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10th July 1913, Page 29
10th July 1913
Page 29
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Page 29, 10th July 1913 — Railway Conning Towers.
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New Practice from which Motor-traffic Organizers May .Well Take Hints. It Exemplifies the Difficulties which Railway Companies Experience.

This Article is Reprinted by Permission From "The Observer."

Central control of traffic has ever been an ideal of railway companies : no one outside those engaged on the supervision and working of a big railway system has any idea of the enormous waste of time and rolling stock, the dislocation of business, and the acute congestion inevitable without, central control.

Central control systems have been introduced on several lines. Originating in the United States, and introduced in its modern form into this country—on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway—by the superintendent, Mr. Watson, they have been adopted with mere or less success in 'certain sections of the North-Eastern and tho Midland lines. The results have been good, although the systems only in a restricted sense ensure control.

Under the strong progressive policy of Sir Frank Ree it has been reserved for the London and North-Western Railway to introduce a method which reduces waste to what must be almost the irreducible minimum. Although the first section has only been in operation for about eight months, the result startling even to these who control and work the line. The system is being extended over the whole of the L. and N.-W. Railway as quickly as it can be.

Before explaining its general principles it is necessary to point out that if the whole of a railway's traffic were passenger, or even goods traffic working to a. fixed time-schedule, central control would be unnecessary. But it must he remembered that by far the greatest part of a railway's traffic is the conveyance of goods. It is the goods traffic that makes the very existence of a system like the L. and N.-W. Railway possible : passenger-carrying is seldom profitable.

The Real Traffic Regulators.

Now it is the goods traffic—save for one or two regular goods expresses--that cannot be run to any time-schedule. It varies from day to day ; it is subjett to industrial conditions, to tho fluctuating needs of the community, to the irregularity of the production of mineral, produce, and manufactured goods. It is the goods traffic that needs central control, for it if on this that immense loss or great profit can be made, according to the way it is worked.

Hitherto goods traffic has been regulated, more or less, from the signal boxes. No system has been observed as to the acceptance, conveyance and delivery of goads. Empty trucks by hundreds have waited for goods at one spot; goods have waited for trucks ; laden trucks have waited for engines; trains have waited for men. By unending telephonic discussions between offices, stations, yards and signal boxes, and by a tremendous amount of telegraphing, it has been sought to preserve some sort of order in the chaos. Very often, without even the disturbing effect of a mishap, chaos has got the upper hand. Trucks have disappeared out of reckoning for weeks at a time. On one occasion Crewe was so congested with goods trains, arrivals from all quarters being unregulated for sheer lack of an overruling intelligence, that it took a whole fortnight to unravol the situation even with the aid of a special staff sent. up from Euston. Havoc has been played with the engine-driver's time. As for economy in the working of engines, it has scarcely been thought of. There has been one rule : when an engine has broken down—and not till then— it has been taken to the sheds for overhauling. It has been impossible to secure the proper marshalling of trains, each division in its proper place ready to he dropped in its turn ; the result has been an excessive amount of shunting, entailing lass of time and damage to goods almost beyond reckoning.

By the old methods locomotives drifted about picking up jobs—often unsuitable jobs—en sight. It took a lot of power to do a little effective work. For the same work fewer engines and fewer drivers now suffice.

" Lost " Engine drivers.

The men benefit greatly as regards regularity of time. The engine-driver's wife never used to know when " her man" was coming home. He would start from Euston for Crowe, but by the end of a week he had drifted up to Carlisle, only to have to bring an engine all the way back again and for a great part of the way without a load !

An end is being put to this sort, of thing, and it is rendered poesible by an innovation introduced by Major J. N. C. Kennedy, formerly of the Royal Engineers, and now the telegraph engineer of the L. and N.-W.R. The innovation includes certain improvements in the telephone, which are the subject of Major Kennedy's invention. The substitution of the military Morse code characters for the former railway signals has added to the speed of calling up stations.

