WONDERS OF THE TUBE

Taranaki Daily News, 11 August 1932, Page 12

WONDERS OF THE TUBE

LONDON’S RAILWAY TRIUMPH

. PROTECTION OF TRAVELLERS. NUMEROUS SAFETY DEVICES. An illuminating insight into the mysteries of London’s famous underground railways was given to members of the New Plymouth Round Table Club at their fortnightly lupchepn yesterday by Mr. E. W. M. Lysons, New Plymouth. Mr. Lysons stressed the numerous safety devices for the protections Of the travelling public, and illustrated how travel by tube in the congested areas is faster than travel by taxi. “How helpless one is in the midst of a large crowd of people —to be say one of 90,000 football enthusiasts on the way home—-is a good introduction to the quite admirable joint administration of police and transport activities, of the Old Land,” sad Mr. Lysons. “With a vast experience of mass problehis behind them, the guardians of the Saturday and holiday crowds leave nothing to chance. They fdiecast the numbers on the move and arrange for the safe dispersal of qll wJiq have congregated together. Should the match be of international status, thousands of visitors will bo rounded up ip time to catch their return specials, and should the visiting team win on the field, with subsequent jollification, tjie tact and forbearance of those in authority are worthy of the highest praise. And, it is but fair to add, the crowds in England are generally very tractable and law-abiding. “But a body of 90,006 people at one function is but a fraction of the responsibilities and resources of the authorities on any one Saturday. London with its 14,000,000 odd inhabitants is teeming with all sorts of amusement theatres, cinemas, picture galleries, museums, historic buildings, flower shows (even in winter), botanical gardens and parks plus cricket grounds, tennis grounds, apd golf links on the outskirts. The traffic problems of London are simplified by the great diversity Of interests. The whoje of the transport services wduld break. flown hopelessly in the event of a million or so of people all desiring to go to any one place on a Saturday afternoon. ASSESSMENT OF THE MASS. “It is the business of the owners of taxis, tram-cars, buses and railways to assess the human movements in mass from moment to moment, so that ample accommodation may be available at all times. An agent rings up headquarters to say that a heavy moVenient is taking place in a certain directions. .That is met at once by a corresponding increase in the carrying capacity of the services. On one occasion I was at Liverpool Street station when a previously advertised special train was due to leave for Great Yarmouth. As this particular general holiday happened to be gloriously fine, thousands of people determined to take advantage of the cheap fares and the East Coast sea breezes. Those still outside the barrier when the first special pulled out, full to the brim, were in no way dismayed,, because their experience told them that specials would continued to rup to Great Yarmouth until the demand was satisfied; also that, in the reverse process, no one would .be left stranded in that popular seaside resort. But the problems of transport are by no means confined to the movements on holidays, and, in order to- appreciate the effect of the human surges, we must remember that the business area of London is filled every morning and emptied again at evening, only to experience a lesser ingress and egress later as places of amusement open and close. . “Now it is generally but erroneously supposed that taxis are the quickest means of transport in London. Careful statistics over a lofig period prove that in the congested areas the average speed of all underground railways systems is 18 miles per hour compared with 6.8 miles per hour for surface traffic (dropping to a little over four miles per hour at such localities as the Bank, Piccadilly Circus and the Elephant). Taking a run of 12 miles, four in the congested and eight in the normal areas, the time by bus or tram is 86 minutes and the time by rail is 47 minutes. In congested 'areas taxis are not so fast as the Underground. “As trains, buses and underground trains are not built to carry luggage, the taxis do all the tourist work with a fair proportion of the general hacking and after theatre business. But. all wise travellers allow a generous time for traffic jambs on their way to the terminus by taxi. UNDERGROUND INAUGURATED. “As the widening of streets is a slow and most costly undertaking, and as the surface congestion grew more and more acute by reason of the ever increasing population, the idea of under? ground railways became an accomplished fact when in 1871 the old steam driven Metropolitan railway commenced operations. I can remember it well when a boy and as no one seemed to be concerned about you after you had paid for the ticket, I used to indulge in a complete circuit of the inner circle aS a preliminary. As you can imagine, the atmosphere in the tunnels waS heavy with smoke and the carriage fittings rather laden with soot. In 1905 electricity took the place of steam, and with the change came a great extension in underground railway mileage. In 1928 there were 62 miles in tunnel. and 66 miles in the open, the total invested capital being nearly £66,000,000. “The modern underground railway is a human and mechanical marvel —speedy, safe and healthy. The driving and lining of these miles of tube has had its difficulties such as pockets of sand and gravel, sometimes with w’ater, and ‘ made ground” formed by the foundations of older Londons, amounting to 24 feet in depth in Farringdbn Street. Generally, however, the driving has been made through the London clay, which is any* thing up to 450 feet in depth above the underlying chalk. “Yeats ago, and quite naturally, the more timid people refused to he lured into the bowls of the. earth —it was uncanny and dangerous—but the management has spaced no pains or money to dispel the bogies; and so successfully, that accidents are very rare. In fact it is the proud boast of these railways that no passenger has ever been killed whilst travelling. Modern practice favours the one train on© tunnel system, in which there are nd passing trains. At first sight this may seem unduly costly until ope realises that th© cross section of a carriage can be made to. nt closely a tunnel of similar dross section, whereas no tunnel could conform closely to the outline of two carriages. Therefore two tunnels of minimum cross area are not equal to 'the size Of One large double tunnel, although, of course, rather more costly. A very valuable effect of the one train one tunnel system is the continual movement of air caused by the trains themselves, for 230,000,000 cubic feet of purified air are pumped into the tunnels daily. | “Each train is of the same section from end to end, and has at each end. j

