling stock. 
 
 8d. Those which arise from neglects of the rules 
 for running the trains. 
 
 4th. Those due to imprudence on the part of pas- 
 sengers or employes. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EXPLOSION OP LOCOMOTIVE BOILERS. 
 
 The accident to which a locomotive is subject, 
 while at rest, is the explosion of its boiler, which is 
 the result of a culpable inattention on the part of, 
 the engine driver, or of a deterioration of the metal 
 of which it is composed; 
 
 An event which took place some time since in 
 England, may serve as an example of this. 
 
 Near Manchester, on the North-western Railroad, 
 
EXPLOSION OP LOCOMOTIVE EOILEES. 13- 
 
 there is a building in the form of a polygon, covered; 
 with slate and surmounted by a glass cupola. In- 
 the centre of this building there is a turntable for- 
 locomotives and their tenders, from which radiate- 
 twelve tracks, between which columns are placed to- 
 sustain the structure. In this building, known as the 
 polygon shed, fires are kindled in the locomotives for- 
 the main road and its branches. It abuts against a 
 square house, the second story of which is a reser-- 
 voir for water, and the ground-jfloor serves as a read- 
 ing-room to the numerous workmen in the repair 
 shop ; the reading-room opens into the engine-house.. 
 
 In the month of March, 1853, there were five loco- 
 motives with their tenders in the house, and one des- 
 ignated No. 21, built in 1840, by Sharp and Roberts, 
 was placed on the track leading out of the house.. 
 The fire had been lighted in the morning, as it was 
 to draw trains through the tunnel ; this was to be 
 its first trip after leaving the repair shop, where it 
 had been subjected to very thorough repairs and a 
 very rigid examination. 
 
 It was the custom of the workmen on the Man-- 
 chester Railroad to take their meals in this rotunda, , 
 which was always warm. On the day of the acci- 
 dent there were eighty persons there ; many of them 
 were already in the reading-room ; every thing went 
 on in order ; the engineer oiled the engine, some work- 
 men were talking with him, while others were seated 
 on the steps of the platform. In the- mean time the 
 steam began to hiss, producing a sound disagreeable 
 to the workmen, many of whom, warned by this 
 sign, anticipated danger, without being able to ex- 
 2 
 
14 KAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 plain its cause ; and without knowing why it was 
 dangerous to remain longer in the building, left it. 
 It was the blue color of the steam escaping from the 
 open safety-valves which gave them most alarm. 
 
 At this critical moment, instead of taking the most 
 common precautions, the engine driver stepped lei- 
 surely on the engine, closed the safety-valves tight, 
 and then quietly got down, to get the engine ready 
 for starting. What could have led him to forget the 
 most simple rules of prudence and self-preservation ? 
 That is a secret which the unfortunate man carried 
 ■with him to the tomb. Scarcely a quarter of an hour 
 elapsed before a hissing sound was heard, and some 
 instants after a fearful explosion took place. Half 
 the roof was raised and, falling, broke to pieces and 
 covered the wretched workmen with fragments of 
 wood, glass, and slate. The building was in a mo- 
 ment filled with steam, dust, and smoke, and when 
 this cloud had dispersed, people came from all sides 
 to inquire into the cause of this terrible devastation, 
 to assist the wounded, to carry, away the dead. ^The 
 tender remained untouched in its position, with a 
 part of the platform of the locomotive. The engine 
 was thrown a distance of eighty feet from the end of 
 the turntable, with its fire-box completely torn in 
 pieces, and one of its driving wheels destroyed. It 
 had six wheels, with the drivers in the middle. 
 
 It seems that, at the moment of explosion, the lo- 
 comotive, in consequence of its irregular motions, 
 had deranged the turntable, for the rails upon it no 
 longer corresponded with those of the track. One of; 
 the workmen saw t,he engine advance and then throw 
 
EXPLOSION OE LOCOMOTIVE BOILEES. 15 
 
 its fragments forwards. All the bolts were torn out 
 or broken. The rupture took place in almost all 
 through the rivet holes. On the right side the ex- 
 pansive force of the steam was no less considerable ; 
 the threads of the screws were either torn off or flat- 
 tened ; the dome, completely torn in pieces, was 
 thrown against four persons, who were instantly 
 killed. The copper sides of the fire-box were bent in 
 towards the fire ; the explosion taking place not in 
 the cylindrical boiler, but in the fire-box. Its prin- 
 cipal effect was upon the left side, which was entirely 
 carried away. 
 
 There can be no doubt as to the cause of this ac- 
 cident. A perfectly new engine could not have 
 borne the pressure, which the engine driver had had 
 the imprudence to produce. In a quarter of an hour, 
 the steam, subjected to a high heat, had acquired an 
 enormous, an incalculable force, but of which we can 
 form some idea when we consider the injury done to 
 the building, and the distance to which the fragments 
 were thrown. An inspection of the surface of rup- 
 ture proved that the material of the engine was of 
 ' good quality, and able to resist a pressure tenfold 
 greater than that necessary for the customary service 
 of a locomotive. 
 
 I have designedly entered upon very circumstan- 
 tial details on the subject of the explosion of a loco- 
 motive, produced by an excess of pressure. All these 
 accidents, whether in locomotive or stationary en- 
 gines, or those of steamboats, resemble each other ; 
 to cite one example is to mention all. These explo- 
 sions are terrible ; they leave no chance for safety ; 
 
16 EAILEOAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 but fortunately, they are becoming more and more 
 rare, and as they are always the result of a want of 
 watchfulness in testing the condition of the boiler, 
 or of negligence, (for infallible signs, such as the 
 heating of the bolts, the descent of water in the 
 boiler, indicate the approach of danger,) they may be 
 avoided by taking the most common precautions. 
 
 In other cases, this excessive pressure of steam, 
 which causes a bursting of the boiler, is produced by 
 an unperceived lowering of the level of the water; 
 the fire attacks the metal directly and heats it redhot. 
 If then, by any means, water is introduced, it comes in 
 immediate contact with an intensely heated surface ; 
 an immense development of steam takes place in- 
 stantly, and if the valves do not work very freely, 
 an explosion is inevitable. This can only happen 
 through a complete neglect of duty on the part of 
 the engine driver. A glass guage indicates at all 
 times the height of the water. If this does not work 
 well, if any thing obstructs it, the engine driver finds 
 on the side of the boiler a cock at the same elevation, 
 then a second cock a little below that, and often a 
 third, so that there is no excuse for him, if he neglects 
 to test the condition of his boiler. 
 
 Besides an excessive load on the safety-valves, or 
 a want of water, which are the ordinary causes of 
 boiler explosions, there may be faults in the internal 
 construction of the boiler, which have escaped the 
 test of hydraulic pressure ; but these faults in the bars, 
 with the exception of a rapid destruction of a stay or 
 a bolt by rust, do not readily produce rupture, if the 
 valves work well. 
 
EXPLOSION OF LOCOMOTIVE BOILERS. 17 
 
 Here is an account of accidents due to this last 
 cause ; they occurred on German railroads. 
 
 The first serious accident on a road in the king- 
 dom of Wurtemburgh, where the rail of Vignoles 
 with plates fastened with screws, and American en- 
 gines are used, took place towards the end of 1853, 
 after it had been open for traffic four years. An en- 
 gine at a station on that part of the line which con- 
 nects the roads of Baden with those of Wurtem- 
 burgh, burst ten minutes before the time for starting; 
 the fire-box exploded, killing the fireman, and wound- 
 ing many others. The engine was thrown thirty 
 feet, and the tender was thrown off the track, but was 
 not injured. The dome of the boiler was split into 
 four pieces ; the upper part of the boiler, upon which 
 the safety-valves were found, was picked up six hun- 
 dred and fifty feet from the place of the accident. 
 This locomotive had run sixty-two thousand miles. 
 The boiler had been thoroughly repaired twice, and 
 had been subjected to the necessary tests by means 
 of an hydraulic press, up to eleven atmospheres, 
 double the pressure at which it was usually worked. 
 
 An examination very much in detail took place, 
 but no clear indication of the prime cause of the ac- 
 cident was developed ; the boiler was sufficiently full 
 of water, and the pressure of the steam had not gone 
 beyond the ordinary limits. We are forced to think 
 that the stays must have yielded for a long time be- 
 fore the explosion, and that the angle irons in the 
 dome were not made with proper care. From many 
 trials on other machines coming from the same shop, 
 it has been noticed that the stays were not strong 
 enough for the force they had to resist. 
 
 2* 
 
18 EAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 On the Frankfort road, a locomotive, after having 
 run twenty-two thousand six hundred miles, ex- 
 ploded. It had been sent to the repair shop, on ac- 
 count of leaks in the cylindrical portion of the boiler, 
 and in several of the tubes. It was ready to start, 
 the grate and the ash-pan had been closed, after the 
 fire was covered with fresh coke. The engine re- 
 mained ten minutes in this state, steam escaping 
 freely from the valves. At the moment when the 
 signal for starting was given, an explosion took place, 
 ■with a noise which lasted for three seconds. The 
 locomotive was thrown over on its side; the forward 
 wheels of the tender were drawn off the track ; the 
 coupling was broken ; the dome was torn completely 
 in pieces ; a piece of the boiler six feet square, and 
 weighing five hundred and fifty pounds was torn off, 
 and thrown horizontally three hundred and thirty 
 feet, where it cut a post ten inches square in two ; 
 •one of the hind wheels was thrown against the pillar 
 •of an engine house, which it damaged considerably. 
 The axle of this wheel was bent. 
 
 From an examination of the locomotive after the 
 :accident, it was evident that all the internal stays 
 had been broken and torn out with their bolts; that 
 the copper fire-box had been bent, and the rivets had 
 been violently drawn from the copper and iron cas- 
 ing; and that the wall of the dome had been broken 
 principally in the angles. On calculating the force 
 mecessary to break the dome, from the thickness it 
 presented, there must have been developed in the 
 boiler a pressure of thirty-seven atmospheres. To 
 prove more clearly that the thickness of -the boiler 
 was sufficient to have prevented the explosion, re- 
 
CAKELESSNESS OF EMPLOYES. 19 
 
 course was had to a direct experiment. It resulted 
 from this, that this explosion could not have taken 
 place except from the rupture of a brace, as the in- 
 quest decided. Besides, the surface of rupture of this 
 brace showed clearly that it had been injured for a 
 long time, and that the iron would have broken un- 
 der a pressure less than that which produced a rup- 
 ture of the dome. 
 
 The conclusions from what has been said, are, that 
 the braces of boilers should be made and adjusted in 
 the best possible way, and should be watched over 
 in a most special manner. Braces weak, or badly 
 set, bolts badly fitted, iriay be the causes of serious 
 accidents. Finally, it is best to try all boilers, at 
 least once a year, with an hydraulic press. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CARELESSNESS OF THOSE IN CHARGE OF ENGINES. 
 
 Accidents may happen to engines while in motion. 
 The tubes in the boiler may burst, and the water 
 may escape into the fire-box ; there may be leakages 
 of steam ; the fusible plug {plomb de surete) may 
 melt ; the bars of the grate may get loose, and fall 
 upon the track ; all these are known and may be an- 
 ticipated. It is known beforehand, in any given 
 case, when it is necessary to slacken the speed, to 
 stop the train, to send for assistance ; in fine, many 
 circumstances, too numerous to mention, may pre- 
 
20 EAILEOAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 sent themselves, where the address and coolness of 
 the engine driver can alone guard against danger. 
 
 Many engine drivers do not sufficiently consider 
 the amount of destructive force which is placed in 
 their hands, and which may burst forth, at any mo- 
 ment, when their attention is not completely fixed 
 upon all the important parts of their engine.* 
 
 Very often the lives of passengers are in their 
 hands. They dispose, at their will, of the property 
 of the company, and every act of negligence on their 
 part may have the most serious results. They 
 should be deeply sensible of all this. 
 
 The following, taken from a German journal, 
 proves this. 
 
 In January, 1854, on the Prussian part of the road 
 from Saarbruck to Metz, two trains, each supposing 
 the other behind time on account of a heavy fall of 
 snow, came in collision. When the engine drivers 
 came in sight of each other, they blew the whistles, 
 the breaks were applied, the steam was reversed, and 
 the men on both engines leaped to the ground with- 
 out injury. The collision took place, but on account 
 of the precautions taken the shock was very slight ; 
 but the steam, continuing to act on the pistons, drove 
 the trains abandoned to themselves, with constantly 
 increasing velocity in opposite directions. The pas- 
 senger train stopped at last at the base of an inclined 
 plane, and the freight train, after having traversed the 
 side track at Saarbruck, stopped in the snow near 
 the French frontier. The express train, coming from 
 Paris, having been notified that the freight train had 
 
 * See note B. 
 
CARELESSNESS OP EMPLOYES. 21 
 
 passed, run into it, breaking many of the cars. No 
 other accident took place.* 
 
 In many cases the engine driver, more active than 
 conscientious, instead of taking the necessary means 
 to stop the train, may jump off and escape safe and 
 sound or with a few slight bruises ; he abandons the 
 train to its fate, while an honorable man would have 
 remained, like a soldier, at his post, and braved the 
 death that seemed inevitable. We are often forced 
 to do justice to the zeal and devotion of engine 
 drivers, with whom a sentiment of duty prevails over 
 the instinct of self-preservation. 
 
 The great confidence which must be placed in 
 them demands of companies to select men in whom 
 the most perfect reliance can be placed in time of 
 trial. To secure such men there is only one way ; 
 they should be well paid, and their prospects for the 
 future made comfortable, from the time of their entry 
 into the service ; their rank should be raised, for the 
 station demands robust health, and tried intelligence, 
 training, and courage. We are far from the time, 
 when Mr. Brunei, in his report to the Commons on 
 a Railroad bill, said, " of two engine drivers, I would 
 choose the one who did not know how to read." On 
 many occasions, English juries, in their verdicts on 
 explosions of locomotive boilers, have presented to 
 the government requests for acts, " subjecting engine 
 drivers to severe examinations, and demanding that 
 they should be instructed." 
 
 There should also be means provided for assisting 
 them, or for pensions for their families in case of ac- 
 
 See note C. 
 
22 KAILEOAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 cidents. But on the other side they should be made 
 to understand, once for all, that at the least infrac- 
 tion of the rules, at the least carelessness or the slight- 
 est manifestation of ill-will, they will be instantly 
 discharged, and declared incapable of serving upon 
 any railroad in any capacity whatever, and the pen- 
 sions obtained for themselves or their families at once 
 forfeited. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RUNNING OFF THE TEACK. 
 
 The question of trains running off the track con- 
 stantly excites the attention of the superintendents of 
 the way and of the rolling stock. Both these depart- 
 ments should watch over, and take precautions for 
 preventing these accidents, which have for their 
 causes, — 
 
 1st. A bad condition of the road. 
 
 2d. A bad state of the track, either of the rails or 
 the sleepers. 
 
 3d. Instability of the locomotive or a part of the 
 train. 
 
 Inventors never having devised any infallible means 
 for preventing running off the track, have applied, 
 and are still constantly applying themselves to con- 
 trive an apparatus which shall maintain the cars at 
 least on the track, though the engine should go off, 
 an accident which may happen under a variety of 
 
EUNNING OFF 1STS TRACK. 23 
 
 circumstances. This apparatus is intended to de- 
 tach at once, and without any manual assistance, 
 the train from the engine ; and for this,purpose, a 
 movable pin is fitted into the flange of the wheel, 
 projecting very slightly from it. When the engine 
 leaves the track, the flange goes over the rail and 
 presses the pin in. A lock, like that of a gun, con- 
 nects with this pin, and the cock striking directly on 
 the coupling pin, throws it out; the engine goes off 
 the track alone, and the cars follow the line of the 
 rail. This supposes that the rails are unbroken, but 
 as most generally the engine is thrown from the 
 track on account of the rails being out of order, part 
 of the train must go off with it. The mechanism of 
 this contrivance is composed of thirty pieces, and 
 requires great care to keep it in order ; and there is 
 no certainty that it will work well in any case. 
 
 A mode but little employed in stopping the cars, 
 by means of a contrivance which detaches the loco- 
 motive from the train, and by the same movement 
 causes sand to be sprinkled over the rails, has been 
 used on the St. Etienne Road. In 1840, a locomo- 
 tive broke the rail and ran off the track ; this con- 
 trivance for detaching the train and sprinkling sand 
 was used, and the cars remained on the track while 
 the locomotive and its tender rolled over the slope. 
 This contrivance demands the most constant atten- 
 tion on the part of the conductor ; he must not aban- 
 don for a single instant the handle, and must have 
 his eyes constantly fixed upon the locomotive ; this 
 seems to be a difficulty in the way of its use. I can- 
 not decide upon any of these inventions ; they should 
 all be submitted to a general examination. 
 
24 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 I have not spoken of engines being thrown off the 
 track through malice ; such cases are beyond the 
 domain of the science of railroads. 
 
 The examination of the causes of these accidents 
 is very delicate, and in order that it may be thorough, 
 I must enter into some details on the construction 
 of roads and the management of engines. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FAULTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OE RAILROADS. 
 
 The faults of construction comprise those con- 
 nected with the excavations and embankments, the 
 tunnels, viaducts, and bridges. Tunnels may give 
 rise to accidents, by a portion of the vault falling 
 upon the train or track. If any fears of this arise, 
 the tunnel may be arched with masonry. Railroads 
 are exposed to slides ; one took place on the South- 
 ampton road for a distance of six hundred and fifty 
 feet ; these slides are often spoken of on English 
 lines. 
 
 Viaducts and bridges are a difficult portion of rail- 
 roads, and the attention of engineers has been, and 
 is still applied to them. 
 
 There is no single system in the construction of 
 bridges that prevails over all others. The problem 
 to be resolved in reference to them is very difficult. 
 Bridges of stone, of long spans, which resist the vi- 
 brations of passing trains, are very costly ; the com- 
 
FAULTS IN CONSTRUCTION. 25 
 
 bination of wrought and cast-iron is objectionable 
 on account of the different expansibility of the two 
 metals ; new constructions in wood are rare, not 
 giving sufficient durability or security against fire. 
 Bridges suspended by means of chains or cables of 
 iron wire have succeeded on common roads. The 
 first trial of a chain bridge at Stockton, on a road for 
 the transport of coal, did not succeed ; the experi- 
 ment has not again been tried on a great scale, and 
 a chain bridge of short span, built since, only served 
 to confirm the faults of the system. 
 
 •The falling of bridges, through faults in the foun- 
 dation of the masonry, are not peculiar to railroads, 
 and will not be considered here. 
 
 From the time when cast-iron bridges were first 
 constructed in England, they were imitated, with a 
 perfect infatuation, throughout Europe ; and though 
 at first restricted to common roads, were soon ap- 
 plied on a great scale to railroads. 
 
 Without a perfect understanding of the chances 
 of accident to which these bridges were exposed, 
 they were very freely employed, even in cases where 
 the absence of stone did not justify their use. A 
 new kind of cast-iron bridge, designed by Mr. Ste- 
 phenson, was tried upon the Chester road ; although 
 fears had arisen with regard to it, it was neverthe- 
 less introduced, with some modifications, over the 
 whole line. These bridges are composed of horizon- 
 tal beams, in one piece for openings of thirty-three 
 feet, two pieces for sixty-six feet, and three for an 
 hundred. In the joints, these beams are united by 
 plates fastened with screws ; iron bars of different 
 sorts bind together this series of beams. 
 
26 EAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 Much opposition was raised in England to this 
 union of wrought and cast-iron. While the subject 
 was still under discussion, in 1847, the fall of one of 
 these bridges in the neighborhood of Chester, after a 
 use of some months, showed the danger of this kind 
 of bridge. This event, which occasioned the death 
 of many persons, induced the British government to 
 take measures to prevent the recurrence of such acci- 
 dents ; it ordered that all bridges of cast-iron should 
 be supported by wooden centres.- In short spans 
 struts might be placed. 
 
 It may be useful to enter into some details on the 
 subject of this accident. 
 
 Opinions on the cause of the falling of this bridge 
 are very diverse i it was maintained that the dimen- 
 sions of the beams were not in proportion to their 
 length : on the other hand, the fall was attributed to 
 the shock, caused by the tender's going off the track, 
 against the outer beam, after the locomotive and 
 tender had passed over the two first sections of the 
 beam. 
 
 The wall of the parapet was greatly injured by 
 the tender, and the bolts, to the number of thirteen, 
 torn out ; the part of the beams consisting of forged 
 iron was uninjured. The breaking of the other 
 beams was the consequence of the falling of the 
 bridge ; the tender and part of the cars must have 
 quitted the rails before arriving at the parapet ; the 
 wheels of the cars thrown into the river were found 
 in good state with the exception of one. This was 
 the wheel which, broken before the accident, must 
 have caused the train to go off the track. This was 
 the opinion of some. Mr. Stephenson states, in his 
 
FAULTS IN CONSTRUCTION. 27 
 
 report, that a few hours before the accident, he had 
 examined all the parts of the bridge, and that nothing 
 indicated to him insufficient dimensions or a faulty 
 combination of parts. 
 
 The jury of inquest were not convinced by any of 
 these reasons ; they did not think that the fracture of 
 the beam was owing to the shock of the locomotive, 
 tender, or cars, or to a fault in the masonry ; but that 
 it should be attributed to the dimensions of the beam 
 not being sufficient to resist trains travelling at high 
 speed. 
 
 The jury declared further, that they should be 
 false to their duty, if they did not express their 
 opinion, " that no cast-iron bridge, even though 
 strengthened by wrought iron, offers the requisite se- 
 curity for express and passenger trains; and asked 
 in consequence, that her Majesty the Queen would 
 order an examination of all similar structures, which 
 should be prohibited entirely, or rendered so firm that 
 they could resist flexure, to the extent of six inches, 
 with perfect safety." 
 
 The wisdom to be drawn from this should be to 
 subject all cast-iron bridges to a rigorous examina- 
 tion, and without going so far as doubling these 
 works with centres, we might still strengthen them 
 by means of struts, for which purpose we may use 
 to advantage old rails, which, on account of a slight 
 deterioration, can no longer be used in the track, but 
 which offer all the benefits of tested iron. I have 
 seen them applied in this way to the bridges on the 
 Baden railroads. 
 
 Besides, to show the necessity for the measures 
 
28 
 
 EAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 prescribed by the English parliament, as well as 
 the propriety of the additional supports ordered by 
 the government of Baden, we need only submit our 
 bridges to a scientific examination, by observing 
 the vibration, the verse sines of flexure, and the effect 
 of expansion ; after this, I do not think that more 
 cast-iron bridges will be built. 
 
 Plate iron has taken the place of cast, tubes have 
 succeeded beams and arches, and soon, I am firmly 
 persuaded, the tubular system will be replaced by 
 lattice-work, after the American plan, of rolled iron. 
 
 This lattice-work in iron has all the advantages, in 
 an increased degree, of structures in plate or in cast- 
 iron, without offering any of the inconveniences pe- 
 culiar to them. It is inflexible, costing comparatively 
 little, applicable to all localities, and presenting the 
 advantage of allowing all the component parts, how- 
 ever small, to be examined without difficulty. They 
 can also be readily got at without stagings, and cov- 
 ered with paint where they may have rusted, whilst 
 in the cella of tubular bridges rust may progress un- 
 perceived until it shall have injured every piece, or 
 until some catastrophe shall destroy these structures, 
 ingenious and admirable for more than one reason, 
 but by reason of the impossibility of being subjected 
 to daily inspection, not able to give a guarantee for 
 safety for a long period of time. 
 
 For some time iron lattice bridges have been 
 built on the German roads, over short spans. At 
 first there was a hesitation in abandoning the old 
 system in favor of the new; but now all doubts on 
 the subject have vanished; the bridge of Offenbourgh, 
 
FAULTS IN CONSTRUCTION. 29 
 
 with a span of one hundred and seventy six and six 
 tenlhs feet, on the Baden road, near Strasbourg, has 
 taken the place of a cast-iron arch, which was carried 
 away by a freshet. 
 
 This new structure, designed by Mr. E-uppert, En- 
 gineer, is the object of general admiration. Trav- 
 ellers come daily from all countries to examine it, and 
 all French tourists, who go to Germany, stop in the 
 charming land of Baden, to see the railroad trains 
 pass over this new transparent bridge. 
 
