RAILWAY SIGNALLING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 69, 13 July 1914, Page 4

RAILWAY SIGNALLING.

"The recent accident to the express train, which rudely shocked the minds of the public in New Zealand," says the July numebr of the "Loco. Record," just published, "will no doubt be the subject of a public inquiry, and the limelight will be specially turned upon the signalling apparatus on the New Zealand railways. It is needless for us to say that every effort will he made to prove that the human element was to blame, and that the method of signalling trains is perfect, so far as human skill is concerned. . . So far as we, the locomotive drivers,, firemen, and cleaners, are concerned, we place no implicit faith. in the most perfect system, and we are educated in that direction, although the travelling publie are educated in the opposite. To s.ay that we, therefore, have no faith in the signalling, whether interlocking or the old method by which the accident occurred, may seem to be a statement that requires some explanation, but our space is too limited to go into details. However, the same system is in vogue to-day at many stations as was in, use during the early days of the railroad. The same primitive signal with its wire running a foot or eighteen inches above the ground, still exists, and this small wire has been the means of causing more than one narrow escape from a very serious accident, and it has caused more than one driver to be removed from the footplate to a subordinate position."