The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1912. CAUSES OF RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 13682, 16 May 1912, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1912. CAUSES OF RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

New Zealand should be interested in an inquiry which is being held in America into the causes of the frequent railway accidents in that country. True accidents here are not anything like as proportionately high as in the United States, but it is significant that one of the causes which contributes to accidents in America is to be found in the railway systems of both New Zealand and Australia. This fact is drawn attention to by the London correspondent of the Sydney Telegraph, who points out that during last year 219 railway accidents occurred in the United States owing to “broken rails,’’ and in -ho past ten years there were 2059 derailments, resulting in the deaths of 100 persons, and injuries to 4112 other passengers. I here is considerable difference of opinion

even among railway experts as to the chief cause of these accidents, which instead ot decreasing are increasing each year, and thereby creating considerable alarm on the part of the public. The railway managers lay the blame on the rails turned out by the Steel Corporation, and the managers of the steel mills lay the blame on the policy of the railway managers of increasing the weight of their locomotives and rolling stock, without improving the condition of the roadbed. There is a radical difference in the way in which rails arc laid in English railways compared with the railways of America, and it is believed that this difference accounts for many of the accidents. If such should prove to be the case, the Australian and New Zealand railways, all of which arc laid on the American .system, will Lave to be re-laid ultimately, at considerable cost, for with the lapse of time and the increase of traffic the liability to accident on colonial railways will bo greatly incrcurcd. in England and in other European countries the rails are set in what are called steel chairs, instead of being laid directly on the sleepers. A steel chair .several inches high is securely bolted to each sleeper, and the rail is bolted in the hollow of the chair made to receive it. Those conditions make for safety, for it is very seldom that a rail is dislodged from the chairs. But in America and the colonies the rails, instead of being set in steel chairs, are placed directly on the sleepers, and, instead oi being bolted the cross-ties, arc merely spiked down. This system is effective as long as the sleepers are sound and the spikes remain secure, but if a few of the sleepers under a rail become rotten, the qdkes become loose, and a sudden jar on the rail will deflect it and derail a train.

Much of tho controversy among railway exports iu Ame idea as to the causes of accidents centres round the conviction that the rails supplied by the Steel Cor- ] oration are inferior in quality to the rails turned out by Krnpps’ and English linns. It is stated that the rails now supplied by the Steel Uorporalion are inferior to those supplied a few years ago. The vice-president of the American Great Northern Railway Company said recently; “Wo have found this year that (58lb rails laid down twelve years ago are giving better service than 90lh rails laid down two or throe years ago, and this under exactly the same conditions of traffic. ’’ One American railway company, which made a careful investigation of 509 “ran failures,'' found that 95 per cent, of them were due to “excessive fast rolling'' and other dcfeels of mill practice. It has also been found that the rails turned out by some of tho mills of the Steel Corporal ion arc more liable to reveal defects than rails turned out by other mills belonging tot he corporation. The rase against the rai'way managers is that they have been increasing tho weight of (heir rolling stock, and the extent of their traffic, without making corresponding improvements in the permanent way. Wood is being rapidly superseded by steel in tho manufacture of cars. The steel cars arc safer than wooden ones, as in the case of derailment or fire, they do not crumple up or burn, but a steel Pullman ear weighs 70 tons, compared with 50 tons for a wooden car. Even the ordinary carriages iu use on American railways are now being made of steel instead of wood. The power <.f the locomotives has to be increased, and this also means increased weight. The rails, and the ties, and the ballast, are being pounded by heavier trains, and more frequent traffic, but beyond increasing the weight and size of the rails, t! e resisting power of Hie permanent way has not been improved.