 The construction and working of railroads are sub- 
 ject, in France, to the constant oversight of the agents 
 of the government. No earthwork, no construction 
 in masonry or carpentry, no laying of track, can go 
 on without authority from the government ; no loco- 
 motive caa be used without having been previously 
 tested by the engineer of mines. The road having 
 been opened to public travel, this oversight is contin- 
 ued ; it is also exercised every day, by special com- 
 missioners residing on the spot. This mode of in- 
 spection is followed all over the continent, and France 
 has nothing to learn on this subject from other na- 
 tions. In England this supervision, very much the 
 same in general, differs only in form ; the English 
 roads are visited on their opening only by a royal 
 agent, who bears the title of Commissioner of Rail- 
 ways ; and who may authorize or forbid the working 
 of the road. Thus in 1851, many openings were de- 
 layed, the commissioners not finding the structures 
 sufficiently strong, and having besides found the 
 rolling stock insufficient. 
 
 Let us now consider the roads as duly inspected, 
 3* 
 
30 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 and found safe, and let us endeavor to discover how 
 in spite of the continual repairs, they fail to present 
 all the guarantees of a safe and convenient travel. 
 How does it happen, that in spite of the severe and 
 well-directed vigilance of the agents of control, in 
 spite of the constant labor of companies, the way be- 
 comes bad, the locomotive injured? It is because, 
 for the most part, these facts are beyond the reach of 
 science, and because persons charged with the care 
 of them, cannot always and at every moment visit 
 and verify for themselves the details of the service 
 confided to their care. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 BAD STATE OE THE TRACK. 
 
 "When a railroad is open, the embankments begin 
 to crumble, the slope of the cuttings run down into 
 the ditches and may fill up the way. The first thing 
 is to raise up the track : the work should be attended 
 to with great care, especially in the approaches to 
 bridges, the level of which should be tested, as often 
 as possible, with nice instruments. Most especially 
 during heavy rains and inundations are injuries to be 
 feared : at such times it would be prudent to put on 
 special agents at the crossings of watercourses; to 
 double the force of track hands, and to order those 
 employed on the track not to quit the sections con- 
 fided to their care. 
 
BAD STATE OF TRACK. 31 
 
 A settling of the road-bed may cause the greatest 
 danger; the track no longer being able to keep 
 its proper position, trains must inevitably run off 
 if means are not taken to prevent them. Too 
 great economy is often practised in the width of em- 
 bankments : the top width should be proportional to 
 the height, in order that the breaking down of the 
 slope may be without prejudice to the width of the 
 road-bed ; there are roads where the watchmen are 
 obliged to place themselves on the slope to avoid 
 being touched by the passing trains. 
 
 In order to make sure of the good condition of the 
 track and every thing connected with it, it should be 
 visited before and after the passage of every train. 
 This is a measure of the last importance and is never 
 neglected upon well-managed roads. The condition 
 of the road-bed being determined, it may be that the 
 rails are no longer kept in place, not so much by the 
 absence of a solid attachment, as by a rotting of the 
 sleepers or longitudinal sills, or by the separation of 
 the stone blocks which have no transverse bond be- 
 tween them : then, at a given moment, the wheel, no 
 longer kept in equilibrium by a sufficiently solid sup- 
 port, causes the rail to bend and spring out of place. 
 There is but one thing to be done, to replace the sup- 
 ports, when their deterioration or displacement is per- 
 ceived. A very simple mode presents itself: the 
 sleepers should be entirely cleared of the ballast, for 
 sinking them in the earth exposes the wood to the 
 changes of dryness in summer and of moisture in the 
 wet season, and greatly hastens the decomposition of 
 the woody fibres ; this covering of earth produces an 
 
32 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 effect contrary to what was anticipated at the be- 
 ginning when it was the habit to cover the sleepers 
 entirely with ballast. It was supposed that the 
 sleepers would be placed in the same situation as 
 piles driven into the ground underwater; and that 
 this would prevent their rapid rotting, as well as a 
 disagreeable motion on the passage of trains. By 
 placing the sleepers upon the ballast, they may be in- 
 spected daily, while in the other mode they must be 
 dug out in order to be examined. They sometimes 
 rot very rapidly, especially where longitudinal sleep- 
 ers are used, which prevent the free discharge of 
 water, and on this account this form of superstruc- 
 ture is objectionable. 
 
 Rails, with solid supports, if not firmly fastened at 
 the joints, may cause an engine to run off" the track. 
 Accidents of this kind have only happened where 
 movable joints were used, that is with rails fixed 
 in chairs by simple wooden wedge, or rails of a 
 reversed U. The wedge may quit the chair, when 
 having been driven in a moist state into it, from 
 exposure to the sun it has dried and become loose ; 
 the vibrations caused by the passing trains then 
 shake it out, and the rail is no longer kept in line. 
 In rails of a reversed U, the joints are not united 
 at all: they rest simply upon a plate of cast-iron 
 fixed with cramps ; the rail sinks at the joint under 
 the pressure of the wheel ; the rail next to it becomes 
 higher, and a balancing takes place, which causes 
 the plate to work into the wood, and this loosens the 
 cramps which should retain it in place. This is why 
 we hear, upon track laid in this manner, a sort of 
 
BAD STATE OF TRACK. 33 
 
 shock at each joint, and a clinking of the plates, 
 which strike against the cramps or bolts, or the bot- 
 tom of the rails. This mode of attachment is inher- 
 ent to the use of longitudinal sleepers, which have 
 generally been given up by those who first made use 
 of them. 
 
 The causes that produce irregularities in the track 
 are often very trifling ; whatever is done, and what- 
 ever inclination is given to the rails in order to place 
 their axes in a line normal to the pressure, they are 
 always subject to be thrown out of place. 
 
 To remedy these inconveniences, we must consider 
 the point as a fracture, and fix the rails in an invari- 
 able manner by screwing or rather riveting two par- 
 allel plates against their sides so as to maintain 
 them in the same position, and thus avoid a solution 
 of continuity which may produce the most serious 
 results. By this invariable attachment, trains are 
 prevented from running off" the track, the track is im- 
 proved, and the wear of the rolling stock diminished. 
 We see that it is necessary in all circumstances 
 to consider a railroad as a machine for transport, 
 all whose parts, however small, are intimately united. 
 Every time that imperfections occur in this machine, 
 the work labors, and if they are not remedied at once, 
 serious results may follow. 
 
34 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WRONG POSITION OF SWITCHES. 
 
 A GREAT many accidents arise in consequence of 
 switches or changes of the way being set wrong; 
 on this account their use should be avoided as 
 much as possible, especially upon those parts of 
 the line which are traversed by express trains at high 
 rates of speed. The attention of constructors has 
 been always directed to the study of this question, 
 which is of the highest importance on single track 
 roads. 
 
 Switches are of two kinds, those which are worked 
 by men, and those moved by counterweights ; the 
 safe Tise of one of these depends on the accuracy and 
 intelligence of the switchman, that of the other on 
 the play of mechanism, bringing the rail to its origi- 
 nal position after the wheels of the last car have 
 left it. If these switches work well, there is no 
 danger ; but a hard substance, a stone for example, 
 falling between the fixed and the movable rail, pre- 
 vents its closing in spite of the counterweight, which 
 should not be heavy enough to crush the hard sub- 
 stance, for then it would be too heavy to be moved 
 by the wheel of the car or engine. , If this body is 
 thrown between the rails, after the passage of the 
 locomotive, by the shock of the passing train, a part 
 of the train may follow one track, while a part goes 
 upon the other, and thas the train is broken in pieces 
 
TRACK HANDS AND WATCHMEN. 35 
 
 and thrown off the rails. This happened in England 
 three times, during the year 1851, causing very se- 
 rious accidents. 
 
 After a very careful study and comparison of both 
 systems of switches and the mode of working them, 
 the preference in France is given to those worked by 
 a counterweight. It is not the same in other coun- 
 tries, where great difl'erence of opinion on this subject 
 prevails. An examination of the comparative merits 
 of the two systems does not properly belong here ; it 
 will find its proper place in researches on the con- 
 truction and working of railroads. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INSUFFICIENCY OF TEACK HANDS AND WATCHMEN. 
 
 Although rails firmly fixed at the joints give a great 
 stability to the track, it is necessary that they should 
 be carefully watched, and that none of the ordinary 
 precautions should be neglected by the track hands, 
 who should be stationed at distances of a mile and a 
 quarter, on roads doing a great business, in order 
 that their sections may be kept in perfect order. 
 
 It is always of advantage to have these men in- 
 terested in the good condition of their sections. 
 Capable men should therefore be chosen, married 
 men are preferable, and small houses should be built 
 for them, and a small lot of land given them, which 
 
36 
 
 EAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 they may use as their own. They will then get 
 attached to this piece of land, and pass their lives 
 there; rewards should occasionally be given them, 
 which, though they may be small, are always en- 
 couraging ; in a word, they should be treated kindly, 
 but strictly, as I have before said of engine drivers ; 
 for these track men are the mechanics of the iron 
 way. 
 
 In winter and at night they are often subjected to 
 severe trials; often immovable at their posts, like 
 iron automata, they are exposed to death by cold. 
 Thus of all occupations, including that of the soldier, 
 we do not find any more painful, any that demands 
 more perseverance, more self-denial, and sometimes 
 more intelligence, than that of working and taking 
 care of railroads. 
 
 Even considered in a financial point of view, 
 which is nothing when the lives of men are con- 
 cerned, railroad companies will derive benefits from 
 following the above suggestions. 
 
 There is little occasion to insist upon this point, 
 notwithstanding its importance; for almost all rail- 
 road managers understand it ; science and their own 
 interests are constantly leading them in this direc- 
 tion. Funds for the relief of employes, which are 
 being generally established, prove this. 
 
 A second part of the duty of the track hands is 
 watching the grade crossings. These crossings are 
 the weak points on railroads. When roads are first 
 opened, accidents often happen upon them. If it is 
 absolutely necessary to have them, they should be 
 placed at right angles with the line, and should, as 
 
TRACK HANDS AND WATCIBIEN. 37" 
 
 well as the track, be closed by gates ; without these- 
 precautions accidents may be constantly expected.. 
 Sometimes, where these crossings are placed obliquely,., 
 carriages have been driven through mistake upon the 
 track. But on the other hand, the management or 
 these gates requires the most constant attention, and 
 in many cases they give rise to new dangers, so that, 
 they have to be abandoned. 
 
 On the establishment of the English roads, the- 
 principle was adopted, that regularity of service was 
 more readily obtained by mechanical means than by 
 dependence upon the watchfulness of employSs ;. 
 these roads are generally little watched, but they are 
 closely fenced, and grade crossings are almost en- 
 tirely suppressed. The common roads are ordinarily- 
 carried over or under the track. Thus all obstruc- 
 tions are removed from the line, when it is com- 
 pletely closed from contact with the travel on the 
 common roads. By thus separating the track from 
 all external communication, a sufficient security is 
 obtained, which is still more increased by gangs of 
 workmen walking over it, who are engaged in keep-- 
 ing the line in order. 
 
 It would be useful to see whether this example de- 
 serves to be generally followed. In all cases the 
 suppression of grade crossings increases greatly the- 
 ease of travel ; for common carriages produce irregu- 
 lar pressure upon the rails, affecting their position 
 and the fastenings at the joints. In exceptional 
 cases, such as near stations and on private ways, 
 grade crossings must be used, but they should be 
 carefully watched. 
 
 4 
 
38 EAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 INSTABILITY OF THE TRAIN. 
 
 It is easy to realize the injury done to the engine 
 and cars by a bad state of the track. If a compari- 
 son may be permitted, a railroad in bad order may 
 be likened to a common road full of holes and pro- 
 jecting stones ; the best carriages will soon wear out 
 on such roads; it is the same with cars on a railroad. 
 
 We will examine how a locomotive may produce 
 injury, not speaking of wear and tear, on a railroad 
 that is in good order ; this is a very delicate question, 
 and has always been a subject of controversy. Mr. 
 Lechatelier has discovered that locomotives, as ordi- 
 narily constructed, acquire a serpentine motion, ca- 
 pable, within certain limits, of throwing the wheels 
 off the rail. Having suspended a locomotive, with 
 the fire kindled, in the air, the irregularity of its mo- 
 tions were studied, and a means was devised for 
 putting the machine in equilibrium by the applica- 
 tion of a counterweight to the driving wheels ; this 
 was found to neutralize these motions in a great 
 measure. In this way the engine was kept steady 
 upon the track, and found to do it less injury. This 
 is the result of the researches of learned men, and it 
 is generally understood and applied in France, and 
 it will soon be in other countries. The use of the 
 counterweight will be a powerful auxiliary in pre- 
 venting the wear of the track and cars, and conse- 
 
INSTABILITY OF THE TRAIN. 39 
 
 quently will do away with motions so disagreeable 
 to the passenger. Where the engines are not equi- 
 libriated, or where the track is out of surface or line, 
 the engine drivers slacken for a time the speed of the 
 train, if these motions become troublesome. 
 
 Besides these, there are other irregular motions of 
 the train, names for which have been borrowed from 
 the marine vocabulary ; they are called the rolling 
 and heaving of the engine; but these last motions 
 never give rise to serious danger. 
 
 This instability upon roads where the line is straight 
 may be remedied by a means of safety to which I 
 would call the attention of companies ; it is a close 
 coupling of the trains, by which all the parts are con- 
 solidated. This mode is very rigidly practised in 
 Englanj^, and the absence of it on other roads, par- 
 ticularly those of the south of Germany, seems inex- 
 plicable. The buffers being firmly pressed, and the 
 cars brought close together, the whole train forms 
 one mass, which is much more under the control of 
 the engine driver than if the wagons had a play, and 
 were confined merely by chains. This mode is gen- 
 erally adopted in France. It is found, in another 
 form, upon American roads. Under each car an iron 
 bar is fitted, pierced with a hole at its extremity ; this 
 is placed over the bar of the wagon behind it, and 
 fitted by means of a bolt or pin passing through the 
 two holes ; this arrangement forms a single bar, flex- 
 ible but not extensible. The shackling of cars is thus 
 made more slow and difficult, but there is nothing to 
 fear from rupture or shocks, and partial displace- 
 ments from the rail, in changes of grade, or upon 
 
40 
 
 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 •curves. In cases of collision the danger is dimin- 
 ished, since the shock is distributed through the 
 whole mass, and the cars that are struck are less 
 injured. 
 
 The aim of all constructors is to build cars whose 
 regularity in running and whose stability shall be a 
 security against danger. 
 
 In France and England, four-wheeled cars are pre- 
 ferred both for passengers and freight. Cars with six 
 or eight wheels are rarely met with. 
 
 It is thought on many railroads, particularly in 
 Germany, that four-wheel cars give rise to accidents, 
 which are not recognized in England or France. 
 No great importance is attached, in these two coun- 
 tries, to the advantages of six and eight-wheeled cars ; 
 advantages, that are much less striking than those 
 of four wheels, which are more convenient in stations, 
 and for crossing from one track to another, for the 
 composition of trains, and especially for being placed 
 on turntables, whose dimensions may be less if the 
 shorter cars are used. 
 
 The superiority of cars with more than four wheels 
 is theoretic rather than practical ; those who advocate 
 their use say that in forming trains, the number of 
 cars, and, consequently, the intervals between them 
 being less, the resistance of the air is diminished. 
 To reduce, as much as possible, these intervals, the 
 buffers on the road from London to Blackwall have 
 been shortened, and they have been placed below the 
 body of the car, so as to make the space between 
 merely a few inches. 
 
 The stability of the car may be increased by in- 
 
INSTABILITY OF THE TRAIN. 41 
 
 creasing the distance between the axles, and does not 
 depend altogether upon the number of wheels. 
 
 There has been but a single accident upon the 
 Sceaux railroad, which has been in operation seven 
 years. Does this depend upon the articulated cars, 
 employed on this line by Mr. Arnoux, on the small 
 amount of traffic, or on the wider guage, which is 
 five feet and eleven inches instead of four feet eight 
 and a half inches ? This question is difficult to solve. 
 But it can be affirmed with much certainty, that if 
 this kind of car is employed upon important roads, 
 accidents arising from running off the track will not 
 be the same as those met with in rigid and inde- 
 pendent cars. 
 
 Trials with these articulated cars are not suffi- 
 ciently numerous to fix the precise limits of their use 
 on inclines; as to the rate ©f speed on curves, it is 
 not limited by the construction of these cars, but by 
 the convenience of working the road, since the pas- 
 sengers cannot keep themselves in a vertical position 
 while going round curves on a radius of eighty or a 
 hundred feet; but they would be tossed about in a 
 most disagreeable manner. To obviate this incon- 
 venience, which may besides occasion accidents, the 
 speed of the train should be slackened, and this is 
 inadmissible on a road which requires a rapid and 
 uniform rate of speed. It will be prudent then never 
 to make use of curves of a less radius than three hun- 
 dred and twenty-eight feet, and even to avoid the sud- 
 den passage from a tangent to a curve, by connecting 
 the straight lines by arcs of parabolas ; this is at least 
 the advice of the commission, appointed by the Min« 
 
 4* 
 
42 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 ister of Public "Works, to examine into the modifica- 
 tions which the use of articulated cars will require in 
 the working of roads already built, and the location 
 of new ones. The report of this commission has 
 been given to the public, and may be found in the 
 Annales des Pont et Chaussees for March and April, 
 1853. 
 
 The present tendency is to make curves very sharp, 
 and the trains very long. These two conditions can 
 be united in the articulated cars alone, and on high 
 ■rates of speed a greater stability is secured by them 
 rfchan by rigid trains. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DEFECTS IN THE ROLLING STOCK. 
 
 There is still much room for improvement in the 
 ■construction of railroad cars, both in reference to con- 
 venience and safety ; and much attention is con- 
 stantly devoted to this most important point. Open 
 .cars, cars without seats, cars with mere benches of 
 wood, will soon disappear, and travellers will no 
 longer be exposed to the inclemencies of the weather ; 
 they will no longer be crowded by fifties into cars 
 with no means of support but bars and the walls of 
 -the car; they will soon all be comfortably seated, and 
 will no longer reach the end of their journey worn 
 out by fatigue. This is merely a question of cost. 
 
DEFECTS IN ROLLING STOCK. 43 
 
 Since the construction of railroad cars has been 
 placed in the hands of carriage-makers, there has 
 been great improvement in them, especially in France. 
 It is not the same in other countries. 
 
 If the English cars are distinguished by ease of 
 motion and stability, which arise from the good con- 
 struction of the springs, the small size of the body, 
 and close coupling ; on the other hand they are 
 wanting in elegance and convenience, and in this re- 
 spect resemble those of Northern Germany. 
 
 Those convenient arrangements which are want- 
 ing in the passenger cars are found in those devoted 
 to freight. The new freight cars have a roof of zinc 
 or galvanized iron, which is kept in position by its 
 own stiffness. Doors are cut in the sides, but more 
 frequently there is an opening in the roof, through 
 which goods are passed by means of cranes, which 
 are found in sufficient numbers in their station 
 grounds and buildings. Freight cars are almost 
 always made of wood, but in some cases they are 
 made of iron, especially those used for the transport 
 of coke and coal. These iron cars are not likely to 
 come into general use in France, on account of their 
 great liability to be knocked out of shape. 
 
 Exotic woods, brought in great quantities from 
 India as ballast, are exclusively used in the construc- 
 tion of English cars ; the price of this wood is less 
 than that of oak of the first quality. These woods 
 are not painted, but simply polished ; this would not 
 be practicable in a country less cloudy than England. 
 
 With convenience and elegance we must combine 
 in cars a strength equal to the shocks to which they 
 
44 KAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 are exposed. Light cars might be easily broken by 
 these shocks, and the passengers thrown out ; in cars 
 excessively strong and massive, the occupants might 
 be thrown about and wounded against the sides and 
 salient angles scattered in profusion in the interior. 
 The advice generally given to cover with cushions 
 all projecting points is too little regarded. In many 
 elegant cars, ornaments and carving, which interfere 
 with a free circulation, are too often found. 
 
 In England the rolling stock is more substantially 
 built than in France, and there, at present, the cars 
 are not fitted to pass in succession over all lines, to 
 be frequently lifted to considerable heights, and to 
 remain for a long time absent from the places where 
 they belong, and where alone they can be subjected 
 to rigid examination and important repairs. 
 
 The only accidents that can happen to the bodies 
 of cars are their destruction by fire or collisions. 
 Accidents to cars are most frequently occasioned 
 through faults in the axles, the wheels, and the 
 mechanism for shackling. By the breaking of 
 shackles, cars separated from the engine and aban- 
 doned to themselves have run down inclines, and 
 have run into cars standing at stations, or coming in 
 an opposite direction. The most careful inspection 
 should be made of the bars for shackling and the 
 safety-chains ; for defects which have not been no- 
 ticed and repaired in time, through the negligence or 
 incapacity of the agent, have often occasioned acci- 
 dents. On the railroad near Manchester, in 1852, a 
 coupling-chain, which connected two locomotives to 
 a train of fifty cars having broken, the engines went 
 
DEFECTS IN ROLLING STOCK. 45 
 
 on alone, and having been very imprudently brought 
 to a stop, the train ran into them with such violence 
 as to break many cars in pieces and severely injure 
 many passengers. 
 
 In locomotives, as in cars, the journals of the 
 axles, or the oil-boxes, may get heated ; this is made 
 known by a grating sound, and the smell of burnt 
 grease, or oil ; the engine must be stopped, and water 
 thrown upon them before they are oiled anew. If 
 the connecting or piston rods, or the slides, become 
 heated, they should be lubricated with all necessary 
 precautions, and should be carefully looked to at 
 every stopping place. Tightening in the cylinders 
 arises from too great thickness of the covering of the 
 segments of the piston. The cylinder head may be 
 broken in consequence of the breaking of the pieces 
 of the piston ; the piston or connecting rod may 
 break, and the pumps may refuse to work ; in these 
 cases, the engine must be stopped and put in order 
 at once, or it may be ruined. 
 
 The parts which support the engine are also liable 
 to accidents, which may cause the train to be injured 
 or thrown off the track. The broken rods may fall 
 down upon the track, raise up the engine and throw 
 it off the track. 
 
 Springs, and tires too closely fitted may break, 
 especially after long use, if proper care has not been 
 taken in their manufacture ; the flanges of the wheels 
 may become loose ; even if the pieces are not en- 
 tirely broken, the train must be brought up at once 
 by giving the usual signals. 
 
 The tender is not subject to any peculiar accident. 
 
46 
 
 KAILROAD ACCIDB:^rTS. 
 
 with the exception of the brake's getting out qf 
 order, and the precautionary measures to be talten 
 are the same as those indicated for locomotives. 
 
 But of all the serious accidents to which the 
 mechanism of a train is liable, the breaking of a lo- 
 comotive axle may be placed in the first rank. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BREAKING OF AXLES. 
 
 An event happening in the month of May, 1842, 
 on the railroad from Paris to Versailles, on the left 
 bank of the river, caused by the breaking of an axle of 
 the engine, fixed, very properly, the general attention 
 on the construction of locomotives and the manufac- 
 ture of axles ; of which the form, strength, and dura- 
 bility leave little to desire at the present time. The 
 breaking of them is becoming more and more rare 
 in France. Nevertheless, we should not cease our 
 attempts at improvement, nor wait till a fatal acci- 
 dent calls once more upon the skill of our workmen 
 and inventors. The new axles are equal to all the 
 exigencies of a sure and regular traffic. But will 
 they always be so, or will they not become altered 
 by prolonged use, as has already taken place upon 
 many roads? What are the causes of this change, 
 and by what signs can it be recognized ? In regard 
 to these questions there is great diversity of opinion. 
 
BKEAKING OF AXLES. 47 
 
 These different opinions are based upon isolated ex- 
 periments which have never been compared together, 
 and which vary with different localities. This differ- 
 ence of opinion, as far as relates to modes of manu- 
 facture, is not of any great practical importance, and 
 may depend upon different qualities in the iron. But 
 it is of the greatest importance to settle what limits 
 should be placed to the time which an axle may be 
 safely used. 
 
