Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1902 — NEW SIGNAL SYSTEM URGED. [ARTICLE]

NEW SIGNAL SYSTEM URGED.

Dispatchers Say Present Method ol Sending Orders Is Antiquated.

Train dispatchers of the country want all possibility of collisions removed by doing away with the present system of train orders, that can be misinterpreted, aud signals that may be unseen. Instead of these antiquated methods it is proposed to substitute colored electric lights In the engine cab, signals that always can be seen and never can be misunderstood. It is desired to make the safeguards against wrecks as nearly perfect as possible by not trusting to a man’s mind. Mechanical accuracy only is believed to meet the requirements of the age. Among others to urge a change is A. O. Miller of Aurora, chief dispatcher of th« Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railway. He suggests that several disastrous wrecks of late were due to the alleged misunderstanding of written orders, and insists that written orders nevei should be used. The placing of “block" signals along the track at this day when trains often run eighty miles an hour, is held to be unsafe, as they cannot always be read by the engineer when going at such speed. “Automatic blocks or lights In the engine cab,” said Mr. Miller, “means just two things—when they are clear or whit* the train should proceed; when they are red the train should stop. There should be no written orders.” This system of movable blocks or lights in engine cabs has been shown to be feasible. Such a system is being Installed on the Chicago aDd Eastern Illinois Railroad chiefly through the efforts of Mr. Miller, who took the Initiative in bringing the system to perfection. The engineer is held to be the one mae on whom the safety of the passenger! depends. Mr. Miller insists that this man's life and those of his assistants are always at stake, and hence to brand snob men with negligence or carelessness ia nnjnst.