Relay station

“ The amateur, as usual, is found following closely behind the leaders. This latest development, by which an amateur with an aerial fifty feet high and two hundred feet long is able to hear Nauen and Hanover, Germany, is very pointedly covered in the article in this number of Q S T, which every good relay station owner should read. The audion has come to be very common in our stations all over the country, and this latest use of it will sure to be taken advantage of by the more prominent amateurs at first and then the smaller ones. ”

“ In handling test and regular messages, this point must be most carefully considered, and a Headquarters must be selected who can either be on regularly or have other stations who will act for him when he is absent. The nights when the through Trunk Line work is to be done, should not be too often. Three nights a week would probably be impractical and the writer believes that one night a week would be better than two, unless the relay stations on a given Trunk Line were sure that they could be at their instruments more frequently. ”

“ The key and battery are common to both circuits, the points of divergence being at the relay and at the ground. If the key at one station is depressed the current will flow through both sets of coils of the relay at this station without producing any magnetizing effect, but at the distant station it will traverse but one set of coils and will accordingly cause the relay to operate the local sounder. ”

“ Reception in Europe was excellent. The television pictures from the gallery were transmitted conventionally to the Relay ground station at Andover, Maine, from which they were beamed to the satellite for retransmittal to Europe. ”

“ The remarkable distances which some stations can easily make, and the very practical plan suggested for running proof tests on regular trunk lines, all indicate the fast approaching importance of a Relay League. ”

“ The railway is watched by foremen, with “gangs” of men under them, in lengths varying from twelve to five miles, according to circumstances. Their continuous duty is to see that the rails and chairs are sound, their fastenings complete, and the line clear of all obstructions.
Then, at all the junctions, sidings, and crossings, pointsmen are stationed, with definite instructions as to the duties to be performed by them. At these places, signals are provided, worked from the station platforms, or from special signal boxes, for the purpose of protecting the stopping or passing trains. ”

“ The first of them is passed at speed; but gradually, as the engine and train approach the second, the driver slightly lowers his regulator, and the guards, both at the fore and hinder parts of the train, take their breaks in hand; so does the fireman, at his powerful break on the engine. The second signal is passed; white takes the place of green at the third, if all be right; but if not, and there be any sudden obstruction at or near the station, vivid red lamps by night, bright red arms by day, appear from half a dozen places almost with the electric flash and speed of lightning. ”

“ The stationmaster, with an air of immense importance, sounds his toy trumpet, the engine utters a scream of defiance to the world generally, and after a decent interval, to avoid the semblance of haste, the train crawls out of the station. It is an imposing ceremony, but as it is repeated at every small station on the line, it grows somewhat monotonous and makes railway-travelling rather a formidable and lengthy business. At last, however, our train, having rested sufficiently, proceeded slowly on its journey, and we arrived in the course of time at Trieste. ”

“ We wait patiently upon a long siding until everything else has been moved—through fast expresses heavily laden with opulent-looking Pullmans, jerky little suburban trains, long draughts of empty coaches, being drawn by consequential switch-engines in and out of the train-shed of the passenger station. Finally a certain semaphore blade drops, we cross over to the important main line and begin pulling on a sharp curve, across the river, clear of the station with its confusion, through and past the city to a busy division yard. ”

“ The signal-man at station A waits for the train, and waits for the train, and waits for the train! It ought to be there. It is a train which goes sixty miles an hour, and, if it is late, it goes seventy or eighty. The distance between station A and station B is at the most three miles and a furlong. Three minutes and a half is the longest an express takes to do the distance. The signal-man, frightened to death at not seeing the train appear, shouts to the station-master that the train ought to have gone through! ”

“ On shot the locomotive, like an arrow from the bow, the men throwing over the ties until the train was well nigh unloaded, when just as they were close to the curve by which the train arrives at the station, they saw the dreaded cars strike a tie, or something equally of service, and with a desperate plunge rush down the embankment, some fifteen feet, to the little valley, and creek below. ”

“ The distance apart of the electric train-staff stations will depend greatly upon the number of the trains, and for a frequent train-service it may be necessary to have the instruments at every station, whether large or small. ”

“ When I advanced this system of telegraphy, my mind was dominated by the idea of effecting communication to any distance through the earth or environing medium, the practical consummation of which I considered of transcendent importance, chiefly on account of the moral effect which it could not fail to produce universally. As the first effort to this end I proposed at that time, to employ relay-stations with tuned circuits, in the hope of making thus practicable signaling over vast distances, even with apparatus of very moderate power then at my command. ”

“ Théophraste insisted. “They certainly did report the express to you from the preceding station?”
“Yes, sir. I am certain. Look at my signal. It is still put to allow the train to pass. The station master and all the men of the station preceding saw the express pass and telegraphed to us. In short, monsieur, you see my little yellow arm. A catastrophe between the preceding station and this one is not possible; there is not a single bridge or viaduct. I was mounted on the ladder that you see leaning against that great vat. From there one can see the whole line, as far as the other station. ”

“ The outdoor fixed signals, or distant home and starting semaphore signals, have all to be worked to correspond to the block telegraph signals, and as the latter are always received well in advance of an approaching train, it follows that when the line is clear, the outdoor signals can be lowered so as to allow a through or non-stopping train to pass a block-telegraph station at full speed. ”