 All the security and economy of working a railroad 
 depends upon the solution of this question, At what 
 time will it become necessary to renew the rolling 
 stock and rails of roads ? In France this question has 
 not yet come up, though it has in some other coun- 
 tries. 
 
 The subject of the changes that take place in axles 
 has been much discussed, and hypotheses, more or 
 less plausible, have been imagined upon molecular 
 movements and vibrations ; on the other hand, a few 
 experiments have been, and yet it was with them, 
 that the beginning should have been made. Mr. de 
 Boureuille, in a report presented in the name of the 
 commission instituted in 1842, to discover the means 
 of avoiding accidents on railroads, has considered this 
 subject. His report, inserted in Les Annales des 
 Fonts et Chaussees and the Annales des Mines, speaks 
 of an apparatus for submitting axles of locomo- 
 tives and cars to all the movements and resistances, to 
 which they may be exposed in use. By this method, 
 we shall evidently arrive at the same results as by 
 observations of axles which have seen much service. 
 This apparatus being kept in constant operation, en- 
 
48 KAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 ables us to arrive more speedily at an estimate of 
 the course of crystallization, taking into account, at 
 the same time, the changes occasioned in the nature 
 of iron by variations of temperature. 
 
 The Austrian government has had the same idea, 
 and it has the merit of having put it in operation 
 some time since, in consequence of the almost daily 
 breaking of axles, upon the State railroad, after hav- 
 ing been kept in perfectly good order for five years. 
 
 I will give the experiments which have been made, 
 and which I have before published in the Journal des 
 Chemins de Fer, in answer to a wish expressed by the 
 Society of Civil Engineers in Paris, that the limits 
 of extensibility and compressibility of wrought iron 
 might be subjected to special experiments. 
 
 The apparatus consisted of a bent axle, which was 
 firmly fixed up to the elbow in timber, and which 
 was subjected to torsion by means of a cog-wheel 
 connected with the end of the horizontal part. At 
 each turn the angle of torsion was 24°. A shock 
 was produced each time that the bar left one tooth to 
 be raised by the next. An index adapted to the ap- 
 paratus indicated the number of revolutions and 
 shocks. Seven axles, submitted to this trial, presented 
 the following results. 
 
 1st. The movement lasted one hour : 10,800 revo- 
 lutions and 32,400 shocks were produced. The axle, 
 two and six tenths inches in diameter, was taken 
 from the machine and broken by an hydraulic press. 
 No change in the texture of the iron was visible. 
 
 2d. A new axle, having been tried four hours, sus- 
 tained 129,000 torsions, and was afterwards broken 
 
BREAKING OF AXLES. 49" 
 
 by means of an hydraulic press. No alteration of the- 
 iron could be discovered, by the naked eye, on the 
 surface of rupture ; but tried with a microscope, the- 
 fibres appeared without adhesion, like a bundle or 
 needles. 
 
 3d. A third axle was subjected, during twelve- 
 hours, to 388,000 torsions, and broken in two. A. 
 change in its texture, and an increased size in the- 
 grain of the iron, was observed by the naked eye. 
 
 4th. After one hundred and twenty hours, and; 
 3,888,000 torsions, the axle was broken in many 
 places ; a considerable change in its texture was ap- 
 parent, which was more striking towards the centre;: 
 the size of the grains diminished towards the extrem-- 
 ities. 
 
 5th. An axle, submitted to 23,328,000 torsions 
 during seven hundred and twenty hours, was com- 
 pletely changed in its texture; the fracture in the- 
 middle was crystalline, but not very scaly. 
 
 6th. After ten months, during which the axle was- 
 submitted to 78,732,000 torsions and shocks, fracture, , 
 produced by an hydraulic press, showed clearly an 
 absolute transformation of the structure of the iron :: 
 the surface of rupture was scaly like pewter. 
 
 7th. Finally, as a last trial, an axle submitted to- 
 128,304,000 torsions presented a surface of rapture 
 like that in the preceding experiment. The crystals 
 were perfectly well defined, the iron having lost every 
 appearance of wrought iron. 
 
 From these experiments, we must conclude, that 
 torsion and shocks exert a marked influence on the 
 texture of iron, changing it from fibrous into crys- 
 
 5 
 
50 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 talline iron. It is true that when an axle breaks, 
 it suffers extraordinary torsions, for the rupture may 
 be the consequence of the accident ; a broken axle 
 may throw the train off the track, and a train going 
 off the track may produce the fracture of an axle. 
 Straight axles break only in the journals,* crank axles 
 may also break in the part forming the crank. 
 
 Let us examine now the irregular motions which 
 bring about this alteration. 
 
 Shocks arise, firstly, from irregularities in the sur- 
 face or line of the track, from the bending of rails, 
 from the momentary depression of joints, from oscil- 
 lations of the cars, and from the weight of the engine 
 and the load pressing unequally upon the springs. 
 
 Torsions are produced by the unequal running of 
 wheels with coned tires round curves; one of the 
 wheels slides, while the other turns ; this inequality 
 of running of a cone on a plane surface is corrected 
 by the torsion of the axle, which ceases, when its in- 
 tensity^ which corresponds to the elastic force of the 
 iron, attains its maximum. Torsion takes place also 
 upon straight lines, in consequence of the unequal 
 diameter of the two wheels, of differences in the sec- 
 tion of their tires, and in the inclinations of the rails, 
 and finally by the distance between the axles. These 
 evils may be remedied by a careful laying, and great 
 convexity of the rail, for the flatter these are, the 
 greater is the effect of sliding. 
 
 * American experience makes the fracture of axles occur, in a 
 majority of cases, in the main part of the shaft, close to .the inside 
 face of the hub or nave. — American Editor. 
 
BREAKING OF AXLES. 51 
 
 The number of wheels has an influence on the 
 torsion ; it is desirable that experiments on this sub- 
 ject should be made with cars with four, six, and 
 eight wheels. Practice alone can settle this ques- 
 tion, which cannot be embraced, in all its particulars, 
 by theory. The same process of crystallization is 
 found going on ia old structures of iron, either through 
 the influence of heat, or of vibrations. The tem- 
 perature of the air has a great influence on the con- 
 dition of axles ; during the first frosts, and after great 
 thaws, the number of broken axles is apt to increase. 
 
 Almost all the inconveniences which have been 
 spoken of, are, of necessity, incident to railroads, 
 and it is impossible to do away with them altogether. 
 The ingenuity of men is therefore directed to the 
 manufacture of axles to resist all these evils. By 
 suppressing the crank, which forms one plane of rup- 
 ture, many accidents have already been avoided ; 
 and as regards the form, there is little room for im- 
 provement in axles. As to the mode of making, and 
 the choice of material, there have been no inno- 
 vations in France ; in Germany, axles of steel have 
 been used ; in England, hollow, tubular axles have 
 been tried, and upon two important roads, with ap- 
 parent success ; they have been applied to locomo- 
 tives, where a high rate of speed is required under 
 unfavorable circumstances. It is more in respect to 
 superior powers of resistance, than in economy of 
 iron, which is a quarter part less than that required 
 for solid axles, that the hollow ones have the prefer- 
 ence. Experiments which have been made to settle 
 the merits of the two systems, are in favor of the 
 hollow axles. 
 
52 RAILKOAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 Nevertheless, all these trials are as yet too iso- 
 lated, and experience has not settled the merits of 
 the new methods so far as to lead us to advise a 
 change. ' 
 
 In the mean time, great care should be used in 
 the testing of axles ; the most common method is 
 to take, by chance, a certain number from a lot, and 
 subject them to shocks till they are broken ; from 
 these the strength of the whole is inferred. This 
 method is far from satisfactory ; it is based upon a 
 selection, more or less by chance, which can give 
 only very uncertain results. As it is not prudent to 
 employ a mode of testing, like that used for cannon, 
 which may change the quality of the iron, a mode 
 has been sought for which allows us to work directly 
 upon the axle, without exceeding the limits of the 
 elasticity of iron ; the axles are loaded to this limit, 
 and their powers of resistance are estimated accord- 
 ing to the sines of flexion. The weakest axles are 
 then broken and the grain of the metal examined. 
 
 The want of positive knowledge on this subject, 
 shows the necessity of submitting this question to 
 statistical investigation. 
 
 According to the royal ordinance of 1846, regu- 
 lating the safety and the working of railroads, besides 
 the general registers of locomotives, special registers 
 are ordered to be kept, of all axles of locomotives, 
 tenders, and cars, upon which, by the side of the num- 
 ber of each axle, shall be inscribed the place of its 
 manufacture, the time it was put in use, the tfests to 
 which it has been subjected, its service, the accidents 
 that have happened to, and the repairs which have 
 
BREAKING OF AXLES. 53 
 
 been made upon it; a number corresponding to that 
 of the register shall be punched upon each axle. 
 These registers are to be presented, on demand, to 
 the engineers and agents, charged with the exami- 
 nation of the material and working of the road. 
 
 Axles are subject to a second chance of accident ; 
 they may bend and throw the train off the track, es- 
 pecially while passing through frogs, in consequence 
 of their irregular position in reference to the plane of 
 the wheels ; this causes an unequal wear in the 
 flange, and consequently in the rail. The bending of 
 axles may be occasioned by shocks arising from run- 
 ning too suddenly upon a switch and frog, by a load 
 exceeding their limit of elasticity, and by an unequal 
 wear of the tire. 
 
 It is necessary, in order to avoid keeping bent axles 
 in use, to subject them to rigid examinations. 
 
 In consequence of the great liability of Eixles to be- 
 come injured and broken, many plans have been pro- 
 posed to prevent serious results from such accidents. 
 All these plans may be referred to two general types. 
 Guides suspended before the locomotive and over the 
 rails, directing the engine till it is stopped. This sup- 
 poses that a broken axle always throws the engine off 
 the track, which is not the case. Besides, by this 
 course the breaking of the axle is not discovered im- 
 mediately. In the second place, beams armed with 
 clogs, and fastened to the frame of the locomotive, 
 lying along the line of the rail, have been proposed. 
 The inconveniences which this invention would cause 
 are greater than those it seeks to obviate. These 
 clogs would break the track or break themselves, 
 
 5* 
 
54 
 
 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 without keeping the engine in equilibrium; and if 
 made strong enough to resist the shock they would 
 'be subjected to, would by their weight infallibly be 
 the occasion of accidents. 
 
 Thus, at present, mechanical contrivances to insure 
 safety to the train in cases of axles breaking, are 
 wanting; we can depend only upon the skill of the 
 •engine driver, who by prompt and skilful manage- 
 ment, when the engine begins to oscillate, may pre- 
 ■vent serious results from the accident.* 
 
 In fine, to prevent breaking of axles, we should 
 
 1st. Perfect the process of manufacture. 
 
 2d. Experiment with steel and with hollow axles. 
 
 3d. Submit the question of the breaking of axles 
 to a statistical investigation. 
 
 4th. Subject all axles to the test of bending, and 
 to a daily inspection. 
 
 5th. Compare together the practical advantages of 
 all inventions bearing on this question. 
 
 (In 1843, the fourth rule was prescribed by the 
 JBelgian Government.) 
 
 It may be thought that this discussion of axles has 
 been carried to too great a length. For some time 
 "there has been no accident arising from the breaking 
 
 * A device termed safety beams, has been employed on Amer- 
 ican roads with great success. It is simply an iron suspension 
 hook, fastened to the crosspiece of the truck, as close as prac- 
 ticable to the wheel, on the inside of it, in which the axle freely 
 Tevolves. In case of fracture, the axle is sustained in its place 
 and prevented from dropping down or flying up. Cars having 
 ithis device, have been known to run safely many miles after frac- 
 ture of the axle. — American Editor. 
 
FAULTS IN THE RAIL. 55 
 
 of an axle, but it seems to me that we should not 
 wait till some serious accident awakens attention to 
 this most important point.* 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FAULTS IN THE BAIL. 
 
 Rails are subject, besides their unequal wear, to 
 three chances of accidents, which may throw the 
 train off the track; exfoliation, bending, breaking. 
 
 Exfoliation results from imperfections in the mak- 
 ing, or from the rubbing of the rail by the wheel 
 fixed by the brake ; bending, from a disproportion be- 
 tween the size of the rail and the weight of the train ; 
 fracture is produced, when not the result of faults in 
 the making, or atmospheric influences, by the shock 
 from wheels whose tire has been unequally worn. 
 The flange may strike upon the chair, raise the wheel, 
 and cause it to fall upon the rail. 
 
 The breaking of rails is common, but upon straight 
 lines it does not often produce serious accidents. 
 It is most dangerous upon curves ; and as the causes 
 of it are, in some degree, beyond human knowledge, 
 the means for preventing it cannot be completely 
 pointed out. 
 
 In order to understand distinctly these accidents, 
 we must know their origin, whether the fracture com- 
 menced with a fissure, which kept on increasing, per- 
 
 * See Appendix D. 
 
56 EAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 haps for a long time, or whether it was caused by 
 pressure merely, or by the shock of a wheel passing 
 over a strange body, a super-elevation or bunch upon 
 the rail. Before such an examination has been made, 
 it will be very difficult to give an opinion on the sub- 
 ject; a minute examination into the causes of all 
 breaking of rails upon all roads should be made. 
 It may be shown, perhaps, that the shock of the 
 wheel will only produce fracture in rails not per- 
 manently fixed in the chair; if this be so, it would be 
 another argument in favor of rails permanently fixed. 
 
 The form of rails does not appear to exert a great 
 influence in their deterioration, for one and the same 
 form, employed upon one road, have remained un- 
 injured by very heavy engines, while upon another, 
 these rails have been broken by lighter locomotives 
 doing the same amount of work. 
 
 There is no general rule upon this subject; the 
 diversity in the forms of rails proves this. In this 
 multitude of forms, six principal varieties may be 
 distinguished. 
 
 1st. The double T used in France and England. 
 
 2d. The single T used in Belgium. 
 
 3d. The Brunei rail, U reversed, used in England. 
 
 4th. The American rail, with a single head, and 
 large base, or Vignolles rail, T reversed, used in Ger- 
 many. 
 
 5th. The Barlow rail, V reversed, which has been 
 tried in England and in France. 
 
 6th. The compound, or "Winslow's rail, which is 
 split through the middle, and screwed together, used 
 in America. 
 
FAULtS IN THE EAIL. 57 
 
 Experiments on rails have been made on a great 
 scale upon roads in France. Barlow and Brunei's 
 rail have been used ; the last, at the time when other 
 roads who have used it for ten years have discarded 
 it. This shows an entire absence of method; a 
 statistical investigation can alone indicate the proper 
 course to be pursued, and we must by it determine the 
 quality of all rails, and their effects in throwing trains 
 off the track ; not till then, can a decided opinion be 
 given on this question, or can we see whether the 
 shape of the rail has any influence upon this class 
 of accidents. Such an investigation would deter- 
 mine the form of rail that gives the greatest security, 
 and this would doubtless be immediately adopted 
 upon all lines. In a problem so simple, as in all 
 scientific questions, there can be but one solution ; 
 but science does not enable us to arrive at it a priori. 
 
 At the present time, however, the tendency is very 
 evident, to give the head of the rail a very convex 
 surface, to prevent the wheels wearing the edge of 
 the rail, and producing exfoliation. 
 
 Besides, rails are now made with greater care, par- 
 ticularly since the methods of rolling have been im- 
 proved to a degree that leaves little to be desired; 
 and the manufacturers, being closely watched by the 
 agents of the company, have a great interest in doing 
 their work well. Those contracting for rails should 
 see that the circular saw is not used in cutting them. 
 This instrument works very quickly, but it has a 
 serious evil of separating the fibres of the iron ex- 
 actly at the point where it is of the last importance 
 they should be most compact. In many shops the 
 
58 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 use of the saw has been abandoned and the rails 
 are cut by the chisel ; this process is slower, but it 
 has the advantage of not altering the nature of the 
 iron, and of diminishing in a great degree the quantity 
 of refuse pieces. 
 
 Rails subjected to mechanical forces, are, at the 
 same time, affected by atmospheric influences ; they 
 may break as a consequence of cold, or a high tem- 
 perature may occasion irregularities in them. 
 
 The expansion of rails by heat, may cause them 
 to spring out of line, so as to throw the train off the 
 track. In 1842, on the St. Etienne road, a rail ex- 
 panded by the heat was thrown ten feet out of line. 
 This shows that the greatest care must be used in 
 leaving the proper space at the joints while laying 
 rails. On the same road, in 1844, some rails, being 
 very much expanded, bent to such a degree that they 
 raised themselves in the chair ; the locomotive pass- 
 ing over them pressed down the first rail, and strik- 
 ing against the second was thrown off the track. 
 
 A broken rail may cause the wheels to strike 
 against a chair and break it, and thus throw the 
 train off the track. 
 
 Chairs not unfrequently break ; this may be oc- 
 casioned by imperfections in the casting, or by the 
 flange striking them, from the tire being much worn. 
 In these cases, as in the breaking of axles, counter 
 rails do not seem to give any security ; on the con- 
 trary, they increase the danger. It is true, they may 
 arrest the tendency of the wheels to leave the rail, 
 and may be used with advantage on very long via- 
 ducts, but they are of little use when the cars assume 
 
FIRES. 59 
 
 a serpentine motion, or when they have once left the 
 rail. The wrong position of a counter rail threw a 
 train off the track in 1846, at Irwell Bridge, on the 
 Lancashire Railroad. 
 
 To prevent accidents as far as possible, great care 
 rriust be taken in the superintendence of workshops, 
 in the reception of rails, and the track must be very 
 closely inspected at short intervals of time. These 
 things are already done upon all well managed roads. 
 
 Before passing to an analysis of the use of signals, 
 a part of which is trusted to the trackhands and 
 watchmen, and an inattention to which is the most 
 common cause of collisions, but a single accident 
 remains t& be spoken of, and that happily very rare, 
 — burning of the cars. 
 
 CHAP TEE,. XIII. 
 
 FIRES. 
 
 Fires caused by railroads were vejy frequent at 
 an early stage of their history ; they are now very 
 rare, on account of the precautionary measures taken, 
 and the improvements made in engines. 
 
 The covering of the boiler, which consists of felt 
 and wood, to prevent cooling of the metal, may get 
 on fire. An attentive engine driver perceives this at 
 once, and drawing water from the tender puts it out ; 
 it has never caused serious results, and the consider- 
 
60 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 ation of it enters rather into the details of the man- 
 agement of the engine, than of accidents. 
 
 It is not so with fires which are caused on bridges, 
 on the train, and on buildings situated along the line 
 of the road, by sparks from the chimney of the loco- 
 motive, or by coals falling from the ash-pan. In 
 1847, Hanwell Bridge, on the Great Western Road, 
 was burned down, by coals from the locomotive, and 
 the travel was stopped. The transport of explosive 
 substances upon railroads too often occasions explo- 
 sions and fires ;" and a mode of preventing this class 
 of accidents is well worthy the attention of invent- 
 ors. 
 
 In order to put out the fire of the locomotive 
 speedily, the bars of the grate have been made mov- 
 able ; these bars may fall upon the track and give 
 rise to fires. Some contrivance may be devised to 
 extinguish the fire in another way. A mechanism, 
 consisting of a cock placed in the wall of the fire- 
 box so as to drown the fire is worth considering ; it 
 has not yet been brought into use. However, by the 
 improvements introduced in the tops of the chimneys, 
 and in ash-pans, these accidents are becoming of less 
 importance every day. Some years ago, fears upon 
 this subject were very great. The use of locbmotives 
 was forbidden, on considerations of public safety, on 
 a road passing through a portion of London, and 
 the cars were moved by a cable worked by a station- 
 ary engine. Experience has shown the Heedlessness 
 of this precaution, and the locomotives are agaia 
 used. 
 
 Among the exceptional accideois occasioned by 
 
FIRES. 61 
 
 fire may be cited the explosion of a quantity of 
 powder carelessly placed in a freight train on the- 
 Glasgow road in 1850 ; the destruction of a part of 
 the Birmingham viaduct, by the explosion of illumi- 
 nating gas, which had infiltrated into a cavity of the- 
 masonry from a leak in the gas pipe placed along this- 
 viaduct ; the gas was set on fire by contact with a 
 heated part of the locomotive, at least this is the opin- 
 ion of the commissioners given in their official report.. 
 These extraordinary facts are only given to prove the- 
 utility of the most minute precautions and the closest 
 attention to the details of working a road. 
 
 Fires sometimes arise from the carelessness of 
 passengers. I lately saw an English family preparing 
 breakfast by means of a lamp of spirits of wine 
 placed on a table in the saloon of a car. On the 
 starting of the train, the least shock might have upset 
 this impromptu kitchen, and given rise to serious in-- 
 jury. Such offences need only be pointed out to be 
 done away with ; and I think the simplest way ini 
 such cases, to guard against the carelessness of fel- 
 low-travellers, is to speak at once to the conductor. 
 
62 
 
 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 INATTENTION TO SIGNALS. 
 
 There is no general rule to be pointed out with 
 regard to signals. The use of them belongs to all 
 branches of the working department, and should be 
 understood, by all persons engaged upon the track or 
 the train. 
 
 Signals may be divided into three classes : — 
 Acoustic and movable signals, given directly by 
 the employSs, — the flag,, lantern, the sound of a horn 
 or whistle. 
 
 Fixed signals, moved by mechanism, dials, re- 
 flectors, torpedoes, optical or aerian telegraphs. 
 Lastly, the electric telegraph. 
 
 All these signals are good, when they are well ob- 
 served; when they can be verified and understood. 
 The difiiculty in their use, in all possible cases, calls 
 forth the study of the engineer : what can be done, 
 when the lanterns go out, during thick fogs, falls of 
 snow, breaking of the telegraph wires, is a doubtful 
 question. This question is properly considered in a 
 treatise on the working of roads. Signals are most 
 complicated, and play the most importaat part upon 
 single track roads, being, as it were, the base of the 
 service ; and as they are not infallible, as they must 
 be perceived and understood at once, the q.uestioa 
 has often been raised, whether single track roads pr^- 
 
INATTENTION TO SIGNALS. 63 
 
 sent more chances of accident than double track ones. 
 This question has never been absolutely settled, for 
 theory does not admit of collisions. Statistics should 
 point out the way to a solution ; this it has not as 
 yet done, for the results furnished by this modern 
 science are contradictory. In the kingdom of Wur- 
 temberg, there has never been a collision, and the 
 roads are all single track; in the GraAd Duchy of 
 Baden, there has been but one, since the opening in 
 1840, and that was at the entrance of a side track, 
 in the very place where the track was double. I am 
 far from attempting to settle this question ; for op- 
 posite opinions are maintained by competent men. 
 
 Infallible signals, as well as means for stopping a 
 train instantly when signals have been disregarded, 
 to prevent collisions and running off the track, have 
 occupied the minds of inventors. In attempting to 
 diminish the injury caused by these accidents, inven- 
 tors admit that they are, like an inevitable fatality, 
 an integral part of the working of a road ; and they 
 endeavor to find means for preserving the passen- 
 gers, sometimes hyparachocs and jnachines with com- 
 pressed air to operate on the brakes ; spectacles of a pe- 
 culiar form have even been invented to enable the en- 
 gine driver to see at a great distance the train coming 
 to meet him. The engine driver is thus changed into 
 a watchman, as though trains were destined to run 
 into each other, and as though spectacles could be of 
 any use in the night, in dense fogs, and on curves ; 
 in a word, in all cases where there could be any 
 chance of collision, these spectacles could be of no use. 
 
 I will say no more on this subject, not wishing to 
 
64 
 
 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 object by sterile criticism to the application of these 
 discoveries, which often have one useful side ; they 
 denote a praiseworthy desire on the part of their au- 
 tbors to make themselves useful to their fellow men, 
 and on this account, are entitled to our respect ; but 
 it is to be desired, that these efforts should be directed 
 to the more practical object of improving engines, 
 modes of laying rails, crossings, signals of corre- 
 spondence between those on the train in case of the 
 breaking of a coupling iron or a tire, in a word, all the 
 details indispensable to regularity of service, many of 
 which, now in use in other countries, are unknown on 
 French roads. 
 