a driver’s compartment. Each carriage baa on either side a wide sliding door, the door disappearing, under hydraulic pressure, between the inner and outer skins of the sides when, but not before, the train stops at a station; and on the modern vehicles, the driver cannot restart the train until all the doors are shut. Consequently the human load must .be entirely within the carriage between stations, which is a wise precaution where the driving force is 600 volts. The accommodation, especially in the modern all-steel coaches, is not only excellent but comfortable, and as the lighting is good and well arranged, the regular traveller passes the time agreeably with paper or novel—the Londoner is a great reader at odd moments. But to those whose familiarity of the system does not amount to confident indifference, there is more to see. For instance suspended above the platform i© the automatic electrically operated destination board which tells you in advance where the next train is going to and at which stations en route it does not stop. There also you can see many very clever and, if you have the time to spare, a preliminary knowledge of the working of automatic signalling can be obtained. MAXIMUM OF .TRAINS. “Now, consistent with safety, it is essential that the maximum number of trains shall be in operation at times of peak loads, and if the minimum space between trains running behind one another is controlled by the trains themselves, then one great risk of a fast and frequent service is_ eliminated. If you watch a train disappearing into a tunpel you will notice that the green (a]l clear) signal has turned to the red of danger, and at danger it will stay until the receding train has passed the next’ signal (but not been stopped by it) when, by an electrical contact, the first signal will show all clear and the second danger. Thus there is a, safety zone behind each train and the less the distance between signals, the more frequent the possible service. Of course automatic signalling is not infallible, but if anything gets out of gear the faulty signal goes to danger and the emergency squad rush to the spot. “It was early recognised that the human driver was a weak link in the chain and on him great care and. ingenuity has been destowed. He is a very much medically examined man, and no man with a suspicion of a “heart has the least chance of the job. You may have noticed on our trams the “dead man” controlling handle for the current. In this device the driver must continued to press down a knob in the centre of it for the normal control of the driving mechanism. If he lets go, the current is cut off and the brakes are ■ automatically applied. It is conceivable that a driver might have a sudden and paralysing seizure, the probability being that he would release the handle and thereby bring the car to a standstill. On the other hand, he might possibly i n such a case, become unconscious without relaxing the grip. SAFETY PRECAUTIONS.

