To Prevent Collisions.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 9, 2 March 1910, Page 36

To Prevent Collisions.

A new device for the prevention of train collisions was recently tested on the Erie tracks between Newark and Nutley, N.J. The device is an electric one, and is intended to obviate head-on collisions. When the fast-approaching trains equipped with the new device get within half a mile of each other, the air

•brakes are set automatically, not with the usual suddenness in an emergency, but with a gradually increasing force, the same as a skillful engineer would employ in bringing his train to a halt at a station. The trains stopped far enough away from each other- to avoid mishap, and all this happened without either engineer moving a hand toward the throttle lever or air brake, the device working automatically. The in-

vent ion is operated by a third rail, the shoe from the locomotive touching the rail, and receiving power through it both for the operation of the emergency brake and also for a telephone. The principle is similar to that of the block-signal system, the track being divided into zones. The brakes can be applied sharply or their ojieration may 'be graduated, so that trains may be slowly brought to a standstill.