 It is only by centralizing all these inventions and 
 submitting them to direct trial, that useful results can 
 be obtained. 
 
 We read in the United States Journal, that a so- 
 ciety of inventors has been formed in New York, 
 under the name of " The American and Foreign Pa- 
 tent Agency Company." Its object is the introduc- 
 tion and sale of patent rights, and things patented, 
 as well as to watch over the interests of inventors. 
 The ofSce of this company, the Pantheon of New 
 York, will be a central point for all America ; new 
 inventions will be exhibited there ; agencies will be 
 established in the different cities of the United States ; 
 and all inventions will be submitted to a committee, 
 called the Board of Examiners, who will make re- 
 ports upon the value of the inventions. 
 
COLLISIONS. 65 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 COLLISIONS. 
 
 It is well known, that the public is soon accus- 
 tomed to high rates of speed, when they can be 
 obtained without danger. In this respect, the Eng- 
 lish have always held the first rank, both upon the 
 water and upon common roads. The same is true 
 upon railroads, their express trains going regularly 
 at the rate of forty-eight miles an hour. This limit 
 has not been reached in France; the other conti- 
 nental roads are limited to half that speed. It is only 
 till very lately that express trains at high rates of 
 speed have been organized on the continent. 
 
 Much attention should be fixed on the measures to 
 regulate this service and to guard against the chances 
 of collision. 
 
 This accident occurs when two trains, going in 
 different directions, meet; when one following an- 
 other overtakes it, and when a train coming in, runs 
 into another standing at a station. These three 
 kinds of accidents form a very distinct classification. 
 
 In the first case, the accident arises from a non- 
 observance of the time and rules of starting, or from 
 an extra engine injudiciously directed. 
 
 The second case happens through irregularities in 
 running the trains. 
 
 The third, from the engine driver not having given, 
 6* 
 
66 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 in time, the signal for using the brakes, and not hav- 
 ing closed the regulator soon enough. 
 
 In the first case, the engine driver having the right 
 to the track, cannot expect to be met; the shock is 
 inevitable, for the signals cannot be given in time ; 
 -on a straight line, however, of any great length, there 
 is no danger if proper precautions are used. 
 
 The observance of the times for starting regular 
 "trains, is then an essential condition of safety, es- 
 pecially upon single track roads. Inattention to this 
 Tule, simple as it is, occasioned tu^enty-three collisions 
 ■upon English roads in the year 1851 ; the jury of in- 
 quest settles this fact, and the report of the commis- 
 ■sioners relates it. It is even astonishing that there 
 •were not more accidents, for coal and freight trains 
 are often sent out under the charge of an engine 
 driver, whose only instructions are to take up or leave 
 cars on the route, and to arrive as quick as possible 
 at his place of destination ; his course is regulated by 
 telegraphic announcement, and by the order to keep a 
 certain interval between two trains, and to place his 
 "train on the side track, when the express or passenger 
 trains are signalized. Everything depends upon sig- 
 nals, and a single one wrongly given is almost sure 
 to bring about an accident. 
 
 This mode of proceeding is often the rule in Eng- 
 land ; on the continent it is an exception. 
 
 When from the exigencies of the service, extra 
 trains or single engines are needed, the greatest care 
 Tnust be used lest they run into the regular trains. 
 
 On double track roads, all the trains keeping the 
 left track, there is no chance of trains meeting ; this 
 
COLLISIONS. 67 
 
 can only occur while repairs are going on upon one 
 of the tracks. The road should then be managed as 
 a single track road, and the modes of regulating 
 trains suited to such a road, applied to it. It is 
 mainly upon these roads, of which I shall soon speak, 
 that the running of extra trains presents real dangers. 
 
 Extra engines may be injudiciously directed when 
 demands for help are sent, from a disabled train, to 
 two stations at once, and when the train starts as one 
 of the assisting engines is on the point of arrival. In 
 these circumstances, every thing depends upon the 
 intelligence and vigilance of those in charge of the 
 train. Engines may start by themselves, and break, 
 in their blind course, every thing that is found on the 
 track. After a time they stop, and, if suitable sig- 
 nals are given, they may be brought without accident 
 into the depot. No analysis of facts enables me to 
 determine the causes of these sudden starts. 
 
 In the second case, it may happen, in consequence 
 of differing rates of speed, one train may run into 
 another ; the greater part of the accidents on English 
 roads are of this nature. In clear weather, and when 
 the trains carry lights, this accident cannot occur ex- 
 cept through unpardonable negligence of the agents 
 of the company ; but it is not so, in the thick fogs, so 
 common in England, and in such cases the absence 
 of immediate watchfulness is sensibly felt. For cases 
 of this kind, many measures have been proposed ; 
 signals indicating the passage of trains have been 
 placed along the line, and by means of explosive sig- 
 nals, points of danger are made known to the engine 
 driver. Two trains cannot run together in this way. 
 
68 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 except where the signals for delaying or stopping the 
 trains have been badly given, or misunderstood. To 
 avoid this accident, the greatest possible interval must 
 be left between two trains ; the amount of this in- 
 terval depends upon the speed of the trains, the 
 grades, the power of the brakes, and a mass of de- 
 tails too great to be enumerated. 
 
 To settle this distance, which in many countries 
 has been fixed in an arbitrary and general manner, 
 we must look at the matter in the most unfavorable 
 light ; in the night, in thick fogs, at the highest rate of 
 speed, and calculate at what point a signal should 
 be placed, to be understood by those on the train fol- 
 lowing, in order that they may stop it by applying 
 the brakes ; when this distance is once found, it 
 should be used in an absolute manner by all trains 
 under all circumstances. 
 
 Here is a fact which supports what I have just 
 said ; it is taken from a journal called L'Emancipa- 
 tion Beige. 
 
 An accident, which might have had the most dis- 
 astrous consequences, happened in the month of Oc- 
 tober, at the station at Hall. The eight and a half 
 o'clock train stopped to unload and take up some 
 cars, when suddenly the signal of a freight train, 
 which had been concealed by the fog, was heard. It 
 was impossible to get the train off the track, for most 
 of the cars were unshackled ; it was equally impos- 
 sible to stop the coming train, for it was very near, 
 and coming at a high rate of speed. The switchman 
 ran to the front to warn the engine, driver ; in the 
 mean time, the depot master had warned the pas- 
 
COLLISIONS. 69 
 
 sengers of the coming danger. These, mostly shoe- 
 makers of Hall, who^ went every week to Brussels 
 with their goods, took but little time to say goodby. 
 In a moment, bootmakers, buskins, and boots were 
 all in the ditch. The last passenger had scarcely 
 quitted the train, when the collision took place. The 
 last car, which was a diligence, was literally pulver- 
 ized, the others were proportionally damaged. But 
 fortunately, in neither train was any passenger in- 
 jured; a moment sooner, and the victims would have 
 been numerous. This system of allowing trains to 
 follow each other at too short intervals should be alto- 
 gether condemned, for at the slightest accident on a 
 curve, or in a fog, a heavy loaded freight train not 
 being brought up in time by the brakes, may run into 
 the train which has preceded it. 
 
 In the third place ; in order that the trains may not 
 enter the side tracks at too high a speed, it has been 
 advised, that the conductor should leave the train 
 and walk by its side, for the brakes may be out of 
 order, and may not work readily at the first sound of 
 the whistle. This course may give rise to accidents, 
 as the chief engineer of the line of the Grand 
 Duchy of Baden writes me, but I think it should be 
 followed, especially upon single track roads, on ac- 
 count of an accident which happened some years 
 since, where a train on a side track being just about 
 to start, was run into by a train coming in. 
 
 Where this precaution is not used, and unfortu- 
 nately too frequently, trains run into each other at 
 stations. The electric telegraph, enables us to guard 
 against these dangers ; it is therefore very generally 
 
70 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 used ; on many of the main lines, there are fifteen 
 "wires, for the use of the public and the railroad. 
 
 The signals for the day are given at the stations, 
 or at the points of connection with branch roads, by a 
 switchman placed upon a platform, giving a fair view 
 of the trains as they arrive and depart. This post is 
 very important, especially at times, when the loco- 
 motive is detached from the cars, to run into the en- 
 gine house, while the cars follow the main track by 
 their acquired velocity. 
 
 Brakes are the only means at present used, for 
 slackening the speed of trains. In spite of the de- 
 fects inherent in this system, energetic brakes have 
 been of great service, and have often prevented se- 
 rious accidents ; without the Laignel Brake, which 
 rests upon the rail, and raises the car, the Royal Bel- 
 gian train could not have escaped a terrible catas- 
 trophe, when the cable of the inclined plane at Liege 
 broke. Modes of stopping trains are constantly being 
 investigated, and there is no want of inventions to 
 secure this end. 
 
 The study of powerful brakes is by no means ex- 
 hausted, and machinists have constantly endeavored 
 to perfect them ; a brake roughened and resting on 
 the. rail or even on the road-bed, a sort of brake de 
 misericorde, may often be of undoubted use. From 
 the want of such a brake, on the Wurtemburg roads, 
 a barrier of strong oak beams has been placed across 
 the track, at the foot of steep inclines, suited to stop 
 cars whose brakes do not work with effect. In 1849, 
 some empty cars, going down this plane, acquired a 
 velocity beyond control ; those upon them leaped to 
 
COLLISSIONS. 71 
 
 the ground, and abandoned them to their fate ; they 
 were broken against this barrier within a few feet of 
 a train standing at the station. 
 
 The English commissioners, in their annual re- 
 port, attribute the frequent collisions to the want 
 of effective brakes, especially when the rails have be- 
 come polished, as they must be after long service. 
 
 For some time past, a new kind of brake, similar 
 to the shoe used for common carriages, has been 
 made use of in England. Instead of acting by means 
 of a pressure applied directly to the wheel, this shoe 
 is placed between the rail and the tire of the wheel ; 
 it is flat below and concave above ; it is dropped be- 
 fore the wheel, which runs upon it, and presses it with 
 all its weight upon the rail. This improvement, 
 which is also a simplification, presents many 'advan- 
 tages ; the shoe produces great friction upon the rail, 
 whilst with the common brake, the pressure is exerted 
 upon the tire of the wheels, which slide over the rails, 
 and are therefore very rapidly worn ; the shoe is made 
 of the proper thickness, to guard against the flange 
 of the wheel riding over the rail, and thus throwing 
 the car or engine off the track. To free the brake, 
 the train should be backed a little. 
 
 The design of this shoe brake is old ; Mr. Laignel 
 having taken out a patent for it on the twenty-eighth 
 of February, 1841. 
 
72 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 IRREGULARITY IN THE RUNNING OF TRAINS. 
 
 Admitting, for a time, the accidents which fre- 
 quently happen to trains and locomotives running 
 out of time, without being properly signalized, we 
 must explain how it happens, that the times of arri- 
 val and departure are not strictly adhered to. 
 
 The causes of delay are of four kinds : — 
 
 1st. The want of exactness in the times of starting, 
 stopping, and arriving ; this is remedied by a revision 
 of the calculations, and suiting the time to the exi- 
 gencies of the traffic ; this cause need only exist at the 
 commencement of the working of the road. 
 
 2d. Want of power in the locomotive, when the 
 train is too heavily loaded, when the pressure of 
 steam has not been well kept up, or when the rails 
 have become slippery from rains, frost, or thick fogs ; 
 the wheels have not then a sufficient hold on the 
 rails, and the engine moves slowly. The general 
 remedy for this evil is very simple, we must merely 
 make the maximum load equal to the minimum 
 power of the engine ; or in other words, find out the 
 load the engine can draw under the most unfavor- 
 able circumstances ; in winter, in a storm, on the 
 heaviest grades, at the highest rates of speed. 
 
 To get at these results each engine must be sub- 
 mitted to experiments and calculations, upon a given 
 
IRREGULARITIES IN RUNNING TRAINS. 73^ 
 
 plane, with fixed conditions, in order to discover its- 
 power. This being-fixed, will serve as a basis in the- 
 composition of trains, and should be inscribed on the- 
 engine, as the load is upon cars. 
 
 The want of exact calculation in this respect occa- 
 sions accidents. In 1851, on a branch of the road, 
 from Manchester to Chester, two extra trains having- 
 started at short intervals were obliged to stop in a tun- 
 nel. The first engine could not draw its load over the- 
 grade, and the second engine was not powerful enough 
 to push it; a third train came into the tunnel, and 
 not having been noticed by the trains there, ran into 
 them and killed many persons. 
 
 The third cause of delay, may be the occurrence of" 
 any accident whatever. The train is then stopped 
 until the damage is repaired. If this delay requires 
 that the coming train shall be met at some point 
 other than the usual one, no precaution should be- 
 neglected, and arrangements should be made for such, 
 cases, by the superintendent; orders to start should 
 be given in writing, unless the electric telegraph gives 
 assurance that every thing is right: where this is used, 
 the question and answer should be given three times,, 
 before the train is allowed to start. The passage- 
 of extra trains should be signalized over the whole 
 route. 
 
 Finally, the way may be obstructed by foreign 
 bodies upon it, as slides of earth, forgotten tools, etc. 
 Those employed on the train can clear the track, and 
 the lost time is often regained. 
 
 There is a kind of obstruction capable of retarding- 
 
 the trains in a sensible manner, and often of stopping 
 
 7 
 
74 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 them indefinitely, namely, snow, on which point it 
 may be useful to enter into some details, and to the 
 examination of which I shall devote a chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 INTERRUPTION 0¥ COMMUNICATION BY SNOW. 
 
 As we have seen, the working of trains may be in- 
 terrupted by injury to the engine, or accidents to the 
 cars or the track ; but with the exception of the fall 
 of a piece of masonry or a bridge, communication is 
 soon renewed, except in cases where snow produces 
 such an obstruction as cannot be speedily removed 
 by the means ordinarily in use. 
 
 This is the weak point of railroads, which, in win- 
 ter, are far from giving to passengers the security 
 and convenience desired. 
 
 The attempt to work a line with regularity daring 
 the winter season has not been given up ; but on the 
 other hand, the problem has not been solved in a gen- 
 eral manner. Despairing of effecting this object, 
 with effective machines, some engineers have pro- 
 posed to organize a special service during snow- 
 storms, as we have already trains for summer, and 
 trains for winter, which should consist of a small 
 train of cars with, two locomotives ahead. The con- 
 sideration of this is not out of season ; for this mode 
 of working trains is not only, feasible upon all roads, 
 
SNOW. 75 
 
 but is already in practice on some at very diffi- 
 cult points, and I think that after a close study of 
 all the circumstances connected with it, we shall no 
 longer, in France, be exposed to the delays, interrup- 
 tions, and accidents, which are a natural, if not aft 
 inevitable consequence of all changes in the regular 
 running of trains. 
 
 To point out the causes of these obstructions by 
 snow, as well as the means to be employed to pre- 
 vent accidents in consequence of them, as well to the 
 trains as the telegraphic wires, I must enter into 
 some developments and explanations of meteorologi'c 
 phenomena. I shall thus indicate the starting point 
 of an investigation which will sooner or later be en- 
 tered upon to secure the safety of the public. 
 
 Accumulations of snow depend upon the nature of 
 the snow, the force and direction of the wind, and the 
 climate and topographical position of the places ex- 
 posed. 
 
 There are two kinds of snow, considered with ref- 
 erence to the present subject : moist snow, which on 
 account of the adhesive property of its particles, is 
 not easily driven about by the wind ; this is not dan- 
 gerous ; dry or powdery snow, which is driven about 
 by the least breath of wind, and raised up, when the 
 wind is strong, in whirlwinds, and deposited in large 
 masses, as the wind tubsides ; the snow swept from 
 the heights being left in the valleys. 
 
 Numerous observations on this subject have been 
 made on the railroads of the north of Germany. 
 They can be classified as follows : 
 
 1st. Railroads are not liable to be blocked up by 
 
76 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 snow in cuts, when they are surrounded by forests, or 
 when the centre line lies in the same direction with, 
 the course of the wind. 
 
 2d. Trees and hedges planted along the track, 
 break the violence of the wind, and compel the snow 
 to fall in a vertical line. 
 
 3d. Winds, blowing in the direction of the line of 
 the railroad, clear it of snow. 
 
 4th. If the railroad, located in the open country, 
 or on high land, crosses the line of the storm, the 
 snow will become heaped up in light cuts ; in heavy 
 cuts, on the contrary, the snow accumulates upon 
 the top of the slopes ; the force of the wind is broken 
 in the cuts, and the snow falls quietly and uniformly, 
 as in the forests. 
 
 5th. The most favorable condition, when the road 
 crosses the line of the storm, is that where the rails 
 are on a level with the natural surface of the ground ; 
 the wind sweeps uninterruptedly over the track, 
 which is then covered like the adjoining country. 
 
 6th. Heavy embankments present the inconven- 
 ience, that the wind, sweeping over the country, 
 breaks on their crest, forms whirlwinds on the track, 
 and deposits the snow on the rails. 
 
 7th. In all cases, embankments are less likely to 
 be filled up with snow than the cuts. 
 
 8th. The dangerous dry snows are brought by 
 winds from the north and west, and are always ac- 
 companied by the most severe cold. 
 
 These indications may form the basis of investiga- 
 tions for the location of railroads, for constructions to 
 be added to roads already built, and for the arrange- 
 
SNOW. 77 
 
 ment of machines to clear off the snow from the 
 track. 
 
 There has been no attempt as yet to locate a road 
 so as to protect it from snow ; the liability to obstruc- 
 tion from this cause being admitted, means have 
 been adopted to protect the line from the snow-bear- 
 ing winds. Hedges and fences of pine boards, about 
 six feet high, have been placed along the most ex- 
 posed portions of th« line. Embankments have even 
 been thrown up for the same purpose. 
 
 All these means have been employed on the Ba- 
 varian Eailroad, from the Lake of Constance to Hof, 
 in that portion which includes the heavy grades of 
 one hundred and thirty-two feet to the mile, for a 
 distance of three and one tenth miles. During a 
 most'snowy winter, in 1850, the communication was 
 not interrupted for a single day. On twenty-seven 
 points fences have been placed to break off the snow : 
 seventeen against the west wind; six against the 
 east wind, four against the southeast wind. 
 
 The effect of these snows is often very surprising; 
 depending upon the direction of the valleys, the 
 forests, and the position of the villages. Often 
 points, whose position, at first sight, seems most un- 
 favorable are spared ; while others, which do not seem 
 particularly exposed, are covered by the first snows. 
 
 There is no general rule applicable to these cases. 
 By a long and careful study of the meteorologic phe- 
 nomena, in any particular locality, we may discover 
 indications for the location of embankments, the plac- 
 ing of fences, and the planting of trees or hedges. 
 The protection of railroads from snow is a practical 
 
 7* 
 
78 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 smatter ; and what I have said on this subject should 
 be merely considered as hints for further investigation. 
 The best thing to be done, if we wish our trains to 
 xun in France with regularity during the winter, 
 •would be to send a commission to other countries, to 
 :study this question, and to make a practical exami- 
 nation of it during at least one winter. They would 
 ibe able to inform themselves, at the same time, in re- 
 :apect to all new arrangements for clearing the track 
 of snow, and in due time make them useful. The 
 'means commonly used in France, are the snow 
 plough, and brooms attached to the locomotive and 
 cars. These means are very feeble, and for the most 
 part without effect. Then there are bodies of work- 
 ■men, suddenly called together to shovel out the snow ; 
 i,o remove the obstruction, where perhaps, it might 
 have been prevented by an expenditure of a less 
 amount of money. In 1854, the Paris and Strasbourg 
 Railroad paid nearly $18,000 for the removal of a mill- 
 ion cubic yards of snow. All these modes will be 
 improved, for the genius of inventors is directed to 
 ihis end. A machine will be some day invented for 
 -this purpose, which will take the place of the loco- 
 ■raotive, which expending all its force to overcome the 
 snow and wind has none left with which to draw the 
 i;rain. As its speed is slackened by the work, less 
 steam is generated ; it can no longer rise over the 
 heavy grades, where the snow hardened by the press- 
 ure of cars and by the frost, resists the wheels like 
 wedges placed upon the rail ; it is stopped also on 
 rails, where the workmen passing over have left lumps 
 of snow which have been hardened into ice. 
 
SNOW. 79 
 
 Beside the accidents caused by delays in the start- 
 ing and arrival of trains, by a relaxation in strictness 
 on the part of the watchmen, by engines going over 
 the line in search of disabled trains, which may come 
 when they are least expected ; in a word, beside all 
 these inevitable irregularities, it almost always hap- 
 pens, to increase the difHculties, that the electric tele- 
 graph fails to work, either from the wires breaking, 
 or from their touching each other. In 1849, on the 
 South-eastern road, many telegraph posts were thrown 
 down ; every running foot of the wire, with its coat- 
 ing of ice, weighed nearly four pounds ; so that the 
 post was subjected to the weight of thirty-three hun- 
 dred pounds. Many of the iron wires were bent to 
 the ground, but when the weight was taken off, they 
 resumed their original positions; while the copper 
 wires having lost all their elasticity remained bent. 
 In 1850, on the Northern road, in Austria, the upper 
 wire, being heavily loaded, touched the lower one, so 
 that the electric current was absorbed, and no mes- 
 sages could be transmitted. 
 
 As the bending and breaking of the wires occur 
 very often from this cause, the watchmen should 
 shake the posts, so that the snow may fall while it is 
 yet soft ; by this simple precaution, these accidents 
 may always be prevented. It is also well to take off 
 from the posts the coatings of ice which would, if 
 permitted to touch the isolators, discharge the elec- 
 tric current. All this is well known ; but it is desir- 
 able that it should be more noticed and more care- 
 fully attended to. 
 
80 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIl. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF WORKING A SINGLE TRACK ROAD. 
 
 The maia difference between double and single 
 track roads as regards accidents, consists in the lia- 
 bility to collisions between trains running in opposite 
 directions. The most simple rule to avoid these, and 
 one which presents itself to every mind, is for no 
 traia to start, till the one expected has arrived. How 
 is it, that this rule is not always observed ? Why is 
 any reliance placed upon a supposed certainty that 
 the track is clear ? Why is a train allowed to start 
 out of its regular time ? Why, in fine, are trains ex- 
 posed to such terrible consequences, by neglect of 
 these rules? These are questions little understood, 
 and the solution of which is unknown to the public ; 
 negligence on the part of the employes is not sus- 
 pected, and inattention to the rules of the service and 
 the signals seems inexplicable. 
 
 I will endeavor to answer in detail these questions ; 
 but before doing so, 1 will relate a fact bearing on 
 this subject, which is always present to my memory, 
 though it happened more than twelve years ago. It 
 includes all the causes and chances of collisions, and 
 shows a mode of avoiding them, without causing too 
 great irregularity in working the trains. 
 
 In the Grand Duchy of Hesse, on a road with a 
 single track, as almost all the German roads are at 
 
BIFFICTJLTIES OE WORKING A SINGLE TRACK ROAD. 81 
 
 the present time, I found myself in the cars, waiting 
 on the side track for the arrival of another train. At 
 this time the common signals were used, the electric 
 telegraph not having come into general use. Through 
 these signals, a despatch arrived, announcing that in 
 consequence of an accident to the locomotive, the 
 expected train would not leave the station. The 
 depot master gave the order to start, and attempt to 
 regain the lost time ; the engine driver made no 
 reply, but examined the safety-valves to see that they 
 worked well, slackened the fire, and sitting quietly 
 down, with the fireman, said that the superintendent 
 had directed him always to wait for a train that was 
 coming in the opposite direction. The depot master, 
 strong in his authority, and the certainty that the de- 
 layed train would not come, repeated his order ; the 
 engine driver replied that it was useless to go on ; 
 that sooner or later the other train would arrive if the 
 track was passable. The passengers were not of his 
 opinion; they joined in the discussion, which soon 
 became very animated, and the gendarmes finally 
 took the men from the engine. Night had come on. 
 A new engine driver was found ; the signal for starting 
 was given ; all the passengers had got into the cars, 
 and the bell had just stopped ringing, when a pro- 
 longed whistle was heard in the distance, and the de- 
 layed train came along under a full head of steam. 
 
 Here are the answers to the questions proposed. 
 