"So, on, the Underground, they do not rely Wholly On the "dead man” handle, and in any case they have to guard the passengers against a possible , absentmindedness leading to the passing of a danger signal and the ramming of the train in front. This second safeguard 18 at each signal ahd consists of a moveable lever fixed on the permanent way and connected with the mechanism of the signal. When the green light assures the driver that he can proceed, this lever is depressed cleat of the train, but whilst the red light of danger is showing tlift lover rises to a vertical position in the path of an arm on the train attached to the air-brakes. In the event of the driver losing control so that the train is actually passing a signal at •danger, the arm on the train hits the vertical lever with the result that the brakes are put full on and the train is stopped in its own length. "I have mentioned before that in the event of any fault occurring in the automatic signalling the signal affected takes up the danger position and stays there until repairs are effected. Take the case of a train stopped in a tunnel by a signal and after a reasonable lapse of time for the train ahead to pass on to the next section, the signal, still stays at danger. H6w can the waiting driver communicate with the traffic manager? He does it by telephone in a very simple way. Along each tunnel on the driver’s side can be seen two bare copper.wires running parallel and about six inches apart. Our driver has nothing more to do than to clip oh to these his port-’ able telephone and inform headquarters where he is and for how long he h as been stopped. His instructions come back over the same wires. But these wires are not there for telephonic pur? poses alone. At one time a danger existed when a faulty axle snapped in a tunnel, causing a certain amount of derailment of rolling stock and shock to the less robust passengers. Furthermore there was a 600 volt current, dangerous to life, a probability of fire, and the breaking of the mains would plunge the tunnel into inky darkness. "The first duty of a driver when things go wrong is to bring his train to a standstill, which in. emergency can be done in its own length. Then he, reaches out for the two bare telephone wires and presses them together. This causes an automatic cut-out to open at the substation, cutting off the 600 volt current from that tunnel making it “dead” as it is termed, and switching on an auxiliary . lighting circuit illuminating the roof of the tunnel. The guard lights up the interior of the train by switching on the accumulator emergency lighting, or by lighting oil lamps. As the conductor rail is dead, the passengers can descend on to the permanent way and, in the light of the emergency set, walk to the nearest station. "Theoretically the pumping of the air for the Westinghouse brake should be automatic —-the driver has his pressure gauge in front of him apd if the air* brake is not functioning properly he has a hand-brake as a standby. But this is not safe enough for London’s Undergrounds. There is the possibility of too great reliance being placed on the sure supply of air, aud a failure to continually watch the pressure recorded on the gauge might possibly result in a train being driven at 30 miles per hour-only a short distance behind another—with no means of mechanical braking or emergency retardation. So the inventor got busy again and added another automatic to check the man and his air pump. Thus equipped the driver cannot start his train unless there is at least a pressure of 50 pounds to the square inch in the braking systcpi. "As time is reckoned by seconds in these wonderful tube railways, jt is extremely difficult to make the drivers’ watches synchonise, or go at the same rate. Very few watches are absolutely reliable. So much so that, before the coping of wireless, a ship carried a set of three chronometers, specially tested at Kew. One of the modern means adopted to inform the motor-man how he fares in his continual race against time is a bdard with mechanism controlled by a master clock and the train itself. It shows in illuminated figures the amount in minutes and fractions of minutes that the train is in front of or behind schedule time at that point. “And so, the traveller makes his journey in comfort (the new comer I will probably object to the noise), and j comes to the surface by escalators or j lifts quit® unaware of the brain fag

and mechanical and electrical genius which have evolved London’s safest lines of traffic. He does not know that during the four hours per day during which trains do not run, every detail of track and signalling is scrutinised and tested by squads of men trained for that purpose, nor does he realise that the weak? est link left in a wonderful pervice (faulty axles) has received great attention at the hands of the chemical experts and it may be possible later on to instal an automatic device to give warning of any impending fracture. I venture to think that in times to come even the mechanical noises and the smell of hot axle grease will be eliminated, but even as thing© are, the tubes of London are outstanding as marvels of human and automatic efficiency. THE PARISIAN SYSTEM. “The directors of the Metropolitan underground system of Paris are among those who greatly appreciate what their confreres in London have done and are doing, and it is to the great credit of both parties that the French, exports are welcomed in London and informed of the latest methods. The consequence is that in many ways the two systems run on similar lines, but nevertheless there are differences of which the following may be the most important: —: “Whereas in London one pays according to distance for a ticket to a definite station, with no distinction of classes, in Paris the fare to all stations is the same, but first class passengers have to pay extra. I think the first class flat rate was two francs, equal in 1929 to 4d of our mdney. Under the Paris system the sh rt distance traveller helps to pay for the man coming from the Outskirts.

“When travelling below London one keeps an eye opeh for the actual station to which one is bound, being assisted by direction boards, electric signs on the stations and maps in the carriages, but although the Parisian has to watch for his station, the official directions ate all based on terminal points, which is a perfectly good system when understood, but soniewimt confusing to the newcomer. .... “Paris lacks the wdrking elasticity ot the greater city and has to guard against overcrowded platforms atid the jumping of moving trains. So we find gates, operated automatically or by hand according to the importance of the station. In other wdrds, London anticipates peak loads and prepares fot the rush, whereas Paris runs a mOre or less rigid service which will gradually absorb the people who. are prepared to wait for it. “In eoach work London is far ahead In spite of her one class system, the carriages being well upholstered and excellently lighted, the idea being to seat the maximum number. The first class Parisian carriage does not attain the same standard and the sitting accommodation is limited in order to give greater standing room. On account of lesser depth, escalators and lifts are not required in Parii. At Gare du Lyon there is a very efficient terminal loop with four platforms, giving great freedom of train movement. Most terminals in England are of the cross or scissors type either single or double. Liverpool Street is an example of the latter. • In conclusion it is but right to add that these sketchy remarks do not by any means ekhaust the popular at)d technical information surrounding these great underground systems, which have been built up patiently on a system of elimination of errors and on the sound basis of safety, reliability, comfort and speed for the travelling public.’ At the conclusion of Mr. Lysons’ address he was accorded a very hearty vote of thanks, on the motion of Mr. W. H. Quickfall.