“ There are hurried good-byes, gathering together of souvenirs, wistful eyes of those who cannot yet go, watching those who can. Cars are brought round to the side entrance, stretchers slipped into their grooves, and the convoy is off to the station. The long train, already half filled, lies waiting. There is a last little passage across the platform, coming and going of bearers, the inevitable argument with the R.T.O., a warning shriek from the engine, and the train to the base has gone. [Pg 45]
II
'Do you think that sort of thing matters now?'
A clearing station is just what its name denotes. ”

“ In approaching a station where a passenger train is due or past due, and where the view is not clear, trains must be under perfect control, so that they may be stopped, if necessary, before reaching station. Trains on the double track must not, under any circumstances, pull into a station at which a passenger train in the opposite direction is standing or into which it is pulling to receive or discharge passengers, until such train has started up and the rear coach thereof has passed the end of the station platform nearest the approaching train, excepting where tracks are divided by fences. ”

“ Roller-bearings are usually put on the freight cars that need to run at passenger train speed. Greenball{45} freight always travels fast. A greenball train carries fruits and vegetables in refrigerator cars, which are also called reefers or riffs.
At each end of a reefer are containers called bunkers. These hold ice to keep the food cool while it travels. At ordinary stations, men load ice into the bunkers by hand. But a big loading station has a giant icing machine to do the job. It rides along on its own rails, poking its great arms out and pouring tons of ice into the cars. ”

“ Where traffic is heavy and the railway system of considerable 1982 distance, sub-stations are provided at intervals along the line, each receiving high pressure current from one large central station and converting it into moderate pressure direct current for their districts. ”

“ As the mountain line would have to be laid along narrow, rocky paths, and through lofty passes, all carriages and wagons are dispensed with, and their place is taken by a train of mules. In a mountain-telegraph company several of the mules are each laden with two drums of the insulated cable, the instruments and batteries are carried on pack-saddles on the backs of others, and others again transport the baggage, provisions, and forage of the company, and also a light tent to form a station whenever messages are to be sent along the line. ”

“ Wynter Blyth, in an address a year ago, gave the results of some experiments on the ventilation and condition of the atmosphere in the tubes and stations of the Central London Railway. The chief cause of the movements of air in the tubes and stations, lifts and stairways, is the passage of the trains along the tubes, which the carriages nearly fill, thus acting as a piston in a cylinder, driving air before them and sucking it in from behind in their progress from one station to another. ”

“ On one single exceptional occasion 1,111 trains, carrying 145,000 persons, were reported as entering and leaving this station in the space of eighteen hours, being rather more than a train a minute. Indeed it may well be questioned whether the world anywhere else furnishes an illustration so apt and dramatic of the great mechanical achievements of recent times as that to be seen during the busy hours of any week-day from the signal and interlocking galleries which span the tracks as they enter the Charing Cross or Cannon street stations in London. ”

“ Half a mile of a rather steep gradient is not felt so much when it is situate midway between two stations, because the attained speed of the train assists the engine over the short distance to the summit; but when it occurs as a rising gradient out of a station, it forms a great check to the working, particularly in bad or wet weather, when there is the risk of the engine slipping, and the entire train sliding back into the station. ”

“ Presently, the big engine, with its train of passenger cars, pulled into the station and drew up at the water tank. When it stopped, I descended from my perch and walked down the track. I was afraid to board the blind baggage, the space between the mail coach and the coal car, for a number of the train crew were standing around. When the tank had been filled and the engine began to draw away, my heart sank within me, for I thought I had lost an opportunity to ride. ”

“ Block-Telegraph Signalling.—However complete the outdoor signals and interlocking at any station, they can only control the movement of trains within their range, and something more is requisite to ensure the safe working of the traffic over the long lengths of line between stations. For some years a time-interval was allowed for the working of trains following one another on the UP and DOWN lines of a double line railway, no train being allowed to leave a station sooner than a fixed number of minutes after a previous train had started in the same direction. ”

“ Imagine one of our gigantic locomotives having its opposite drivers electrically insulated from one another!
Figure 18 represents the signal system described in William Bull's English patent of October 31, 1860. In this system, it will be observed, the rail sections used are short, "twenty feet, more or less," and are the terminals of line wires which connect with the battery and magnet at the station. The signal at the station is visual and consists of an indicator operated by wheel work actuated or controlled by the electro-magnet M shown in the diagram. ”

“ In case of the stoppage of either Line of Rail from any cause, or there being any danger apprehended in the passage of an Engine or Train, whether in Foggy Weather or otherwise, the Station Police, Signal, Switch, or Tunnel man, is to place one of these Signals on the Line or Lines of Rail so obstructed, every 200 yards from the point of danger, until the Line or Lines of Rail are so protected for half a mile. ”

“ The difficulty is overcome in a very simple way, by means of an equally simple apparatus. The control over the numerous switches and corresponding signals, instead of being divided up among many men stationed at many points, is concentrated in the hands of two men occupying a single gallery, which is elevated across the tracks in front of the station and commanding the approaches to it, much as the pilot-house of an American steamer commands a view of the course before it. ”

“ It is the busiest railway junction in the worid. More than two thousand five hundred trains pass through here every twenty-four hours – that is an average of two a minute all through the day and night. Actually, at the peak period, there is a train passing about every twenty seconds, and it has been worked out that about two thousand passengers ride through the station every minute during the morning and evening peak periods. ”