 Trains are not kept waiting for fear of disturbing 
 the service ; reliance is placed on the tracks being 
 clear, because it is hoped, that he who has given the 
 notice of a clear track, will not send a train or an en- 
 
82 EAILKOAD ACCIDBI7TS. 
 
 gine upon it within a fixed time ; trains are started 
 out of time, so that the passengers, in case of any 
 delay, need not have to wait until the next train, 
 which with a single engine, may not be able to haul 
 two trains ; for often the use of two engines together 
 is not allowed by the rules of the road ; and as trains 
 are not allowed to follow each other at short intervals, 
 extra locomotives have to be sent to succor disabled 
 trains : in fine, accidents arise from inattention to 
 rules, because the execution of these, however pre- 
 cise they may be, are intrusted to men, who are far 
 from perfect, who do not always feel the importance 
 of their duties, and who are dissatisfied with their 
 work. 
 
 But, in spite of all these imperfections, are there 
 any efficacious means to prevent accidents upon a 
 long single track road, and at the same time, keep up 
 the activity of the traffic and regularity in the run- 
 ning of the trains I 
 
 Many means of safety have been presented ; it is 
 especially after a serious accident that inventions 
 arise, as if the human mind had always need of a 
 stimulus to impel it to a search for its well-being. 
 We have already examined these inventions, and 
 those applicable to single track roads with the rest. 
 
 In roads of this description every thing depends 
 upon mathematical regularity in the running of the 
 trains. There are no general rules to be laid down 
 on this subject. 
 
 In single track roads, the running of the trains, and 
 the points where trains should take the side track for 
 others to pass them, should be fixed in the most exact 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF -WORKING A SINGLE TRACK ROAD. 83 
 
 manner. It would be prudent to restrain the use of 
 extra trains within very narrow limits. Nevertheless, 
 if in consequence of an accumulation of freight, extra 
 trains become indispensable, they should be placed 
 upon the time table, a copy of which should be given 
 to every conductor ; these trains then become regular 
 trains ; and even when it is found that one of them is 
 not absolutely needed, it is better that it should be 
 continued, even at some little expense, than to cause 
 irregularities in the working of the road, which al- 
 ways happen when the hours of starting are changed. 
 Above all things regularity in the hours of starting 
 should be maintained, and nothing should be spared 
 to secure it. 
 
 Special arrangements are sometimes necessary ; as 
 the measure taken to make collisions impossible in 
 the tunnel, three miles long, on the road from Man- 
 chester to Sheffield ; here each train is hauled through 
 by a locomotive specially devoted to this purpose. 
 As the grade falls in each direction from the centre of 
 the tunnel, the second engine serves as an accessory 
 to help the other over the grade. 
 
 Arrangements like this are not always applicable. 
 The basis of service of single track roads is the use 
 of side tracks for the passing of trains ; without these, 
 the least delay in any train whatever, will be felt over 
 the whole line ; and the service will be suspended on 
 the whole road, until the travel is resumed on the 
 part affected. At first, proper prudence was not ex- 
 ercised in this matter, and accidents occurred. Had 
 these increased, we should have been compelled to 
 renounce the use of side, tracks, and seek another 
 
84 RAILKOAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 mode of working out of Ihe difficulty, namely to back 
 the trains. 
 
 Fortunately it is not so, and accidents upon lines 
 that have long been open, have been less and less 
 frequent, in proportion as those employed have ac- 
 quired the necessary knowledge, and mechanical con- 
 trivances have been perfected ; besides, the traffic 
 does not sensibly increase upon single track roads, 
 for when it is developed to a great degree, another 
 line of rails is laid, and it becomes a double track 
 road. 
 
 The best thing to be done, if we would make use 
 on a large scale of this kind of road in France, would 
 be to investigate on the roads themselves everything 
 that cannot be otherwise learned. In my opinion 
 this is the only way ; it is not that we cannot get ac- 
 counts of the best mode of working single track roads, 
 or that the most perfect mechanism, or the strictest 
 rules are wanting; for in spite of the multitude of 
 precautions taken, the desired result is not reached. 
 We must look into this matter more deeply; facts 
 prove it. What we want is men to apply all the 
 rules that have been laid down, and to familiarize 
 themselves with the modes of working which have 
 been practised since these roads began to be worked. 
 We must know for what objects German engineers 
 have gone to America, and why we have sent for 
 English ones to come here. The organization of the 
 service, the position of the different agents, their char- 
 acter, their antecedents, the manner in which rewards 
 and promotions, fines and punishments are adminis- 
 tered, and in fine, the effects of the whole course of 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF WORKING A SINGLE TRACK ROAD. SSv 
 
 discipline practised upon roads of this descriptioni 
 must be investigated. We should study the relations; 
 between superintendents and those employed by 
 them, and follow out the mechanical arrangements- 
 from their inception to their perfection ; in a word,^ 
 ■we must serve an apprenticeship in this- practical 
 science, and discover the modifications made neces- 
 sary by the habits, exigencies, and character of the- 
 French public. 
 
 This is very difficult, very laborious, and very- 
 costly ; but it is also very difficult to work a single- 
 track railroad, without having any accident to deplore,.. 
 and this point we have not as yet reached. 
 
 I do not think that either England or the United 
 States will give us better examples, than Germany^, 
 where single track roads have been operated on a 
 great scale, with a large amount of travel and with, 
 trains at a high rate of speed. In that country, ac- 
 cidents due to the single track system are very rare,, 
 and only happen at the stations, where the trains run. 
 into each other, in consequence of not properly 
 slackening up, or from the switches being set wrong.. 
 
 In France, these facts are not considered, for the op- 
 erations on the single track road of Orleans have,, 
 whether justly or not, thrown discredit upon this class, 
 of roads, which may continue for some time. The 
 public thinks little of financial or technical details: 
 it demands, above all things, security in a system of 
 conveyance, which has the monopoly of all rapid- 
 travel. Besides, up to the present time, we have not 
 given sufficient attention to the single track, for with: 
 the exception of the Sceaux and the Troyes roads, it 
 
 8 
 
86 KAILKOAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 has never been regularly established with us, as in 
 Germany. 
 
 In fine, the mode of working a single track road 
 cannot be studied in books, or even by conversation 
 with men most versed in the matter. I repeat it, if 
 we wish to introduce this system into France, we 
 must send agents of every rank and grade, from our 
 companies, to learn the trade upon roads already in 
 operation, and they must there study men as well as 
 things. 
 
 " The rarity of accidents on our railroads," the di- 
 rector-general of railroads of the Kingdom of "Wur- 
 temburg writes me, " is owing not to any superior 
 knowledge, but to the punctuality and regularity of 
 the service. We employ no other signals than those 
 indicated in the signal book, commonly used by en- 
 gine drivers and watchmen. The electric telegraph, 
 whose stations are on an average seven miles apart, 
 serves for the transmission of messages and govern- 
 ment orders as well as for public use. la exceptional 
 cases the correspondence of the railroad administra- 
 tion. is transmitted before private despatches." 
 
 We see, by this, that in working a road, practice 
 is worth more than any kind of theory or dissertation ; 
 at least, such is my opinion.. 
 
IMPRUDENCE OF PASSENGERS, ETC. 87 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 IMPRUDENCE OF PERSONS TRAVELLING OR EMPLOYED ON 
 THE TRAIN. 
 
 Accidents caused by the fault of passengers or 
 those employed on the train were very numerous at 
 the time when people had not become accustomed to 
 this mode of travelling. These often happened from 
 attempts to get off or on the train while in motion. 
 It was soon found out that such attempts almost 
 always occasioned severe wounds or death. One 
 must be very adroit to jump off a car travelling at a 
 high rate of speed, and the,platform must be pushed 
 by the foot in the direction the train is going in order 
 to deaden the shock. But this is always dangerous, 
 and can never be practised with any chance of suc- 
 cess, except by those accustomed to it; it may be 
 done by those employed on the train, in case of dan- 
 ger, when their presence is of no more use, when the 
 whistle has been sounded, the brakes put on, and the 
 steam reversed. 
 
 Accidents owing to the carelessness of travellers, 
 and persons not connected with the road, cannot be 
 considered in a treatise of this nature. What pre- 
 ventive means can be devised for persons who walk 
 carelessly upon the track ; for those who sleep on the 
 rails; who jump from the cars, and are crushed by 
 
o» KAILEOAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 the train ; who let things fall upon the track, as hap- 
 pened on an English road near Hull, where a bit of 
 iron falling from a car threw a train off the track, and 
 cost the lives of five persons ? How can we prevent 
 people from raising themselves up on the seats of 
 Imperials at the entrance of tunnels? from putting 
 out their heads while passing through bridges, or en- 
 tering depots? How can we secure workmen from 
 being injured in making up trains, or from falling 
 into ditches? Many such accidents are caused by 
 the carelessness of those injured, as is shown by sta- 
 tistics. 
 
 Those employed on the road may also be guilty 
 of acts of carelessness which endanger the passengers. 
 They may leave cars at stations where they ought not 
 to be left, they may forget their tools, or leave an en- 
 gine standing on the track, or take up rails, when a 
 train is due. Here are some examples which I have 
 taken from foreign roads. 
 
 It is well known how dangerous it is to run a lo- 
 comotive with the tender in front, and many examples 
 prove this. A beam inadvertently placed on the rails 
 of a branch of the Brighton road threw a train off the 
 track in the month of June, 1851 : the tender in this 
 case was in front. The English jury, called to de- 
 cide upon the cause of the death of six persons killed 
 by this accident, asked for a law forbidding all en- 
 gines running with the tender in front, unless fur- 
 nished with means for clearing obstructions from the 
 track. 
 
 A special train had carried the King of Belgium 
 to Ostend in 1838, and returned at night. The bridge 
 
IMPRUDE:iCE OF PASSENGERS, ETC. 89 
 
 of Sneppe, was unfortunately open ; the locomotive 
 cleared the opening, but held by the weight of thn 
 cars which fell into the river, it was drawn back upon 
 and crushed them ; two persons were killed, and 
 another severely wounded. 
 
 A close watch should be kept over cattle in the 
 neighborhood of roads, and over those transported 
 over them. Accidents very frequently happen from 
 want of this watchfulness, especially in America, 
 where they have even invented arrangements for the 
 purpose of throwing cattle off the track. A horse 
 getting away from his owner fell upon the track, and 
 threw off a train ; this accident happened on the 
 Hamburg road. 
 
 The least forgetfulness or the slightest negligence 
 may produce the most serious consequences. 
 
 In the month of July, 1845, a train left London 
 for Dover drawn by two locomotives. At one of 
 the way stations it was discovered that the lantern 
 of the last car had been left behind : this not having 
 been discovered till the train had started, a locomo- 
 tive was sent on with it, which came upon the train 
 with such force at the entrance of a tunnel, as to 
 break up many cars filled with passengers. It is 
 well known that trains should never be pushed by 
 the engine, or if the exigencies of the service require 
 it, that it should be done with the greatest caution. 
 But unfortunately attention is not always paid to 
 this elementary rule ; for in 1847, a train of forty cars 
 was pushed up an incline on the Great Western 
 road ; a coupling chain breaking, caught in the point 
 of a frog, and threw a part of the train off the track. 
 
 8* 
 
90 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 Without perceiving the accident, the engine driver 
 pushed on the cars, which were crushed with all that 
 ihey contained ; fortunately they were nothing but 
 •cattle. 
 
 The enumeration of all these facts would consti- 
 tute the true statistics of accidents. To prevent care- 
 lessness on the part of employis., we can only rec- 
 ommend to agents to attend carefully to the charac- 
 iter of those they employ ; they may thus form a body 
 ■of men, always attentive, and ready to obey. 
 
 In order to guard as much as possible against ac- 
 ■cidents to the train, during the journey, means have 
 been devised to put the conductor in communication 
 with the engine driver. Many means have been pro- 
 posed and in part applied for this end; the want of 
 them has already been the cause of many accidents ; 
 and especially in cases of fire these means of com- 
 imunication might be of the greatest use. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 WANT OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE CONDUCTOR 
 AND THE ENGINE DRIVER. 
 
 The establishment of a direct communication be- 
 tween the guards of the cars, the travellers, and the 
 •engine driver, has for a long time occupied the at- 
 tention of those connected with railroads ; but this 
 question has never been settled in a positive manner. 
 
"WANT OP COMMUNICATION BETWEEN OONDtCTOK, ETC. 91 
 
 The delegates of the Raihvay Clearing House, 
 have submitted it to an examination very much in de- 
 tail ; they are surrounded with the means necessary 
 to test the advantages of all the systems that have 
 been used or designed, but they have rejected one 
 after the other. 
 
 Metallic rods fixed on the roof of the cars, enabling 
 the conductor to act on the steam whistle, appear 
 to them, to present difficulties in adjustment, and to 
 expose the workmen to danger in coupling the cars. 
 
 Tubes of gutta percha, joined together by india- 
 rubber, with whistles connected with lateral tubes for 
 the passengers, and establishing a communication 
 between the engine driver and those on the train, do 
 not appear to answer. In a trial made with a tube 
 three hundred and ninety-four feet long, the sound 
 was transmitted very distinctly, but the words could 
 not be understood ; and besides, the opportunity of 
 giving the signal to stop and of communicating with 
 the engine driver, should not be given to the passen- 
 ger, as in the opinion of the delegates, it would be 
 likely to give rise to accidents. 
 
 The whistle of compressed air does not appear to 
 be strong enough in some cases; the steam whistle, 
 even the strongest, cannot always be heard at the end 
 of the train. 
 
 Portable electric telegraphs, as well as electric 
 chimes appear to be too delicate, and on that account 
 of doubtful effect. 
 
 Platforms placed along the cars, upon which the 
 conductors can readily pass, or the American cars with 
 a passage way through the centre, could not be used 
 
92 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 in England, being contrary to the character and 
 habits of the English people. 
 
 In general, optical means appear insufficient, es- 
 pecially in the night and in tunnels, and they are of 
 no use in fogs. The ordinary acoustic means are in- 
 applicable in high winds or at rapid rates of speed. 
 Communications by means of elastic cords present 
 difficulties in consequence of the great difference in 
 the size of the cars, and the complications caused by 
 the arrangements of trains, the composition of wjiich 
 varies at almost every station ; these cords might also 
 be caught between the cars. 
 
 In fine, none of these arrangements seem to the 
 committee proper to be applied in England, and it 
 proposes to companies, as a means of communication, 
 to place a large bell upon each tender, to which shall 
 be attached a cord of a length equal to the maximum 
 length of the train ; this vegetable or metallic cord iS 
 to be rolled upon a drum placed in the last car, and 
 by means of a mechanism, which is quite complicated, 
 the bell can be sounded. The clearing house should 
 see that every car is furnished with this arrangement, 
 in order that the desired result may be obtained; 
 without this general application the design would be 
 without effect. 
 
 It will thus be seen, that the committee did not 
 take into consideration the experience of the French, 
 German, or Belgian engineers ; they did not deign 
 to refer to the locomotive mirror, or any other ar- 
 rangements that have been tried on many roads. 
 
 Whence arises this singular difference of opinion ? 
 A statistical investigation can alone settle this ques- 
 
WANT OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN CONDUCTOR, ETC. 93 
 
 tion. For that, we must have a description in de- 
 tail of contrivances to effect this object, indicating 
 the time they were brought into use, the services 
 they have rendered in collisions, the security they 
 promise, and the chances of deterioration to which 
 they are subject, and the opinions and observations 
 of all engineers should be compared. 
 
 The result of this examination would show that 
 the English are wrong, or that the means at present 
 employed are altogether superfluous. 
 
 To enter, at present, into the details of all these 
 contrivances, and to examine designs and models of 
 them would not lead to any definite result. What- 
 ever opinion might be formed on the subject, those 
 of the opposite opinion would deny its justice ; thus 
 the clearing house, instead of confining itself to su- 
 perficial researches, should have communicated the 
 result of its labors to those who furnished the original 
 designs ; it would then have had the merit of insti- 
 tuting a general investigation, which alone can de- 
 cide these controverted questions, and in the mean 
 time, it should give the railroad engineers of all coun- 
 tries the credit of equal capacity. 
 
94 
 
 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 COMPANIES OP INSURANCE AGAINST ACCIDENTS. 
 
 As railroad accidents have increased, they have 
 become the subjects of speculation, and companies 
 of Insurance against accidents have been proposed 
 like those against fire and shipwreck. This has been 
 done in 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 England has an institution for the insurance of 
 persons against accidents on railroads. It is the 
 Railway Passenger Assurance Company of London, 
 incorporated in 1849, by an act of Parliament. This 
 company has a capital of four million six hundred 
 thousand dollars; it effects insurance on passen- 
 gers and persons eniployed on all railroads in the 
 United Kingdom, giving in consideration of premium 
 paid a fixed sum to the heirs of persons killed upon 
 the railroad, and a proportional sum in cases of in- 
 jury. 
 
 With some rare exceptions, all railroads make an 
 annual contribution to this establishment. To enable 
 the public to partake of its advantages, policies of in- 
 surance are sold with the tickets at the stations. 
 These policies are of two kinds ; policies for a single 
 trip, called single assurance policies, and temporary 
 
INSURANCE COMPANIES. 95 
 
 policies, or periodical assurances, as their name indi- 
 cates, for a certain fixed period. 
 
 In the fixing of the premium, the length of the 
 route is not taken into consideration; the class of 
 cars only is considered; and the following scale has 
 been fixed. 
 
 PASSENGERS INSURED FOR ONE TRIP. 
 
 Class of Carriage. Sum Insured. Premium. 
 
 First Class $4,600 $5.50 ets. 
 
 Second, and Pleasure Trips . . 2,300 3.68 " 
 
 Third Class 920 1.84 " 
 
 PASSENGERS INSURED FOR A PERIOD OF TIME. 
 
 Premium to be paid for an Insurance of 
 
 $4,600 $920 
 
 Duration of Insurance in Months. 
 
 1 Sr.io 
 
 3 2.20 
 
 6 3.50 
 
 12 4.60 $1.00 
 
 From the first of these tables it is seen, that in Eng- 
 land, the danger is considered proportional to the in- 
 feriority of the car. In insurances for a stated time, 
 no distinction is made in the class of cars. 
 
 The above-mentioned sums are paid, in cases of 
 death, to the heirs of the deceased. In cases of injury, 
 the person insured receives a sum proportional to the 
 amount insured and the gravity of his wounds. This 
 indemnity may when necessary be fixed by arbi- 
 tration. 
 
 Besides this the company has an agreement with 
 
96 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 many railroads to insure those employed upon them 
 by the year at the following rates. 
 
 ANNUAL INSURANCE OF PERSONS EMPLOYED. 
 
 Class of Persona. Sum Insured. Premiums. 
 
 1st. Engine Drivers and Firemen, $276.00 $10.58 
 
 2d. Conductors and Brakemen, 230.00 4.42 
 
 3d. Factors, Watchmen, Gatekeepers, 184.00 1.21 
 
 Besides these sums stipulated in case of death, 
 each employs receives from the insurance company 
 , assistance while he is laid up with wounds. 
 
 The third and last species of insurance is that of 
 persons travelling much upon railroads ; such as 
 travelling mail agents, persons in charge of cattle, 
 who are entitled, in consideration of an annual pre- 
 mium of $4.60, to a weekly allowance of $9.20 until 
 their wounds are healed, and in case of death $920 
 are paid to their heirs. 
 
 Such are the principal arrangements of this society, 
 which is becoming more popular every day. 
 
 Although the English laws, like those of France, 
 make the .companies and their agents responsible, 
 and inflict heavy damages, when a serious act of neg- 
 ligence has been committed, occasioning death or 
 injury to passengers, accidents frequently happen, 
 which cannot be traced directly to the fault of the 
 company, and the causes of which cannot be deter- 
 mined in a perfectly clear manner ; in such cases, the 
 insurance society, not specially interested in the rail- 
 road, affords remedies which cannot be obtained by 
 law. 
 
INSUBAKCB COMPANIES. 97 
 
 We give some details of the business of this com- 
 pany:— 
 
 During the two years, 1850-1851, six insured per- 
 sons lost their lives ; four engine drivers, one su- 
 perintendent of track, and one conductor; and their 
 families received the sums for which their lives were 
 insured. In the same period, one hundred and 
 twenty-three persons who had been injured, have 
 been paid sums, the enumeration of which will show 
 the tariflf of rates. $1,840 for the fracture of a thigh ; 
 $920 for a broken arm; $1,104 for loss of an eye; 
 $552.00 for wounds in the head; $110.40 for a 
 broken jaw, and in that proportion. 
 
 Those slightly wounded, received from $4.60 to 
 $46.00. 
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 A plan for mutual insurance was presented ini 
 1850, to the German railroad companies. Its object 
 was to equalize, among all the railroads, the dama-- 
 ges resulting from the various accidents that occur in. 
 working a road, to the furniture, freight, baggage,, 
 fixtures, and rolling stock. Persons were not insured 
 by this association. 
 
 The heavy premiums paid by railroads to fire insur- 
 ance companies, gave rise to this association. 
 
 The first company for insurance upon German 
 roads was formed at Erfurt in Prussia, in 1853, under 
 the name of Thuringia, with a capital of $1,288,000. 
 It insures persons travelling and serving upon all the 
 railroads of Europe, either for a single trip, a day, or 
 for any fixed time.. 
 
 9 • 
 
98 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 This society has the confidence of the public, and 
 has extended its operations over the north of Ger- 
 many and into a part of Bavaria. 
 
 REGULATIONS OF THE THURINGIA INSURANCE COMPANY. 
 
 This company insures passengers, employes, and 
 mail agents, against all accidents which may happen 
 to them on any of the regular trains, upon any of the 
 railroads of Europe. 
 
 These accidents include collisions, burning of 
 cars, damage by lightning, running off the track, 
 breaking down of cars, breaking of axles, wheel tires, 
 springs, and other pieces, falling in of tunnels, falling 
 down of bridges or embankments, explosions of 
 boilers, breaking of cables on inclined planes, bad 
 arrangement of the trains, and falling from the cars 
 either in getting in or getting out. The regular trip, 
 in conformity with the hour of starting, begins at the 
 signal for starting, and ends with the signal of arri- 
 val. 
 
 The insured person, in case of accident, receives 
 
 l,st. A temporary assistance. 
 
 2d. An indemnity paid at once. 
 
 3d. The amount of the sum insured. 
 
 Temporary assistance, includes the payment of all 
 expenses in case of sickness, and fifty per cent, of 
 this sum in addition, as compensation for loss of time. 
 If these two amounts exceed, the,, amount for which 
 the life is insured, the injured, person, shall only re- 
 ceive fifteen per cent, of this sum. 
 
 The indemnity paid at once shall be. jegulatedby 
 the following tariff. 
 
INSURANCE COMPANIES. 99 
 
 1st. The loss of both arms, or both hands, or both 
 feet, or both eyes, seventy-five per cent, of the sum to 
 be paid in case of death. 
 
 2d. Loss of the right eye, right arm, or tight hand, 
 sixty per cent, of the same sum. 
 
 3d. Loss of the left hand, left arm, or a foot, fifty 
 per cent. 
 
 4th. Loss of the left eye, thirty per cent. 
 
 For any other mutilations, the company will only 
 pay the sum fixed for temporary assistance in cases 
 of illness. 
 
 The whole amount is only paid to the heirs, when 
 death occurs within two months after the accident, 
 or when an entire incapacity to labor is produced by 
 it. If an account of the accident, duly certified, is 
 transmitted to the company within three days, the 
 amount insured will be deposited in the bureau, to be 
 paid on the presentation of the annual report. Points 
 in dispute are to be settled by arbitration. 
 
 The premiums are as follows. 
 
 2^^ cents, for an insurance for $1,362.00 for 1 day. 
 
 4tV 
 
 "2 
 H 
 
 $4.05 
 6.81 
 
 1,362.00 " 2 days. 
 
 3,604.00 " 1 day. 
 
 3,604.00 « 2 days. 
 
 4,084.00 " 1 year. 
 
 6,808.00 " " " 
 
 Persons can be insured for smaller sums by making 
 special agreements. 
 
 Policies are issued by the depot masters of rail- 
 roads, and by special agents of the company. 
 
