LEVEL-CROSSING DANGERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3756, 9 March 1926, Page 73

LEVEL-CROSSING DANGERS.

HAIL WAY DEPARTMENT S EFFORTS. (Per Unit i P.p::ss Association.; WELLINGTON, March 4. In the course of a statement covering the Railway Department’s efforts to minimise the dangers of level crossings, the Secretary of the Railways Foard said that it was impossible to eliminate them all on account of the cost. Referring to the various forms of warning devices, the secretary said a very large number of ideas were brought before the noL.o of the department, and where there was any likelihood of success, they were >.im.»lly examined and tested by the dcpartii;e..t’& experts. Those who put them forward did so witli unbounded confidence in their success, but unfortunately the department could not always agree with such claims. It was essential that any mechanical device should be as nearly as possible 100 per cent, mechanically efficient, for should a moving sign of any type fail to operate, the road user who had become accustomed to heeding its warning, might be led on to disaster, and the Railway Department in installing a faulty device would most certainly come in for very severe condemnation. The fact that self-closing gates or balanced booms, descending across the road were employed successfully in other countries, did not necessarily prove that similar de vices would be a success in New Zealand. Everything depended upon the 'ocal conditions. Oter systems mentioned were “Z” and “island’’ devices employed on oertain crossings. Both plans had the same object—to ensure that the driver of the road vehicle would slow up before crossing the railway line. The “Z” or zigzag in the road alignment was so set out on either side of the crossing, that, while travelling along one arm the motorist would look up the line and, after turning the sharp bend (necessarily at slow speed) would examine the down length of the line. The same principle was employed in various other forms, but an objection to all of them, at any rate where the traffic volume wag considerable, was that road traffic congestion was caused. 41 Sb far the best results have been achieved with the combined visual and

auditory system, as in a wig wag, such as has been installed at the Petone crossing and at a considerable number of other busy crossings in both islands. This form of signal is track circuited and a bell is set ringing and a signal swinging by the approaching train operating an electric switch, which can be placed at any necessary distance from the crossing. The wig wag costs something over £2OO to install.” The department would shortly be trying out the Pearson Visual and Auditory signal, he stated. This device consists of the usual bell and pair of crossed arms (not unlike the crossed bones of a pirate’s coat of amis) which rotate in opposite directions, in warning an approaching train, and, like the wig wag. it is track circuited. The inventor, Mr A. Pearson, of Wanganui, is not a railwayman, but has for some years taken a keen interest in level crossing devices and has put forward his device as a possible improvement upoiv the wig wag. It hod a good deal to recommend it, but it could only be proved by a thorough test under working conditions. “The department is always on the defensive in this matter,” the secretary concluded, “but the fact remains that the department is doing everything it can to protect the public against itself, and at. the same time to carry on its work as a transport organisation. It cannot stop the Limited express to let a man drive past in his buggy.