At centres of traffic, such as Crewe, Wigan, Huddersfield, Birmingham, etc., the whole of the traffic within a radius of about 20 miles is controlled. Ultimately, at Crewe, these sections wiLl be co-ordinated at a big central control. Each section, however, although independent, acts in accord with these adjoining it, and there is no friction at the " frontiers."

A typical control office contains a large working diagram measuring about 20 ft. by 4 ft., of the sections of the line under control. Every track, siding, loop-line, station, and signal-box is shown, as well as the innumerable private branches running to collieries, factories, and so on. Small brass sockets are let into this beautifully-made and coloured diagram throughout the lines, and every goods train and light engine—in fact, all traffic that is not run on a fixed timeschedule (which is diagrammatically illustrated in an adjoining map)—is shown on the beard by means of pegs placed by the operators in the sockets, and moved from place to place as each train proceeds on its way.

Typical Indications.

Each class of train has its own illustrative peg. A " regular, numbered local goods " has a square brass peg, with a number in it, showing the number of trucks; an "unnumbered goods" is illustrated by a small square brass peg; a " regular". or " special " is shown by a diamond-shaped peg; a " special fast has a circular peg, with the letter " ' in it ; a light engine is shown by a small brass disc. An engine that must be relieved is shown by a red square, and there are pegs with slots to receive cards illustrating other details. Every second or so the pegs are being moved, and the four or five operators are kept constantly busy.

A Telephonic Innovation.

What makes this surveillance of the whole line possible— and it is far more effective even than a bird's.eye view—is the telephone arrangement, and it is upon the ingenuity of this that the whole system is based. • Each signal-box is connected by telephone with the control office, and each of the operators can instantly speak to any one or to all of the signal-boxes. There is no need to ring up any " exchange " : connection is instantaneous. The passage of every train from one block to another is immediately telephoned to the control, where the news is dealt with in the following manner : Each operator sits at a desk furnished with a row of telephone switches and " eye-ball " indicators. Signal-box No. 16 is speaking, and the white disc drops on No. 16 on all the desks, but. only the operator to whose division No. 16 belongs attends to it. He simply places the receiver to his ear, notes the laconic message, returns it, and moves one of the pegs on the board. In each control office some 500 messages are taken in an hour.

The telephone arrangement is peculiar in that the system of lines has a "constant potential. This is unlike any other telephone line in use. It saves a battery at every station, and requires only one battery instead of 200; it saves in batteries and their maintenance.

Division of Supervision.

One of the operators attends to engines, and he can at any moment say how many hours this or that engine has been at work, Another observes the engine-drivers, and makes it his business to prevent their exceeding time, as well as ensuring the presence of reliefs at the desired spot. A chief controller has a similar desk to the others, and he knows all that. is going on, besides having a thorough knowledge of the number of trucks or engines available at every point.

Across the diagram the straight quadruple main track— four parallel black lines—sCretches, and when one of these lines is seen to be clear of pegs it is because it is open for a passenger train. One finds an extraordinary fascination in watching the diagram and observing the manner in which a great railway system is scientifically directed and controlled.

Safer Working Secured.

The work of the signalman is now rendered more efficient, and he can give more attention to his legitimate duties of facilitating passenger traffic. The old system of telephoning by the signalman was cumbrous in the extreme; each signalman was an autocrat in his own section, governed by the absolutely necessary law of allowing .sufficient clearance between trains, but in effect at endless friction with all other units and without means to co-operate intelligently with them.

The system reduces labour enormously it saves enginedrivers and shunters. But so far from reducing employment it increases it, for it enables the railway to deal with a much greater amount of traffic, and particularly it increases the amount of special traffic.

The men who work the system are a new kind of chessplayer. They are in a very real sense controllers of traffic, and they must have a thorough knowledge of railway working only obtained by years of practical experience. They have to know the capacity of engines, to calculate the speeds of trains of different kinds, to have in mind the accommodation available at loop lines and refuge sidings, and, among many other things, to know the difference between a "piped" train and one that is not "piped." Now a " piped ' train is one. provided with Westinghouse brakes and it may travel at a greater speed than its less efficient brothers.