 This society had hardly be,en constituted when a 
 
100 
 
 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 similar society was formed in Berlin upon a more ex- 
 tended basis. This company insures against acci- 
 dents happening to travellers, to emjdoy^s, to the fur- 
 niture and working stock, to freight, and the fixed 
 property of the roads. Here are the general arrange- 
 ments of the company : — 
 
 Regulations of the General Association for insur- 
 ance against accidents on railroads. 
 
 This society undertakes to insure against accidents 
 resulting from fire, lightning, inundations, and other 
 injuries done by water, slides, explosions of locomo- 
 tive boilers, collisions, breaking down of cars, running 
 off the track, and, finally, from the breaking of axles 
 and of tires. 
 
 It does not insure against those accidents which 
 are the results of 'war, of the employment of an armed 
 force, of revolts or revolutions, of earthquakes, of 
 gross faults committed by those managing railroads, 
 or against those occasioned by the fault of the pas- 
 senger. 
 
 This society is free to take part in the examina- 
 tion into the causes of any accident. The adminis- 
 tration of the road, upon which it may happen, shall 
 give them every assistance. The necessary forms 
 having been complied with, all claims against it, will 
 be paid in one week after the accounts have been 
 arranged. AH claims for damages not made within 
 three months of the occurrence of the accident, shall 
 be null and void. The administration of the road, 
 upon which any accident occurs, engages to render 
 all possible assistance, and to notify the insurance 
 company of it at once, 
 
INSURANCE COMPANIES. 101 
 
 The nature of the wounds shall be determined by 
 the physician attached to the railroad. This society 
 shall have the right, when it sees fit, to have this set- 
 tled by a consultation of medical men. 
 
 The tariif of indemnity is fixed as follows : — 
 
 1st. Wounds disabling one from work during 
 eight days, from 75 cents to |6.80. 
 
 2d. Wounds disabling one from work for a pro- 
 longed period; from $6.80 to $128.00. . 
 
 3d. Wounds, occasioning the loss of one or more 
 limbs, from $128.00 to $736.00. 
 
 4th. Wounds disabling one from work during the 
 remainder of life ; $736.00 to 1,472.00. 
 
 5th. Accidents followed by death, $2,208.00. 
 
 Any one can, if he pleases, insure his life at a 
 higher rate. 
 
 The particular sum to be paid in any case, shall 
 be fixed between the above-mentioned limits, by the 
 insurance company, and the managers of the railroad 
 upon which the accident happens. 
 
 The premium of insurance is paid by the railroad 
 directly, or by the passenger in an increased price for 
 his ticket ; it is 
 
 1 JL cents for a trip from 4J miles to 46i miles. 
 2A^ cents for a trip above iGi miles. 
 
 Half of this premium belongs to the insurance 
 company ; the other half goes to the fund for the re- 
 lief of employis, out of virhich are paid indemnities in 
 ca?e of injuries, as well as suitable pensions to the 
 families of ibose who may be killed. 
 
 If no accident happens in the course of operating 
 9* 
 
102 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 any road, the society having then nothing to pay, 
 pledges itself to give a sum equal to fifty per cent, 
 of its profits, to the employes of the road, as a grata- 
 ity.' 
 
 When an agreenaent of this nature is made with 
 .any road, it shall continue in force one year ; and it 
 may then be prolonged. 
 
 If any railroad is compelled by the courts to pay 
 ■damages for accidents greater than those given by 
 ithis company, this company pledges itself to pay the 
 surplus. 
 
 We have now examined three classes of insurance 
 <3ompanies, differing from each other in many essen- 
 tial points. 
 
 The Mutual Society, not yet carried into oper- 
 ation, which proposes to insure property, and has 
 nothing to do with persons. The Thuringia, which 
 only insures passengers and agents upon regular 
 trains, — and the General Society of Berlin, which 
 combines the insurance of passengers, without re- 
 spect to the kind of train, with that of employes and 
 the fixed and movable property of railroads. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 France has, at present, no society of this descrip- 
 tion ; the idea only, belongs to her ; a plan for mu- 
 tual insurance among the directors of all railroads, as 
 w^ell for passengers as for employes, having been pro- 
 posed, some years ago, to our companies, who re- 
 jected it, and gave to England the glory of putting 
 it into execution for the benefit of the public. The 
 conception of this plan belongs to M. Blaise (des 
 
INSURANCE COMPANIES. 103 
 
 Vosges) principal editor of the Journal des Chemins 
 de Fer. 
 
 The preceding statements will suffice to give 
 France the basis for similar associations, if the need 
 of such is felt. At present the morality of such in- 
 stitutions is questioned, because they speculate in 
 wounds, mutilations, and death. It is true there is 
 something shocking in placing a money value upon 
 portions of our bodies ; but, setting aside this pain- 
 ful sentiment, passengers and employes carry with 
 them a certain tranquillity of mind which is always of 
 great value in the trials of life ; they know, tha't by 
 paying a certain premium, they will secure the money 
 and assistance they will need in case of wounds, and 
 accidents, which they can neither foresee nor avoid. 
 On this account, these new institutions are worthy of 
 attention, and as they already exist in England and 
 Germany, we have every reason to think, they will 
 eventually be established in France. The question 
 of their use is not urgent ; it will be settled by time, 
 and by the force of circumstances. This volume will 
 fall, perhaps, into the hands of some capitalist, who 
 will see in the establishment of a company for insur- 
 ance against accidents on railroads, a suitable in- 
 vestment for his funds, and will realize profits from 
 it, as our neighbors across the channel have already 
 done. When this time comes, the information which 
 we have given, may become of some practical utility. 
 
104 
 
 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 STATISTICS OF ACCIDENTS. 
 
 Very few useful and complete statistics have been 
 given to the public. The English occupy, in this 
 department, incontestably the first rank. The rail- 
 road commissioners give, in their Annual Report, a 
 very exact account of accidents, entering into all the 
 details, and giving explanatory papers, with plans 
 and profiles of the portion of line, upon which the ac- 
 cident happened. With these documents, engineers 
 can inform themselves of all the circumstances of 
 these accidents, and the measures to be talien to pre- 
 vent them. 
 
 The government of Baden, have also published a 
 statement -of facts. 
 
 The Belgian government, did the same when its 
 lines were first opened ; it is to be regretted that they 
 have discontinued the publication since 1848. 
 
 The government of the United States of America 
 have published a boolc very interesting, and but little 
 known in Europe ; it is entitled, A Report of a 
 Committee, appointed by the Senate to examine into 
 the Causes of Accidents upon Railroads, and to point 
 out the Means of preventing them. (Published at 
 Albany.) A complete translation of this document, 
 would doubtless be very useful ; but not having met 
 with it, until the plan of my book was arranged, I 
 
STATISTICS OP ACCIDENTS. 105 
 
 am obliged to delay this work. I subjoin a brief 
 analysis of it. 
 
 The report, presented in the name of the com- 
 mittee by the state engineer, and the chairman of 
 the railroad committee on the part of the senate, 
 divides the causes of accidents into three classes : 
 defects in the way and the rolling stock ; irregularity 
 in the working of the road ; and obstructions on the 
 track. 
 
 As defects of construction, they point out in the 
 first place, — premature opening of roads, where 
 they are not ballasted through their whole extent. 
 Gravel trains are then moving over the line, together 
 with passenger and freight trains, and are not always 
 placed upon the side tracks at the proper time ; pieces 
 of masonry and bridges are left unfinished, and have 
 not the strength requisite for use; grade crossings 
 are not properly watched or guarded, and the rails 
 are of bad quality or too light. In general the road 
 is not so substantial as it should be, taking into con- 
 sideration the weight and speed of the trains ; and 
 the danger is increased on heavy grades and sharp 
 curves, especially when the rails are affected by frost. 
 At such a time the locomotive seems to root up the 
 track. 
 
 The committee is of opinion, that with the loads 
 and speeds now used, the public is not secure, and 
 demands that railroads should be constructed in a 
 more substantial manner. 
 
 The cars seem to be sufficient for the protection 
 of the passengers ; but, in cases of axles breaking, 
 the flooring is not strong enough to prevent the broken 
 
106 
 
 RAILROAD .ACCIDENTS. 
 
 axle from coming through and wounding the pas- 
 sengers. Besides this, axles and wheels ought never 
 to be used on passenger cars more than one year. 
 They may be used, after this, upon freight cars. 
 
 On examination of this American book, it will be 
 seen that there are marked differences between the 
 rolling stock of the United States and that of Europe. 
 Cast-iron wheels are often used there, but they are 
 frequently broken by frost. The brakes are some- 
 times badly attached, and falling on the track, throw 
 off the train. The committee therefore regrets the 
 want of powerful brakes. 
 
 As a means of preventing accidents, the committee 
 can only propose great strictness in enforcing rules. 
 Incompetent persons are too often employed to sat- 
 isfy the demands of the stockholders or the public, 
 and this is, according to the report, the most common 
 cause of accidents. As a legislative measure, it was 
 advised that railroads should be placed under the 
 immediate surveillance of the State, by giving to the 
 agents of the government, the right to make more 
 strict investigations into all the details of the con- 
 struction and working of railroads. 
 
 The second part of this American work, contains 
 under the name of an Appendix, a series of questions 
 addressed to companies, on the affairs of their roads, 
 and on all accidents, as well as answers from many 
 of the roads. Tables of statistics complete the re- 
 port. 
 
 In order that these statistics of accidents should 
 be made useful and lead to practical results, they 
 should be undertaken in all countries : for an uni- 
 
STATISTICS OF ACCIDENTS. 107 
 
 versal statistic, can alone indicate the course to pur- 
 sue in order to arrive at a solution of problems, which 
 theoretical science, in its present state, cannot give. 
 A simple enumeration of the number of persons 
 killed and wounded, of passengers and employes, is 
 not enough ; that can only furnish a number of fig- 
 ures, susceptible of an infinite number of combina- 
 tions as regards the amount of travel, the class of 
 cars, the length of time the roads have been open, 
 etc. ; for these figures, though of interest to the cu- 
 rious, give no real, practical information. 
 
 They may, however, give confidence to passengers, 
 by showing that accidents are very rare upon rail- 
 roads when compared with other modes of convey- 
 ance ; this result appears from an investigation of all 
 the accidents which have happened upon English 
 roads from 1840 to 1852, and which have been pub- 
 lished in the official reports of the London Sta- 
 tistical Society. In this period of twelve years, 
 1,828 persons have been killed, and 2,648 have been 
 wounded : — 
 
 Passengers 266 
 
 Persons not connected with the road . 
 Persons standing on the track 
 Engine drivers .... 
 
 Firemen 
 
 Conductors 
 
 Watchmen and brakemen 
 
 Other employes .... 
 
 Total 1,828 2,648 
 
 According to .this , table, the number of passengers 
 
 Killea. 
 
 Wourded. 
 
 266 
 
 1.796 
 
 175 
 
 05 
 
 306 
 
 84 
 
 73 
 
 94 
 
 116 
 
 123 
 
 126 
 
 100 
 
 117 
 
 65 
 
 648 
 
 321 
 
108 BAILEOAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 killed (266) is as 1 to 2,300,000 persons carried ; and 
 the number wounded (1796) as 1 to 340,000. The 
 proportion of killed to wounded is as 1 to 7. Four 
 fifths of those injured, while standing on the track, 
 were killed. 
 
 The English Statistical Society classifies acci- 
 dents, also, according to their causes. At the be- 
 ginning of this period, from 1840 to 1852, eight per 
 cent, of the accidents causing death were occasioned 
 by the breaking of axles. The 308 collisions were 
 caused, 28 by bad weather, 34 by defects in the ma- 
 terial of the track, engines, or cars, 8 by deficiency of 
 motive power, 238 by inattention or negligence on 
 the part of employSs. 
 
 These collisions were : 48 between passenger trains ; 
 207 between passenger and freight trains ; 53 between 
 freight trains. 
 
 Referring to the rates of speed, it is remarked, that 
 fewer accidents happen to express trains than others ; 
 the reason of this is, that these trains have better en- 
 gines and are managed by the most skilful engine 
 drivers, and the attention of those in charge of the 
 track is specially directed to its condition, whenever 
 an express train is expected. Of these 308 collisions, 
 110 occurred at stations. 
 
 The cause of trains running off the track is most 
 frequently a bad state of the rails, which are kept in 
 repair by contract. 
 
 Setting aside their terrible consequences, it is 
 mainly the causes of all these accidents, which it is 
 important to. study. 
 
 We must attempt to discover why it is,, that on 
 
STATISTICS OF ACCIDENTS. 109- 
 
 certain lines accidents are more frequent than upon 
 others in the same condition as regards construction, 
 and traffic, and we should inform ourselves of the- 
 different modes of working roads in different coun- 
 tries. It is known, for example, that in Germany the- 
 trains are often delayed, and many employes are- 
 wounded; that France is the theatre of great catas- 
 trophes, happening at long intervals, but that in other- 
 respects the management is satisfactory; that in Eng- 
 land, accidents are very frequent, so as to excite the- 
 attention of parliament, inves^tigations have been 
 had, but while the fact has been settled, attention 
 has only been paid to palliatives. Sometimes it is 
 thought that a greater latitude should be given to the- 
 control and coercive measure adopted by the com- 
 panies, who demand that the whole responsibility 
 should be laid upon the superintendent; sometimes, 
 there is a fear of restraining the liberty of trade and 
 industry by the application of these measures. Th& 
 courts subject the companies and their employSs to- 
 severe penalties, and yet the accidents do not dimin- 
 ish in number or gravity ; on the contrary they in- 
 crease as the rolling stock and the track suffers wear- 
 and deterioration, which the companies, loaded with^ 
 debt, cannot make good. They see their profits daily- 
 diminishing in consequence of ruinous competition,, 
 which the amalgamation of different lines is power- 
 less to stop. By reducing the number and speed of 
 their trains, they of course expose themselves to fewer, 
 chances of accident; but the English public does 
 not go into details, and demands, on the contrary,, 
 more trains and a higher rate of speed. 
 
 10 
 
110 RAILKOAD ACCIDENTg. 
 
 According to the report of the Board of Trade, 
 45 millions of passengers have passed over the rail- 
 roads of Great Britain during the first half of the 
 year 1853. 148 persons have been killed, and 191 
 wounded in all. Of these 31 were killed and 141 
 wounded in consequence of forty serious accident?,, 
 which are divided into 18 collisions, 11 runnings off 
 the track, 5 breakings of locomotive axles, 2 breakings 
 of car axles, and 4 explosions of locomotive boilers. 
 
 Without multiplying these statements, it will be 
 seen, that a general statistical account would prob- 
 ably lead to the discovery of the causes of these acci- 
 dents ; whether they depend on local customs, the 
 exigencies of passengers, which must of course be 
 satisfied ; on mechanical arrangements, or on the char-, 
 acter and habits of the men who manage the trains. 
 We shall see perhaps, that the number of these ac- 
 cidents depend upon the character of the employSs, 
 and that with a body of men contented with their 
 situations, there is much less risk, than with agents 
 discontented with their lot, and tired of their duties ; 
 for what confidence can be placed in men badly di- 
 rected, who place no value upon the opinions of their 
 chief, and who despise the experience of their com- 
 rades ? 
 
 It seems to me that the seat of the evil is to be 
 found here, and I do not hesitate to repeat it even to 
 weariness. On a, railroad, the employe is often a 
 willing instrument, but his superior must know how 
 to manage him, and it is in. this that the talents of 
 railroad superintendents lie. In being able to find 
 capable men, in knpwing how. to- make themselves 
 
STATISTICS OP ACCIDENTS. Ill 
 
 beloved by their subordinates, and in obtaining regu- 
 larity in the service, not so much by fear as by de- 
 votion. 
 
 If the Paris and Strasbourg Railroad Company 
 had not applied this rule with that intelligence, of 
 which its committee give daily proofs, we should not 
 have found an engine driver, who in the late severe 
 weather, kept in his hands a detached piece of the 
 engine, and brought his train into the station at the 
 proper time with his hands frozen. Such acts of de- 
 votion are not found upon all lines. 
 
 The reports of a railroad, near our frontier, state 
 that during ten years, only one serious accident has 
 occurred ; it was owing to the carelessness of the 
 engine driver, who, not slackening his speed on com- 
 ing on to a side track, run into a train standing there. 
 A legal investigation showed that this engine driver 
 was a careless man, who had committed many faults 
 upon other roads and been discharged for them. 
 
 Should a train be intrusted to such a man ? If a 
 careless man must never be kept upon a railroad, 
 there should not be too much severity and especially 
 no arrogance or pride on the part of their superiors. 
 On a German road I have seen a simple depot master 
 insult an engine driver as Russian officers insult their 
 soldiers. Nothing irritates the employis of a public 
 service so much as being treated with disdain ; noth- 
 ing wounds them more, for arrogant airs are often 
 the mask of incapacity. 
 
 As relates to men employed on the road, there are 
 no precise rules ; every company, every engineer acts 
 in his own way ; and as the condition of the employis 
 
112 
 
 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 is not the same, their manner of performing their du- 
 ties is not the same, and yet it ought to be such as 
 will secure regularity in running the trains. 
 
 Orders are often conceived in too vague a manner, 
 giving too great latitude of interpretation to subor- 
 dinate agents. Uniformity in this most important 
 point should be secured. 
 
 Such are the important questions in regard to the 
 construction and management of railroads, and the 
 character of emploijis, that the statistics of accidents 
 will enable us to decide. It is a great task that I 
 have undertaken, but I will venture to say, that the 
 day will come, when railroad accidents will become 
 impossible, and then these new modes of communi- 
 cation and transport will have reached the end which 
 the genius of civilization designed for them. 
 
 I am now approaching the end of my work, which 
 is to give a concise statement of the means necessary 
 to introduce regularity into the working of roads, by 
 which alone accidents can be avoided. 
 
SUMMARY. 113 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 I DO not pretend to point out an universal and in- 
 fallible method of preserving railroads from acci- 
 dents. I do not believe it to be possible, at least at 
 present ; for this great machine of transport is com- 
 posed of two elements, whose simultaneous action 
 cannot be combined in an absolute manner: — the 
 regular woriiing of mechanism, and the carefulness 
 and intelligence of men. Besides, for negligence 
 and imprudence on the part of passengers, there is 
 no remedy, unless we perform the duties of men by- 
 mechanical contrivances, and treat them like freight, 
 by closing them up, as was once done, in boxes, and 
 not allowing them any movements which might pos- 
 sibly be injurious to them ; and even then we should 
 not arrive at a satisfactory result. 
 
 For the breaking down and collisions of trains, no 
 absolute preventive measures can be taken. "We 
 should avoid complications in the service, and too 
 difficult combinations of trains; those concerned in 
 working the road, should be subjected, above all 
 things, to a strict and intelligent control. 
 
 To prevent, as much as possible, trains from run- 
 ning off the track, all the details of the way should 
 be subjected to an active and continual surveillance. 
 In the observation of signals, which are generally 
 
 10* 
 
114 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 given with great exactness, every thing depends 
 upon the engine driver. 
 
 The rules of the road should be made aS perfect 
 as possible ; the services which may be rendered by 
 the electric telegraph, and the practical value of 
 those so-called certainties which are based on suppo- 
 sitions, and which so often give rise to accidents, 
 .should be considered. We should examine espe- 
 <cia.lly what has been done in other countries, and not 
 rest satisfied with our own experience, however great 
 that may be ; or base our operations upon precon- 
 ceived ideas or theoretical plans. 
 
 In fine, we should fix our attention upon two 
 points ; the improvement of the stock of our roads, 
 and a careful selection of employes. 
 
 To reach the first result, the efforts of all engineers 
 and constructors should be centralized, still keeping 
 in view isolated experiments ; and so much the more, 
 as they are generally made in a disinterested spirit 
 and for a useful end. As to the working of roads, 
 properly so called, the French government has ad- 
 dressed a series of questions, which all the companies 
 will answer. It is to be desired that this should be 
 imitated by others, who could thus cooperate in a 
 work, which is meritorious in more than one point 
 of view. 
 
 Already many matters, which were the subjects of 
 serious reflections and reasonable fears, have been 
 settled ; means have been found for fixing the rails 
 firmly, and giving a great stability to the rolling 
 stock. 
 
 Other problems should be investigated; and, to 
 
SUMMARY. 115 
 
 enhance the value of this work, I repeat, that all en- 
 gineers should consider them, and work out their 
 ideas to some common end. This may be done, 
 without any serious difficulty, by preparing a sort of 
 programme of the doubtful points. This programme, 
 the form of which is indifferent, might be very easily 
 composed ; it would include a series of questions on 
 the construction of the roads, and of the superstruc- 
 ture, on the manufacture and strength of the engines 
 and cars, and answers to them should be sent to 
 societies of engineers, and finally examined by an 
 international committee. From this would arise a 
 sort of railway congress. 
 
 The carrying out of this plan would really cost 
 nothing, and to it might be added the collection 
 of complete statistics of railroads, and especially of 
 the causes of accidents ; it would stimulate the zeal 
 of all persons concerned in the construction and 
 working of roads, and would cause the science in 
 which we are all interested to advance one step at 
 least. 
 
 To effect this object, any society of engineers has 
 only to put itself into communication with other 
 societies ; one member might communicate with the 
 societies of France or of England, another with those 
 of Prussia, another with those of Austria ; and as no 
 society would refuse to answer to the call, the opin- 
 ions of all could be made common, and practical 
 conclusions might be drawn from them, which might 
 afterwards be given to the public. All this seems 
 very easy to me, and it is astonishing that it has not 
 been done before this time. 
 
116 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 While waiting for the realization of this idea, I 
 will commence by opening the first page of a regis- 
 ter, in which I will inscribe the following questions, 
 whose solution would, without doubt, add to the se- 
 curity of railroad travel. 
 
 1st. The explosion of locomotive boilers is not 
 a common occurrence; with some precautions it can 
 be prevented ; What means, and what contrivances, 
 can be used to insure safety? 
 
 2d. The breaking of axles is very rare, especially 
 in France, where the modes of manufacture have 
 attained a high degree of perfection. In Germany it 
 is more common. 
 
 Is this difference caused by a difference in the iron, 
 in the manufacture, or in the use? 
 
 To decide when an axle is beginning to break, we 
 need only heat it, from time to time, in a slow fire, 
 after having rubbed it with oil, which will enter the 
 fissure, and come out when it cools. The zeal of 
 the employes might be stimulated by giving a re- 
 ward to all who pointed out an axle not fit for use. 
 
 Is there any other more effectual way of detecting 
 these commeficing ruptures, or of avoiding evil con- 
 sequences when they break? 
 
 3d. The stability of locomotives may be secured 
 by counterweights. What is the best mode of ap- 
 plying them ? 
 
 4th. With fixed atta^ohments to the rails, and with 
 the compound rail, solutions of continuity in the 
 track are avoided. Why is this mode of attachment 
 not used in France ? Why is it used with reserve 
 in England ? Why does Germany reject chairs, and 
 
SUMMARY. 117 
 
 place on all its roads the American rail with screw- 
 plates ? In general, why are the opinions of intelli- 
 gent engineers so divided on this subject ? 
 
 What practical conclusion can be drawn from the 
 solution of these questions ? 
 
 5th. Bridges of cast and of wrought iron form the 
 subject of controversy. "What are the facts in sup- 
 port of the opposite opinions ? Are there any rea- 
 sons for using one of these systems in preference to 
 the other? 
 
 6th. Can the causes of rails breaking be deter- 
 mined ? What measures can be taken to prevent it ? 
 
 7th. Which are preferable, switches moved by 
 hand, or by counterweights ? 
 
 8th. The questions relating to collisions, signals, 
 and single track roads, are intimately connected. 
 The electric telegraph plays a very important part 
 here. On this subject, a question of principle has 
 has been lately raised in a paper of the Society of 
 Civil Engineers of Paris : it is there said that the 
 electric telegraph does not render eminent services to 
 railroads unless it is placed exclusively under their 
 charge, and explains the rapid progress that has been 
 made in this department in Germany, by the fact 
 that the government have nothing to do with the 
 management of this mode of communication. 
 
 I have consulted, on this subject, " The General 
 Statistics of the German Railroads," published by a 
 convention of their managers. I find there proof to 
 the contrary. 
 
