LEVEL-CROSSING DANGERS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18016, 7 March 1924, Page 14

LEVEL-CROSSING DANGERS.

A NEW SIGNALLING SYSTEM. A new signalling eyistem intended to prevent accident at railway levelcrossings has been" invented by Mr H. Westfelt, a ; Swedish engineer, and the device has successfully come through a long test in actual service condition on the Nora-Bergslags line (says the "Manchester Guardian.")

The device consists of signalling beams, which swing down across the road to indicate tho approach of a train, and are raised again when the, train has passed the crossing. These beams are hung above the road some twenty metres from the line, and are automatically operated. 'ihey present no actual interference with roau traffic, as thb lowest point to wmch. they descend is 2.5 mevres above tlie r«a!uway, so that motor-cars can pass underneath.. "~ An ..illuminated wmto signalling board gives warning by day and a red light oy night, and m addition trailing chains uepending from the beam will catch any vohicie tb.*a fails to notice that the signal is lowered, .whilst in the process of lowering a bell la The device is worked hydraulicallj" and electrically by the running trail.. At. a-point from 2U) r,o 1000 mctretf from the level-orossing, and on either side, is an electric battery. The oacommg train puts this, through a sliding contact, into connexion with an apparatus placed ' close to /the' track comprising a vertical hydraulic cylinder with a piston pointing .towards the rails. As long as the piston is in th» cylinder the beams ,are kept on a vertical position, indicating that ■. the track is clear. "When the oncoming train makes connexion by passing over the sliding contact a valve in the apparatus is opened, the piston is pushed out, and the beams descend to a horizontal position, the white board being illuminated and -fihe warning bell being rung, all as one process. When the train arrives ai» the further apparatus tho process is reversed, the piston is pusted in, the beams are raised, and the acoustic and optical signalling is As the apparatus is worked with glycerine it is not affected by any variation of temperature?