The men are recruited from the traffic department, but with the extension of the system it is likely that there will not be enough really qualified men available. It is hoped to corn. lete the control system for the whole of the L. and N.-W. Railway during the present year, and with great advantage to everybody concerned.

ABOUT A FEW NEW BOOKS.

THE LAW OF EXTRAORDINARY TRAFFIC ON HIGHWAYS by Barnard Lailey, and published by Street and Maxwell, Ltd., 3, Chancery Lane. The ever-increasing discussions which are now becoming apparent between road-user and road-maker render more frequent reference to authorities on highway law a eine qua non. The whole subject is a complicated one to the lay mind. We learn in the preface to the book which we are now considering, that "an endeavour is made to state concisely this branch of highway law as it now stands." We need only add that the author's endeavour has been made good in the useful little reference book to all road-users as well as road-makers. The cases noted are brought down tu the end of the year 1911.

Another of the many interesting technical manuals for which the publishing house of Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., makes itself responsible, has recently come to hand. It is

entitled THE EVOLUTION OF THE INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE; its author is Edward Butler and it costs 8s. 6d. net. Much has been written of late years on this subject, but the present publication would seem to serve a useful purpose in that it collates much information in useful form which has hitherto only been obtainable by reference to scattered authorities. The text material is quite up to date and will be read with interest in connection with Diesel developments, high-speed sleeve-valve internal-combustion engines for motor vehicles and the latest developments in regard to lubrication and ignition. The illustrations are a valuable part of this volume; a vary large number of mechanical drawings is reproduced in helpful variety.

Almost any of the many publications which show the authorship of Sidney and Beatrice Webb are bound to be of interest. A volume, ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT, copy of which is now before us, is no exception to this quality. It deals in an interesting and informative way with the story of the highways of this country, and tells in an entertaining manner of the way in which the roads have been maintained, or neglected, as the case may be, since the earliest times. In the words of the joint authors, they have told the tale of the roads of this country in such a. way that it begins "with the war chariot of Boadicea and finishes with the motor omnibus of to-day." The book is carefully checked throughout, so that references to the authors' authorities are easily ascertainable. The average user of the roads to-day knows remarkably little of the state of the highways, of which he now makes such use, as they were, for instance, so little a while ago as the seventeenth century, and it is interesting to learn that any sort of wheeled traffic whatever was very rare outside the Metropolis in that period of the country's history. Regulations regarding the maintenance of roads, more prominent many of them in the breach than in the observance, are skilfully and interestingly discussed.

TEXT BOOK or MOTORCAR ENGINEERING by A. Graham Clarke. Volume I on "Construction." V'ublished by Constable and Co., Ltd., at 8s. 6d. net. The author in his introductory note to this work says it is primarily intended for the use of "students of motorcar engineering" but it contains much of value in the way of formulas that would appear to be written over the head of the ordinary student, as we understand him. On the whole this book is of a useful nature, and it contains much that is not generally found in Manuals of this type. It is very fully illustrated and reproductions of manufacturers' drawings are included in considerable number—as a matter of fact, there are 213 illustrations in all. As evidence of the interesting, if debatable, nature of much of the contents, we may perhaps make the two following quotations:

"The cheapness or otherwise of a car has two aspects— the initial price paid by the purchaser and the subsequent cost of upkeep; and any change which reduces the latter, though in it may in some measure necessitate an increase in the former, must be ultimately to the benefit of the menuf a.cturer."

"Many vital problems still await solution—carburetters, although much improved, are not capable of correctly proportioning the mixture under all conditions of speed and power—the gearbox is an excellent example of the finest workmanship, yet it would be discarded at once if an efficient device which avoided the use of sliding toothed wheels could he obtained—the method of actuating the valves is unsatisfactory, and all systems have some demerits—the fact thatthe clutch is necessary shows the need of the exercise of inventive faculties, and efficiency is too often sacrificed for the sake of silence."

There is an element of frank criticism pervading this book, which is none the less welcome because it is not usual.


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