 The length of the German railroads is 6,214 miles, 
 of which 2,796 belong to the following governments : 
 
118 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 Austria, 932 miles; Prussia, 590 miles; Bavaria, 
 373 miles; Saxony, 248.5; Hanover, 248.5; Wur- 
 temburg, 155 miles ; Baden, 174 miles ; Brunswick, 
 75 miles. 
 
 All these government lines are furnished with the 
 electric telegraph, whilst those belonging to incorpo- 
 rated companies do not have them through their 
 whole extent. The common travelled roads do not 
 have them. 
 
 Thus the assertion quoted above is not in confor- 
 mity with the official documents. It was not for the 
 purpose of refuting an opinion published by a mem- 
 ber of the Society of Civil Engineers, that I have 
 entered upon this investigation, but to add another 
 to my list of questions. 
 
 What is the part the electric telegraph should play 
 in the working of railroads with single or double 
 tracks ? 
 
 9th. The electric telegraph leads me to speak of 
 the electric chimes placed on the guard-houses, to 
 signalize the approach of trains which have not been 
 announced ; and the electric fire, to take the place of 
 explosive signals, the inefficiency of which has been 
 felt. 
 
 In generalizing this question : What advantage 
 can be derived from inventions made, not so much 
 for the purpose of preventing accidents, as for dimin- 
 ishing their injurious results? 
 
 The number of these questions can be increased 
 by those propounded in a book just published by Mr. 
 Couche on Collisions. 
 
 It seems to me of use to transcribe these ques- 
 
SUMMARY. 119 
 
 tions, fourteen in number, in addition to those that I 
 have given above. 
 
 lOlh. At the moment when a train quits a station, 
 should it be signalized to the train that is to follow- 
 on a double track, as is necessarily practised on a 
 single track ? 
 
 llth. Should the passage of a train be announced 
 to all engaged on the track, or only to those who are 
 placed in charge of dangerous points ; such as curves, 
 branches, grade crossings? 
 
 12th. Should the use of disc signals be made gen- 
 eral at grade crossings ? Is all the advantage taken 
 of signals that should be, at switches placed at the 
 entrance of stations ? 
 
 13th. Should the use of fixed signals cease at 
 night, when the signal is neither visible at the sta- 
 tion-house, nor placed at a point where the guard 
 can constantly watch over the condition of the lan- 
 tern ? 
 
 14th. Is it useful to have in stations an indicator 
 at each switch ? 
 
 15th. Should the running of extra trains be re- 
 strained to cases of absolute necessity, when they 
 cannot be announced at the stations and dangerous 
 points on the track? 
 
 16th. Should assisting service be organized on the 
 demand of a train in distress? and should such a 
 train have the liberty of asking for assistance in either 
 direction ? 
 
 17th. To what extent is it possible to compel 
 every train to leave for itself, at certain fixed dis- 
 tances, and particularly at the commencement of 
 
120 EAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 curves, a mark of its having passed, to warn the 
 train following, until it shall become useless by the 
 arrival of the watchman ? 
 
 Cannot this be done without the intervention of 
 any mechanical contrivance ? 
 
 18th. Cannot this arrangement be easily made, at 
 least by freight trains, that is, by thpse trains of 
 whose passage such an indication would be particu- 
 larly useful ? 
 
 19th. Cannot the electric light be made use of for 
 the night signals, and especially in cases of fog, and 
 thus restore to signals directed to the eye a part of 
 their efficacy ? 
 
 20th. Are the watchmen always in sufficient num- 
 bers? Are they always proportional to the condition 
 of the track, and especially to the number of trains 
 during the day and at night ? 
 
 21st. The daily work of engine drivers, and the 
 length of single trips they have to make, do they 
 ever exceed the proper limits, especially during un- 
 pleasant weather? Does not cold wind and rain, 
 after some hours, paralyze to a certain point the at- 
 tention which should always be on the alert, where 
 a single instant of forgetfulness may cost so dear ? 
 
 22d. Are the number of side tracks sufficient for 
 the freight trains ? Is the establishment of interme- 
 diate side tracks, away from the stations, advisable 
 upon lines of great traffic? 
 
 23d. Are the brakes, supposing them to be in good 
 condition, sufficiently numerous? Is not a brake 
 indispensable on the last car, on sections. of th« road 
 where the inclines are of great length.? 
 
SUMMARY. 121 
 
 This programme contains twenty-three questions^ 
 many of which have received approximate solutions^ 
 
 I will not push my researches any further. I have- 
 restricted myself to presenting a plan, which cannot 
 be completed except by the concurrent labor of all 
 engineers. 
 
 There is, besides those mentioned, a number ot 
 accidents arising from carelessness, which may es- 
 cape the investigation of the most conscientious,, 
 which cannot be covered by the orders of the super- 
 intendent, or guarded against by the attention of the 
 agents under him. How, in fact, can accidents be- 
 foreseen, occasioned by things falling on the rails;, 
 by cattle breaking through the fences ; by carriages 
 stopping on grade crossings ; by loaded wagons, 
 whose height has not been measured, through forget- 
 fulness, by passing them under the gauge ; by the 
 chimneys of locomotives striking against scaffoldings 
 at the entrance of depots, or other works under re- 
 pair, which breaking, fall upon the employSs, and 
 stop the progress of the train; by cars at stations- 
 driven out of place by the wind, or left by chance- 
 upon the track ? In these matters, we must depend 
 entirely upon the intelligence of the passengers, and 
 the circumspection of the employes. 
 
 11 
 
122 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Notwithstanding the impossibility of pointing out 
 definite measures to avoid accidents, there are modes 
 of improving the working of roads, which we will, 
 for practical purposes, point out in the five following 
 propositions : — 
 
 1st. The most serious attention should be paid to 
 the selection of those to be employed on the road, 
 and the duties of every agent should be distinctly 
 defined (see the accident at Poitiers) ; and the super- 
 intendent should have the authority to discharge any 
 persons whose duties and position are not precisely 
 defined, so that confusion may be avoided. 
 
 2d. Devotion to the interests of the road should 
 be stimulated among all subordinate agents, by 
 making their positions comfortable. Careless, dis- 
 contented persons, and those showing any desire to 
 leave, should be discharged at once; this, unfortu- 
 nately, is not practised with sufficient energy. A rail- 
 road is a machine of transport, and should never be 
 made a paternal and benevolent institution for per- 
 sons who do not perform the duties required of 
 them. ' 
 
 3d. Frequent inspections should be made, like 
 those on the Northern road. A commission of the 
 superior officers of this company visits, from time to 
 
CONCLUSION. 123 
 
 time, the stations and other posts of the road, and ex- 
 amines all the employes in the details of their duties, 
 in the working of signals and of the telegraph. 
 
 No sooner is the rumor of this inspection spread 
 abroad, than all employed on the road hasten to 
 study the regulations, and exercise themselves in all 
 the departments of their duties. Everybody gains 
 by this : capable servants are distinguished ; and di- 
 rect intercourse with the superintendent does away 
 with the necessity of many letters and circulars. 
 
 4th. To establish conferences of all the engineers 
 of the country, and to promote international conven- 
 tions, to carry out the plan I have proposed. 
 
 5th. To create a board of universal statistics, to 
 combine the labors of all engineers, so that they may 
 be subjected to criticism and given to the public. 
 
 I would now say a few words to the public. For- 
 merly passengers took their seats in the cars with pa- 
 tience and resignation. Now the feeling which ani- 
 mates them is impatience, and if this is not satisfied 
 with a rate of speed, of which some years since we 
 had not even the idea, it is changed to ill will against 
 the agents of this new mode of conveyance. 
 
 In many cases, the public suspects the whole ad- 
 ministration, from the directors to the watchmen, of 
 negligence and incapacity. It considers nothing, ex- 
 cuses nothing, and often comprehends nothing. It 
 forgets that railroads exist only through the zeal and 
 devotion of honorable and intelligent men, of whom 
 they take no account. He who has never ridden on 
 a locomotive does not know how much courage, in- 
 trepidity, and address is needed to conduct a train- 
 
124 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 He only sees a delay, an accident, but he does not 
 see the precautions that are taken at every moment 
 by those in the employ of the company, who have 
 the greatest interest in performing their duties with a 
 zeal and devotion equal to every emergency; for 
 they know the rewards that await them, the punish- 
 ment which threatens, and the penalties of the law 
 which hang over them. 
 
 Unfortunately the press echoes thoughtless preju- 
 dices. Let the boilers of steamboats explode ; let 
 stages overturn or remain fixed in snow on imprac- 
 ticable roads ; let carts, recklessly driven, run over per- 
 sons in the street, — these things are natural; no at- 
 tention is paid to them, they are customary. 
 
 But let a train run off the track at Zarskcezelo, 
 the journals of Madrid hasten to put the fact on rec- 
 ord; let a locomotive run off an embankment at 
 Aranjuez, and the New York papers publish the de- 
 tails, and the Parisian press, as well as that of other 
 capitals, collect together all these stories, and awaken 
 disquietude in the hearts of passengers, and disgust 
 with their duties in the souls of employes, which are 
 so cruelly tried in these latter times. 
 
 These recitals are neither instructive or amusing. 
 They give no precise information, and it would be 
 better if they were entirely suppressed. 
 
 The public should regain its confidence, and dis- 
 miss as soon as possible these unfounded prejudices. 
 Railroads, even with the defects inherent in all human 
 works, offer the most certain and rapid mode of con- 
 veyance; and no means are left untried to perfect 
 them. In all countries, they are subjects of study with 
 
CONCLUSION. 125 
 
 serious minds, and thej are every day advancing more 
 nearly to perfection. Besides, wiiere can be found 
 more practical science than among railroad engi- 
 neers ; more intelligence than among railroad man- 
 agers ; or a better staff than those employed in the 
 working of roads ? And above all this is placed the 
 solicitude of the government, which watches without 
 cessation over the interests and safety of the people. 
 
 11' 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 BY THE TRANS LATOE. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 EXPLOSIONS or LOCOMOTIVE BOILERS. 
 
 BT THE TBAKSLATOE. 
 
 The construction of the locomotive boiler, renders it les3 
 liable to bursting, at other points than the tubes, from the 
 gradual increase in the pressure of steam, than other forms 
 of boiler, and it rarely, if ever, bursts from this cause while 
 it is in motion. When the regulator is open, and a free com- 
 munication made between the boiler and the cylinders, the 
 steam, as fast as it is generated, passes into the cylinder, and 
 acting upon the piston, which may be considered as a valve, 
 loaded with a weight equal to the resistance of the train, 
 moves it as soon as its pressure equals this resistance with 
 a speed proportionate to the rapidity with which the steam is 
 generated. No load that would be likely to be put upon a 
 locomotive engine would cause a resistance upon the piston 
 greater than the iron of the boiler was able to bear, and until 
 this was done, the piston would move before the boiler burst, 
 giving vent to the steam, and the speed of the train would 
 be increased, until an equilibrium was established between 
 the power of the steam generated, and the resistance of the 
 load. But yet it is found that the boilers of locomotive en- 
 
130 EAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 gines do explode, not only while in motion, but also imme- 
 diately after the pressure of the steam in the boiler has been, 
 to all appearance, reduced by the opening of the regulator, 
 the raising of the safety-valve, the sounding of the steam 
 whistle, or the introduction of cold water. 
 
 Facts seem to warrant the opinion that a very small por- 
 tion of the explosions of locomotive boilers are occasioned by 
 the gradual increase of the pressure of the steam under an 
 overloaded valve. They seem to be produced by causes 
 which act suddenly and against which no safety-valve, at 
 least as at present arranged, is any safeguard whatever. 
 The circumstances, under which these explosions take place, 
 are various as we propose to show. 
 
 An explosion sometimes occurs immediately on the start- 
 ing of an engine. This may, we think, be produced by two 
 causes, acting either separately or conjointly. 
 
 1st. Water, under the pressure of a single atmosphere 
 boils at 212" Fahrenheit, and at other temperatures varying 
 with the pressure. As water, kept perfectly still, may be 
 cooled below the usual freezing point without being frozen, 
 so it may be heated above the usual boiling point, under 
 the same circumstances, without being turned into steam. 
 While a locomotive is standing with the fire burning slowly 
 under the boiler, the pressure of the steam is constantly 
 but slowly increasing, and the water being kept perfectly 
 still may he heated above the boiling point for the given 
 pressure, as it certainly is up to it. As soon however as 
 the regulator is opened, or the safety-valve raised, a por- 
 tion of the pressure is removed, and rapid ebullition is pro- 
 duced in water heated above the boiling point for this re- 
 duced pressure, and a sudden disengagement of steam is pro- 
 duced in the same way as crystals of ice are formed in water 
 cooled below the freezing point, by agitating it. The steam 
 thus rapidly generated, strikes the boiler with a sudden blow, 
 
APPENDIX. 131 
 
 and breaks it, though the boiler would resist perfectly the 
 same force gradually applied. 
 
 That this sudden and destructive generation of steam 
 arises at times from a reduction of the pressure, would seem 
 probable from the appearance of boilers after explosion. 
 They are torn in all directions, and rarely, if ever, present 
 the appearance of a single opening relieving at once the in- 
 ternal pressure, like the prick of a pin in a bladder dis- 
 tended with air. Any thing that excites motion in the water 
 may cause this sudden development of steam, as the follow- 
 ing facts show. 
 
 A stationary engine exploded at Bradford, in England, in 
 1844. The fire had got down very low, and more fuel was 
 put on. The steam was escaping from the safetj'-valves. 
 The boiler exploded seven or eight minutes after the fuel 
 was put in. The cause assigned was that the water had 
 been heated when perfectly still above the boiling point by a 
 slow fire, the sudden increase of which putting the water in 
 motion, caused a sudden development of steam.* 
 
 An experiment described in the same magazine illustrates 
 the same principle : — 
 
 " Take a common Florence flask, about half full of water ; 
 boil the water over a lamp ; remove the lamp, and when all 
 ebullition has ceased, holding the flask steady, cork it. Take 
 it now by the neck in the hand protected by a cloth, and 
 give it one or two vigorous shakes. The flask will instantly 
 burst with a pretty observable explosion." 
 
 2d. While the locomotive is standing, the fire being slow 
 and the water still, the level of the water may be lowered 
 below the smoke tubes, and they may become heated. As soon 
 as the regulator is opened, ebullition becomes quite rapid, 
 and the level of the water may be raised by it two or three 
 
 * Mechanic's Magazine, May, 1844. 
 
132 KAiLKOAD accide:sts. 
 
 inches, so as to bring it upon the heated tubes or plates. 
 This will be followed by an instantaneous development of 
 steam, which may burst the boiler. 
 
 These sudden and violent explosions more frequently take 
 place while the engine is in motion, as has happened in 
 many cases on American roads. Owing to the carelessness 
 of the engine driver, or faulty construction or working of the 
 pumps, and these are apt to get out of order at high rates 
 of speed, the water having been allowed to get too low in the 
 boiler, the exposed portion of it becomes intensely heated, 
 and water being again admitted, an instantaneous generation 
 of steam follows which tears the boiler in pieces. 
 
 Besides the danger of a sudden generation of steam on the 
 introduction of cold water, as the strength of iron is greatly 
 diminished by being heated redhot, (according to Fairbarn 
 it is diminished five sixths), when a portion of the boiler 
 is thus heated it may burst under the ordinary working 
 pressure. 
 
 While the engine is running, as in the case of the Tay- 
 chonic on the Boston and Providence road, on a down 
 grade, with the regulator closed, an explosion of this kind 
 may occur without the introduction of any more water into 
 the boiler, by the opening of the regulator, the raising of the 
 safety-valve or the blowing of the whistle, either of which 
 by increasing the rapidity of ebullition, may raise the level 
 of the water, so as to bring it upon the heated surface. In 
 the case of the Taychonic, the whistle was heard the instant 
 before the explosion, and it seems probable that the accident 
 was caused rather by a change in the level of the water in 
 the boiler, than by an increase of its quantity. 
 
 Alfred Guthrie, in a memorial to Congress on the subject 
 of steam boiler explosions, has given an example of one oc- 
 curring in a stationary boiler from the introduction of water 
 into it, when it was heated, which shows so clearly the mode 
 
APPENDIX. 13S 
 
 in which this class of explosions occurs that I shall quote it 
 in full. 
 
 " It was an ordinary sized Mississippi boiler used in a ma- 
 chine shop ; the water fed to the forcing pump through a 
 side faucet, to be shut off or on at pleasure, leading to a cis- 
 tern overhead. The regular engineer came to the shop in 
 the morning and started the works; the boiler had been' 
 filled and this faucet closed, so that no water found its way 
 to the pumps. Soon after the engineer was taken suddenly 
 ill, leaving the boiler in charge of a person thought to be 
 competent, but who in fact was entirely ignorant of the- 
 business. The fire was continued for a short time, every 
 thing going on well, until the water became low and afforded 
 nothing for the generation of steam, when the power began, 
 to diminish and the machinery to be driven with enfeebled 
 force. This state of things tended to increase the energy of 
 the firemen, the arch being crowded with fuel without effect,, 
 until finally the whole work was upon the point of stopping. 
 At this moment the owner came in, and, found an excellent 
 fire and no apparent reason why the engine should not do its 
 accustomed duty. He found by the water gauge that there 
 was no water, and hastened to the side faucet, and impru- 
 dently turned on the water, and in an instant the whole was 
 blown to atoms, killing the engineer, and severely injuring 
 many others who were in the building, which it levelled to 
 the ground." 
 
 Locomotive boilers may explode from the effects of in- 
 crustations forming upon their bottoms or sides. In the en- 
 gineer's and architect's Journal for September 1854, there- 
 is an account of the effects of incrustations upon salt pans,, 
 which illustrates the principle very well. 
 
 " A crust of salt frequently forms upon the pans. The 
 cessation of ebullition (if the deposit occurred over the fur- 
 nace) was the consequence, and the bottom of the pan be- 
 
 12 
 
134 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 came redliot. The manner in whicli the scale was disen- 
 gaged, was to strike it with the edge of a heavy iron pricker, 
 which allowed the brine to reach the plate. It was also fre- 
 quently broken by the expansion and bagging down of the 
 plates, leaving the crusts above like an arch. In such cases, 
 the plate was seen, for a moment, to be redhot, and imme- 
 diately afterwards, an immense column of brine was projected 
 from the pan, the steam evidently being of great elasticity. 
 
 Mr. Parkes had seen a yard square of the scale burst, the 
 whole surface of the scale being of a glowing heat. Had the 
 pan been closed, like a steam boiler, he conceived that the 
 blow of the steam on the roof, bottom, and sides, would have 
 destroyed the vessel. 
 
 A thin plate of copper at Mr Parke's work had a hole burst 
 through it by the sudden action of steam thus generated. 
 He conceived that similar phenomena might and frequently 
 did occur in steam boilers." 
 
 These incrustations are constantly forming upon steam 
 boilers, and when they reach a certain thickness, interfere 
 greatly with the transmission of heat ; the iron beneath them 
 becomes redhot, and expanding cracks the deposit over it, 
 water is admitted, and explosion occurs in the manner re- 
 lated above. 
 
 A careful chem,ical analysis of these deposits and of the 
 water used, wo,uJd., we think, indicate means for preventing 
 them, and would thus increase the efficiency and safety of 
 the steam-engine, foT' the same deposit which causes the 
 danger, diminishes the evaporating power. 
 
 If the water spaces at the sides of the fire box are too 
 narrow, steam may be so rapidly generated there, as to drive 
 the water up, and this process would be aided by the prop- 
 erty of heated iron to repel water, which from the experi- 
 ments of the Franklin Institute, seems to commence to show 
 itself at the temperature of 334° Fahrenheit, and to increase 
 
APPENDIX. 135 
 
 rapidly as the temperature rises above that point. This 
 may go on until this part of the boiler, being filled only with 
 dry steam becomes intensely heated. So long as the steam 
 is rapidly generated it will continue to drive the water out 
 of the narrow space, and no evil result will follow, unless 
 the pressure of the steam becomes too great for the resistance 
 of the iron, diminished as it is by the heat. But when, by 
 opening the furnace door, or closing the regulator, the en- 
 ergy of the fire is diminished, and steam is generated less 
 rapidly, the water falling back upon the heated plate, flashes 
 into steam and bursts the boiler. 
 
 May 2d, 1848, a stationary engine exploded in Phila- 
 delphia from this cause ; the explosion taking place after the 
 furnace door was opened and the fire had gone down. A 
 stationary boiler exploded at Middletown, Connecticut, Jan- 
 uary 26th, 1841, twenty minutes after it had been set in 
 motion. The cause assigned was an undue heating of the 
 space between the fire box and the outer shell, this space 
 being but two and a half inches. The explosion was ex- 
 ceedingly violent, throwing the whole boiler two hundred to 
 two hundred and twenty feet into the air.* 
 
 From the peculiar form of locomotive boilers the part re- 
 ferred to being, in them, the narrowest, and at the same time 
 the weakest portion, explosions might arise in them from 
 this cause. Owing also to the position of the different sides 
 of the shell of the boiler at this point, where the inner end 
 of the stay bolt is exposed to the intense heat of the fire, and 
 the outer end to the external air, the irregular expansion and 
 contraction of the iron of which they are composed must 
 tend greatly to change their texture and diminish their 
 strength. 
 
 It is difficult, however, in many cases to decide upon the 
 
 * Franklin Journal, January, 1842. 
 
136 EAILROAD ACCIDBNTS. 
 
 precise cause of locomotive explosions. The engineer, who 
 might give the most valuable information, is most frequently- 
 killed by the accident, and the causes of the catastrophe can 
 be inferred only from the appearance of the wreck ; but it 
 seems perfectly clear that a great majority of them do not 
 arise from a gradual increase of pressure in the boiler, and 
 that against most of them the safety-valve is no protection. 
 In all the cases to which we have alluded, there is one com- 
 mon characteristic. This consists in a sudden, an instan- 
 taneous development of a large quantity of steam which the 
 safety-valve, even were the steam to strike it before the 
 injury was done, would be wholly inadequate to give imme- 
 diate vent to. But in almost all, if not all of these cases, the 
 boiler is burst before the wave occasioned by the sudden 
 generation of steam has had time to strike the valve. 
 
 According to Laplace, the conducting power of steam 
 at a pressure of four atmospheres, and a temperature of 
 294^ Fahrenheit, is 1041.34 feet per second, and of water 
 6036.88 feet per second. The ratio of these different veloc- 
 ities is 1 to 5.7. If then, owing to a low state of water, the 
 upper tubes were heated, and water suddenly poured upon 
 them from the pumps, the wave occasioned by the sudden 
 generation of steam at the surface of the water would be 
 transmitted down through the water with a velocity 5f 
 times as great as it would upwards through the steam, and 
 thus burst out the bottom of the boiler, before the safety- 
 valve was touched. When this rapid generation of steam is 
 occasioned by the separation of incrustations, or from nar- 
 row side spaces, the bottom or sides of the boiler being so 
 much nearer the origin of the wave, the injury would of 
 course be done before the valve could be reached. 
 
 In almost all cases of explosions of locomotive boilers, 
 while in motion, it will be found that the force of the explo- 
 sion is downwards and is very violent; that it occurs under 
 
APPENDIX; 137 
 
 circumstances that cannot be explained on the theory of a 
 gradually increasing pressure occasioned by an overloaded 
 valve, but that it is caused by a sudden development of 
 power, some of the causes or supposed causes of which we 
 have indicated. 
 
 It has been proposed to place a valve at the bottom of the 
 boiler as a safeguard against this peculiar form of explosion, 
 but this suggestion has never, to our knowledge, been car- 
 ried out. Fusible plugs have been used as a protection 
 against those explosions which are caused by a low state of 
 the water. In France these plugs are formed of alloys of 
 tin and lead with a small quantity of bismuth, in such pro- 
 portions as will insure fusion at a temperature somewhat 
 below that of molten lead. Great importance is attached to 
 these alloys, and in order to secure certainty as to their pro- 
 portions, they are prepared at the mint. Fairbarn advises 
 the use of a lead rivet, one inch in diameter, immediately 
 over the fireplace, and is of opinion that the less frequent 
 occurrence of boiler explosions in France, than in England, 
 is owing to the fact that in the former country the fusible 
 plug is more frequently used. 
 
