AUTOMATIC TRAIN STOP.
■WORKED BY ELECTRICITY. A train came tearing along at SO miles an hour. In the engineer’s cab a small red light flashed, and in an instant the wheels shrieked and the whole train came to a sudden stop, ths throttle still wide open. An unseen "hand had prevented on imaginary wreck. In *his successful demonstration recently ou the Pere Marquette Railroad near Detriot, Mich., electricity had a new triumph (according to the Popular Science Monthly). It was proved that it would warn of danger on the track ahead many minutes in advance, and, should the engineer oe dead or disabled, bring the locomotive to a stop automatically. “Electric magnetic waves, flowing in the track rails,” explained Thomas E. Clark, inventor of the radio-controlled safety devices, “are picked up by loop collector coils under the locomotive’s pilot or cowcatcher They are transmitted to a visual signal device in the engine cab. This has three lights—red for danger, yellow for caution, and fpecn for clear track ahead. The red light is flashed only when there is imminent danger of collision. Should a train be occupying a block, the rest of the rail surface within the block becomes automatically demagnetised, and another train entering the block from the tear or front will receive the danger signal and an auto matio application of the brakes.” The incoming signals are despatched automatically by block towers along the line.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19803, 31 May 1926, Page 12
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236AUTOMATIC TRAIN STOP. Otago Daily Times, Issue 19803, 31 May 1926, Page 12
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