 The only other means of safety at present available are 
 care on the part of the engine driver, that the water is kept 
 at its proper level, and the boiler is free from incrustations, 
 and on the part of the engine builder that the side spaces 
 and the spaces between the tubes are made so wide, as to 
 prevent the steam forcing all the water out of them and thus 
 bringing about the same state of things at the bottom of the 
 boiler as a low state of water does at the top. 
 
 12* 
 
138 KAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 B. 
 
 Locomotive engines are usually worked at a pressure 
 of from 80 to 100 pounds to the inch, and taking one of the 
 usual construction, we shall find at 100 pounds to the inch, 
 that it rushes forward on the rail with a pent-up force with- 
 in its interior of nearly 60,000 tons, which is rather increased 
 than diminished at an accelerated speed.* 
 
 CARELESSNESS OE EMPLOYES. 
 
 The following extract from the Massachusetts Railroad 
 Reports shows how much confusion and what serious acci- 
 dents the carelessness of one man may give rise to. 
 
 On the 3d of March, 1847, during a period when the 
 whole operations of the road were confined to a single track, 
 in consequence of the taking up of the other track, for the 
 purpose of laying down a new and heavier rail, a collision 
 took place between a descending passenger train and an 
 empty gravel train, which was ascending on the same track. 
 This collision was occasioned by the careless inattention of 
 the engineman, who had the train in charge, in immediately 
 leaving Worcester on the arrival of an upward freight train, 
 without taking notice of the customary signal borne by that 
 
 * Lectures on the steam-boiler by 'William Eairbarn, C. E. 
 
APPENDIX. 139 
 
 train, indicating that another train was following in its rear. 
 The consequences of the collision were, a considerable in- 
 jury to the engine and cars, and a serious personal injury to 
 a passenger, who had, without authority, taken a stand upon 
 the platform of the baggage car. All the persons on the 
 gravel train saved themselves from injury, by jumping from 
 it before the collision; the engineman having first taken the 
 precaution to reverse his engine, but not to shut off the 
 steam. From the effect of the shock and the power of the 
 steam, the engine was immediately set in motion in an op- 
 posite direction, before the engineman could regain his sta- 
 tion upon it. It ran down the road a distance of eight miles, 
 when it stopped from the exhaustion of the steam. It was 
 there soon unexpectedly encountered by the four o'clock 
 passenger train from Boston, when another collision took 
 place, with some damage to the materiel of the two trains, 
 but without any personal injury. On the coming up subse- 
 quently of the steamboat, train, the disabled parts of the 
 injured train were removed from the track, and the two 
 passenger trains being united in one, they proceeded on- 
 wards towards "Worcester. The track being still obstructed 
 by the wrecks of the first collision, it became necessary to 
 pass over the newly laid track which was nearly finished 
 but not reopened for use. While proceeding slowly and 
 with great caution upon this track, on approaching the 
 freight station, the train, from the darkness of the night, 
 came in contact with some freight cars which had been 
 placed on the track while it was disused, and which the 
 agent had not succeeded in removing ; and by this collision 
 two other persons, a road-repairer and a baggage-master, 
 were seriously injured. The former died of his wounds, but 
 the latter recovered. This series of disasters arose from the 
 culpable momentary heedlessness of an agent, of good char- 
 acter and capacity, who had been for some time employed 
 
140 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 in the same situation and who had inspired confidence by 
 his prudence and good conduct. He was, of course, dis- 
 charged from his situation.* 
 
 D. 
 
 CRYSTALLIZATION OF WROUGHT IRON. 
 
 The peculiar change in wrought iron, indicated in chap- 
 ter XI., has been also noticed in England, and it is a subject 
 well worthy the most careful examination, at this time when 
 wrought iron is every day becoming more and more used. 
 That certain causes produce a change in the iron by which 
 its strength is greatly diminished, and its fibrous quality 
 destroyed, without any perceptible external change, the 
 observations both in England and France leave us no room 
 to doubt ; and it is of the last importance, that these causes 
 should be well defined, and if possible, the time during which 
 wrought iron can be subjected to them without incurring 
 risk of fracture, determined by observation and experiment. 
 The fracture of axles of locomotives and cars is not uncom- 
 mon, and many lives have been destroyed by this accident, 
 which has frequently happened in the ordinary working of 
 the road, without any increase in the average load or speed, 
 and without any previous sign of weakness. The experi- 
 ments related in chapter XL, show that when subjected to 
 shocks and torsions wrought iron has a tendency to assume 
 a crystalline state, and become brittle : this change may also 
 
 * Sixteenth Annual Report of the Boston and Worcester Railroad 
 Corporation. 
 
APPENDIX. 141 
 
 be produced by magnetism and heat, and by the process of 
 manufacture. 
 
 Mr. Hood, at a meeting of the Institution of Civil Engi- 
 neers in England, stated that a large anchor, which had been 
 in store for more than a century at Woolwich Dock, and was 
 supposed to be made of extremely good iron, had been 
 recently tested as an experiment, and had broken instantly 
 with a comparatively small strain. The fracture presented 
 large crystals. In this case, Mr. Hood believed that this 
 effect was produced by magnetic influences dependent on the 
 length of time the iron had been in the same position. 
 
 Mr. Low, stated that at the gas works under his direc- 
 tion, wrought iron fire bars, though more expensive, were 
 generally preferred. A pan of water was kept beneath 
 them, the steam from which would speedily cause them to 
 become magnetic. He had frequently seen these bars, when 
 thrown down, break into three pieces, with a large crystal- 
 line fracture. The same change may be produced in any 
 piece of wrought iron by heating and rapidly cooling it by 
 dipping it in water for a few times. 
 
 This change is also often produced in iron by hammering 
 dt when below a welding heat, and in forging intricate pieces 
 of iron-work, the ends have frequently been jarred off while 
 the other parts were being hammered. The larger the piece 
 of iron is, the more difficult it is to keep it at an uniform 
 heat, and the more likely this change is to take place ; and 
 we have lately learned from an English paper, that " Mr. 
 Nasrayth's wrought iron gun has proved a complete failure ; 
 and this, not on account of the mechanical difficulties which 
 had to be encountered — formidable as they were — but 
 from an unexpected peculiarity in the material employed, 
 when brought together in so large a mass as was necessary 
 for Mr. Nasmyth's purpose. It seems that wrought iron, 
 so tractable under aU ordinary conditions of working, can- 
 
142 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 not be welded together in very large masses without under- 
 going a change in its molecular arrangement, exceedingly 
 injurious to its tenacity. As we understand the explanation 
 we have received on this point, an immense mass of iron, 
 like that which Mr. Nasmyth has welded together, continues 
 so long in an incandescent and soft state, tbat a process 
 analogous to crystallization takes place within its substance, 
 whereby the fibrous texture, from which it derives its te- 
 nacity is destroyed, and it becomes even less capable than 
 cast-iron of resisting the explosion of a heavy charge of gun- 
 powder. We understand that, in addition to the unfavora- 
 ble result obtained by Mr. Nasmyth at Patricroft, another 
 experiment of a similar nature, made under the direction of 
 government, has proved a complete failure from the pecu- 
 liarity in the material to which we have alluded; and a 
 large gun which had been completed was found utterly unfit 
 for use. Indeed, we believe it burst into many pieces on 
 the first trial. Mr. Nasmyth's experiment has consequently 
 been abandoned." * 
 
 The explosion of the large wrought iron gun on board the 
 United States ship Princeton, some years since, was doubt- 
 less owing to the same cause. 
 
 Concussion alone, if long continued, will produce this 
 change. A small bar of good tough iron was suspended 
 and struck continually with small hand hammers, so as to 
 keep up a constant vibration. The bar, after this experi- 
 ment had been continued for some considerable time, became 
 so exceedingly brittle, that it entirely fell to pieces, under 
 the light blows of the hand hammers, presenting throughout 
 its structure a highly crystalline appearance. 
 
 The cold hammering of raili-oad axles sometimes produces 
 crystallization in the same manner as in the experiment just 
 
 * Manchester (England) Guardian. 
 
APPENDIX. 143 
 
 cited. In order to test this Mr. Nasmyth subjected two 
 pieces of cable bolt iron to one hundred and sixty blows 
 between sways, and afterwards annealed one of the pieces for 
 a few hours. The unannealed piece broke with five or six 
 blows of the hammer, showing a crystalline fracture, while 
 the annealed piece was bent double under a great number 
 of blows, and exhibited a fine fibrous texture. 
 
 The shocks which the axles of road vehicles experience 
 in use sometimes occasions this change, though the process 
 must be very slow, when compared with that of railway 
 axles. The wheels of cars and locomotives being fixed to 
 the axle, and the axle rotating is much more liable to this 
 change from various causes. Where the wheel is of cast- 
 iron, the different vibrations of the two difiTerent materials 
 seem to facilitate this change, and in this country, where 
 cast-iron car wheels are to a great extent used, the fracture 
 generally takes place close to the wheel. Owing to the 
 rapid rotation of the axles they become highly magnetic, and 
 there seems to be a close connection between magnetism and 
 ci'ystallization. The presence of steam seems to have an 
 influence in producing this change, owing perhaps to the 
 development of electricity, and this may have a great effect 
 upon the axles of locomotives. 
 
 The severe winters of New England, as well from the 
 action of frost on the iron axle, as from its effect in making 
 the track rough, doubtless has a tendency to hasten the pro- 
 cess of crystallization, and to produce fracture in axles 
 affected by this change. We have known of the fracture 
 of the axles of the driving wheels of two locomotives occur- 
 ring on one road in New England, in one week during the 
 month of February, 1856. One of them, which we had an 
 opportunity to examine was broken close to the wheel, and 
 the whole surface from the centre to within an eighth of an 
 inch of the circumference presented a bright granulated 
 
144 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 appearance ; a narrow rim extending round the whole axle 
 looked smooth and of a duller color, as though it had been 
 fractui-ed for some time. 
 
 From the fact that this process of crystallization appears 
 to begin in the centre of the axle, and from a belief that the 
 effect of the blows and concussions which an axle receives, 
 would be greatly diminished if the axle was made hollow, 
 this plan has been tried upon several English roads, with a 
 highly encouraging result. A hollow and a solid axle have 
 been run hot in a lathe for two hours without oil, at a speed 
 corresponding to twenty miles an hour travelling : the solid 
 journal broke off, with 179 blows, quite short and crystalline, 
 but the hollow journal would not break transversely, and 
 split longitudinally in several places with 400 blows, with- 
 out any appearance of change in the texture of the iron. 
 
 There seems to be no doubt that under certain circum- 
 stances wrought iron is liable to undergo a change by which 
 its strength and tenacity are destroyed, and that railway 
 axles are in a special manner liable to this change. Some 
 of the causes or supposed causes of it, we have briefly 
 alluded to ; not with sufficient fulness perhaps, to aflFord 
 much valuable practical information, but enough so, we trust, 
 to lead others, with better opportunities and greater abilities, 
 to investigate this subject, so important in its bearings both 
 on the safe and the economical working of railroads. 
 
 Ordinances of the French Government, of the 
 22d and 23d May, 1843, relative to steam-engines. 
 
 These ordinances relate to the manufacture and establish- 
 ment of steam-boilers ; that is, to licenses for their use, to 
 the tests they must be subjected to, to the thickness of the 
 boilers, to the means of safety, (ralves, gauges, supply-pumps, 
 indicators of the level of water,) to the places in which they 
 
APPENDIX. 145' 
 
 are used, and to the surveillance of the government. These 
 ordinances comprise also the rules relative to the use or 
 engines in mines, and to movable and locomotive engines. 
 
 What follows relating to steam-boilers is taken mostly- 
 from these ordinances. 
 
 Thickness of steam-boilers of iron plate or copper. This* 
 thickness is determined by the following formula. 
 
 e = 1.8d(n—l)-\-3; n = l-j-'f/^, 
 
 e = thickness of the boiler plate in millimetres, 
 (f = diameter of the boiler in metres, 
 n = absolute tension of steam in the boiler. The effective- 
 pressure is n — 1 . 
 
 The thickness of iron or copper plate for boilers ought 
 never to exceed fifteen millimetres, — nine sixteenths of an 
 inch ; if on account of the size of the boiler, or the great 
 pressure of the steam, a greater thickness would be required,, 
 a number of separate boilers of less diameter must be sub- 
 stituted for it. When a part of the boiler presents a plane 
 surface, the thickness of this part must be increased. 
 
 The ordinance gives no rule for the thickness of cast-iron, 
 boilers, but according to the instructions annexed, every 
 cylindrical boiler of cast-iron should be considered sus- 
 picious, the thickness of which is not at least five times that 
 prescribed for a boiler of the same size in plate iron or- 
 copper. 
 
 As boiler plate iron is not found of all thicknesses, manu- 
 facturers make use of only a certain number of thicknesses, 
 but these are always greater than those prescribed by law. 
 
 Tests for loilers. No steam-boiler can be put in use in 
 any establishment whatever, without having been previously 
 tested, by means of a water force-pump, with a pressure 
 threefold that to be used, where the boiler is made of iron 
 or copper plate, and fivefold when it is of cast-iron. 
 13 
 
146 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 No steam-engine or boiler can be sold by the manufac- 
 turer, unless it has been subjected to the above tests. These 
 tests are made at the shop, on the demand of the manufac- 
 turer, under the orders of the prefect, by the engineers of 
 mines, or in their absence, by the engineers of bridges and 
 roads. The tests are repeated at the place where the boilers 
 or engines are to be used ; 1st. If the proprietor demands 
 it; 2d. If it has suffered any marked injury either in mov- 
 ing or putting it up ; 3d. If there have been any modifica- 
 tions or alterations of it after the test at the shop. 
 
 Boilers or steam-engines, imported from other countries, 
 must be provided with the same means of safety, as engines 
 or boilers made in France, and must undergo the same tests. 
 These tests are made at the place pointed out by the im- 
 porter. 
 
 Licenses for the establishment of steam-engines and boilers. 
 Steam-engines and boilers, whether high or low pressure, 
 which are used in any other place than in mines, cannot be 
 put in use, without a license from the prefect of the depart- 
 ment, in conformity with the decree of the loth October, 
 1810, relating to unhealthy and dangerous establishments. 
 
 The request for a license must be addressed to the pre- 
 fect, and must show : — 
 
 1st. The maximum pressure of steam, under which the 
 engine or boiler is to work, expressed in atmospheres and 
 decimal parts of atmospheres. 
 
 2d. The force of the engine, expressed in horse-powers. 
 
 3d. The form of the boilers, their capacity and that of 
 their tubes, expressed in cubic metres. 
 
 4th. The situation in, which they are to be placed, and 
 the distance from any buildings belonging to other persons, 
 or from the public way. 
 
 5th. The nature of the. fuel employed. 
 
 6th. The kind of work do^e by the engine. 
 
APPENDIX. 147 
 
 A plan of the locality, and a geometrical sketch of the 
 boiler must be sent witli the request. 
 
 The prefect sends immediately the request for a license, 
 with the plans, to the sub-prefect of the arrondissement, to 
 be transmitted to the mayor of the commune, who proceeds 
 immediately to an investigation de commodo et incommodo ; 
 this investigation is continued for ten days. Five days after 
 its termination, the mayor addresses the proces verbal of the 
 investigation, with his own opinion on the case, to the sub- 
 prefect, who, after the same delay, transmits the whole, with 
 his opinion, to the prefect. After a delay of fifteen days, in 
 which the prefect has taken the opinion of the engineer of 
 mines, or in his absence, of the engineer of bridges and 
 roads, he decides upon the license. 
 
 Any one having been refused a license, by the prefect, 
 can appeal to the council of State. 
 
 Safety-valves. Two safety-valves are fitted to the upper 
 part of each boiler, one at each end. Each valve is loaded 
 with a single weight acting either directly, or by means of a 
 lever, upon it. Each weight is stamped, and where a lever is 
 used, that is stamped also. The weight and the length of 
 the lever are determined by a decree of the prefect. 
 
 The maximum load of each safety-valve is fixed by mul- 
 tiplying 1,033 by the number of atmospheres measuring the 
 effective pressure, and by the number of square centimetres 
 in the orifice covered by the valve. The result obtained is 
 in kilogrammes. 
 
 The diameter of safety-valves is found by the formula. 
 
 : 2.6 \l- 
 
 n — 0.12' 
 
 (?^ diameter of the safety-valves in centimetres, 
 s. heating surface of the boiler, expressed in square 
 metres, 
 
 n. absolute pressure in atmospheres. 
 
148 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 Experiment has shown that a single valve, whose orifice 
 has the diameter fixed by the above formula, is sufficient to 
 discharge all the steam which can form in the boiler under 
 a pressure of n atmospheres, when the fire is most active. 
 Thus, when a boiler is furnished with two valves, having 
 the prescribed dimensions and working well, there is no 
 reason to fear that the steam will exceed the assigned limits 
 of pressure, except, perhaps, in the case, where the water, 
 through faults in the means of supply, is brought in contact 
 with highly heated surfaces. 
 
 The new ordinances dispense with the use of the fusible 
 plug, which was previously insisted upon. 
 
 Gavges. Every steam-boiler must be furnished with a 
 mercurial gauge, graduated in atmospheres and decimal 
 fractions of atmospheres, so as to show at once the pressure 
 of the steam in the boiler. The pipe leading to the gauge 
 must be fixed directly upon the boiler, and the gauge must 
 be placed so as to be readily seen by the fireman. A line 
 distinctly marked upon each scale, should indicate the level 
 beyond which the mercury should not pass. 
 
 The Metallic Gauge of M. Bourdon is very convenient, 
 and not easily broken. All locomotives are furnished with 
 them. The government ordered a number of gauges of Mr. 
 Bourdon for purposes of testing, graduated to eighteen 
 atmospheres, and on the 26th August, 1852, one was sent 
 to all engineers employed in the surveillance of steam- 
 engines, for the purpose of testing all gauges used upon 
 boilers. 
 
 Feed pumps for steam-boilers. Every steam-boiler must 
 be furnished with a feed pump, well constructed and in good 
 condition, and with all things necessary for a perfect supply 
 of water. 
 
 The proper water-level in each boiler should be indicated 
 on the outside by a line distinctly traced on the boiler or 
 wall of the furnace. This line, which is called, the line of 
 
APPENDIX. 149 
 
 water-level, is at least a decimetre (3.9 inches) above the 
 highest part of the tubes or passage ways for the flame and 
 smoke. 
 
 Locomotive engines. The regulations relating to station- 
 ary engines apply to locomotives with the following excep- 
 tions. 
 
 The safety-valves of locomotive engines may be loaded 
 by means of springs so arranged as to show, in kilogrammes 
 and decimal fractions of kilogrammes, the pressure exerted 
 against the valves. 
 
 No locomotive can be worked without a permit from the 
 prefect of the department in which its starting point is 
 situated. 
 
 The request for a permit must make known the facts 
 indicated in the first and third clauses of the request for a 
 license for the use of a stationary engine, and the name of 
 the locomotive, and the service for which it is designed. 
 
 The name of the engine must be engraved on a plate 
 fixed upon the boiler. 
 
 The prefect, after taking the advice of the engineer of 
 mines, or in his absence, of the engineer of bridges and 
 roads, gives, if he sees fit, the permit. 
 
 In this permit are shown : — 
 
 1st. The name of the engine, and the service for which 
 it is designed. 
 
 2d. The maximum pressure (in number of atmospheres) 
 of steam allowed. 
 
 3d. The diameter of the safety-valves. 
 
 4th. The capacity of the boilers. 
 
 5th. The diameter of the cylinders and the stroke of the 
 pistons. 
 
 Gth. The name of its manufacturer, and the year in which 
 it was built.* 
 
 * Translated from Aide Memoire des Ingenieurs, des Architectes, 
 etc., par J. Claudel, Paris, 1854. 
 
150 
 
 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 E. 
 
 STATISTICS OF RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 We have compiled the following table from the returns 
 of the railroad corporations in Massachusetts to the legis- 
 lature of that State. It includes all the accidents which 
 have been reported for nine years extending from 1846 to 
 1854 
 
 Table of persons killed and seriously injured on Mas- 
 sachusetts railroads from 1846 to 1854, inclusive. 
 
 
 Passen- 
 
 GEKB. 
 
 Emplotes. 
 
 Others. 
 
 i 
 
 ■a 
 
 a 
 
 •6 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 •a 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 Explosions of locomotive boilers, 
 lliiiiuing off the track, . 
 Collisions, .... 
 Getting on and off trains while in 
 
 motion, .... 
 Run over at grade crossings, 
 Run over while walking or lying on 
 
 the track, .... 
 Falling from trains, . 
 Striking objects while on the train, 
 Making up of trains. 
 Breaking of wheel or axle. 
 Breaking down of a bridge, . 
 
 6 
 23 
 
 28 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 76 
 
 10 
 
 77 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 5 
 
 5 
 124 
 
 4 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 1 
 
 11 
 43 
 
 57 
 
 29 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 181 
 
 7 
 18 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 23 
 16 
 
 81 
 
 7 
 42 
 
 164 
 6 
 4 
 1 
 
 224 
 
 2 
 
 27 
 
 45 
 1 
 
 75 
 
 Four explosions of the boilers of locomotives are reported 
 in these returns, by each of which one person was killed, 
 but no details are given of the circumstances under which 
 any of them occurred. 
 
APPENDIX. 151 
 
 Passenger cars have been thrown from the track, accord- 
 ing to these reports, in five instances ; once by the fracture 
 of a brake and its falling on the track — once by the break- 
 ing of the axle of a tender — once by the breaking of the 
 centre shaft of the tender — once by a misplaced switch — 
 once by running over a cow on the track. 
 
 Engines have been reported as having been thrown off ia 
 four instances ; from the breaking of a switch ; from a rock 
 rolling down the slope on the track; and in two instances 
 the cause is not given. 
 
 Freight trains have been reported as having been thrown 
 off twice : once from the rails being up for repairs without 
 being properly signalized, and once from the breaking of an 
 axle. 
 
 Gravel trains have been reported as having been thrown 
 off in two instances ; once from obstructions maliciously 
 placed on the track, and once from the fracture of a bralie 
 iron and the brake catching in the point of a frog. 
 
 There have been twenty-seven collisions ; nine between 
 two passenger trains, in two of which nineteen persons were 
 killed, and fifty-seven persons wounded. In five of these 
 cases no details are given and no cause assigned. In one 
 the signals were not seen or not given. One was of a train 
 overtaking another in a severe snow-storm, another in a 
 dark foggy night, and another was caused by a misplaced 
 switch turning a train upon another standing on a side 
 track. Four cases have occurred of collisions between pas- 
 senger trains and freight cars standing on a side track, 
 occasioned by the switch having been set wrong. Two pas- 
 senger trains have been struck by other trains at railroad 
 crossings, and one passenger train was run into by a freight 
 train, while obstructed by snow- 
 
152 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS. 
 
 Analysis op accidents which occurred in Belgium, 
 France, England, and Germany, during five years com- 
 mencing August 1st, 1840. 
 
 Fatal Total. 
 
 Belgium, .... . . 35 100 
 
 England, 300 1,500 
 
 Trance, 71 220 
 
 Germany, 11 22 
 
 417 1,842 
 
 Passengers killed from their own fault. 
 
 Belgium, 1 in 670,000 
 
 England, 1 " 869,000 
 
 France, 1 " 2,157,000 
 
 Germany, 1 " 25,000,000 
 
 Officials killed or wounded from their own neglect. 
 
 Belgium, 1 in 280,000 
 
 England, 1 " 300,000 
 
 Erance, 1 " 5,000,000 
 
 Germany, 1 " 9,000,000 
 
 Persons killed by defective management. 
 
 Belgium, 1 in 1,690,764 
 
 England, 1 " 852,416 
 
 France, 1 " 3,565,996 
 
 Germany, 1 " 12,252,858* 
 
 * Berlin Railway Year-Book, quoted in Civil Engineers' and Architects' 
 Journal. 
 
m 
 
 SsiS:-:!.';' •!■'. ' 
 
 5->ifa