Signal box

“ A siding may be a hundred or a hundred and fifty yards from the signal-box. On a dark, and perhaps foggy night, the usual way of performing shunting at the present time is, for the signalman to depend upon the man in charge to show him a white light by hand lamp, or give a signal on a gong worked by electricity, when the main line is all clear for another train to pass. Now the former is a very dangerous system, for where shunting is taking place, the guards and the men in charge have each lights in their hands; there are also lights on the engine, and on the train which is being shunted. ”

“ There is a code of bell signals drawn up for the guidance of the men, but it will be sufficient to say here that when the train has finished its work at the siding and is ready to go forward, the breakman communicates this by bell signal to the signal-box, and at the same time, by the turning of a button in the front of the instrument at the siding, renews the flow of current, thereby again locking the siding lever and unlocking the signals at the signal-box. ”

“ The block system, the interlocking apparatus, or any other signalling arrangement calculated to ensure safety, is worse than useless in the hands of untrained men, and not unfrequently becomes, in fact, under those circumstances, an instrument of destruction. The writer remarks that the superintendent or inspector who examines signalmen previous to their taking charge of a box, is seldom practically acquainted with the manipulation of signals, and in a difficulty an officer of this class will occasionally appeal to the signalmen to know “what is the usual practice in such cases!” ”

“ I may here remark that men are sometimes appointed to the position of signal-inspectors who have never done one hour’s duty in charge of a signal-box in their lives. Just fancy an official of this kind being entrusted with the very important duty of seeing that signalmen thoroughly understand all the important points connected with their duties that I have named! ”

“ I may here say, that when once a man gets out of a signal-box—either for good or bad deeds—nobody can ever get him to take to it again. A signalman may see men join the service years after him, placed in positions just under the eyes of the authorities, and promoted over his head. ”

“ If you pull a lever to open distant points during the time it is raining, you will find that they move very easily; but if you do the same thing after a hot sun, a dry wind, or a frost, and put an equal amount of power on the lever, you will find that it is not over in its proper place by, perhaps, two or three inches. Now, the man newly appointed to the high box, who has not had proper instruction, after giving the lever the usual pull, and finding that it does not come properly over, will most likely press it into its appointed place by the weight of his body ”

“ For instance, when a pointsman is letting a train in or out of a siding by hand signal upon the ground, or attending to main line points, during shunting, he is generally upon the spot, and has, of course, the points close under his eye, so that he can at once see whether they are properly closed or not. ”

“ This Inquiry System, which I shall presently explain, has its bearings upon a certain class of Railway Accidents, and mostly concerns engine-drivers, guards, signalmen, and foremen porters. At busy junctions it often happens that there are three or four trains, from different branches or directions, all signalled at once, and wanting to cross over the junction at the same time. It is simply impossible for the signalman to get all these trains across, and past, without detention to some of them ”

“ He points out that at present there is no means of preventing engine-drivers, who have been standing with their trains in branches or sidings, from running on to the main line while the signals are against them, to the destruction of some passing train, and states that by introducing into all such sidings and branches, safety points interlocked with the signals, so as to turn away, on to a separate line, with a dead stop-block at the end, any train which attempted a movement of this kind, accidents from the cause named could be entirely done away with. ”

“ There is one more way in which some part of a train’s course may be altered during the time it is passing through facing points, and this arises chiefly from the unskilfulness or insufficient training of the signalman himself. In hot and dry weather, points require a much sharper jerk to close them than in wet sloppy weather, and if the signalman has not had this well pointed out to him while learning, it will greatly deceive him. The dust and dryness of the fittings between the points and lever will, in adverse weather, make them work very hard and stiff ”

“ It has become necessary, therefore, to rely upon small electrical instruments, miniatures of the out-door semaphores, which direct the signal-man in the box how to exhibit his out-door signals by displaying the signals which they themselves ought to give. ”

“ He shows that, notwithstanding the important part played by signals in the working of railways, the signalman is frequently very imperfectly instructed in their use. This official has often to learn his duties as best he can from his predecessor. He goes through a theoretical examination at the office of the Superintendent of the Line, it is true, but this does not in any way test his practical ability to perform the duties. Such a practice must necessarily be fraught with the greatest danger to railway passengers. ”

“ Accidents are often caused through engine-drivers being unable to see distant signals in foggy weather. Some of these signals are as much as forty feet high, or even more. How are they to be any guide to the engine-driver when he can hardly see three feet above his head? He might as well look for the “man in the moon,” as try to get the faintest glimpse of a distant signal under such circumstances. What is he to do? Is he to pull his train up and wait while his fireman or the guard goes back and climbs the signal-post to ascertain how the signal is standing? ”

“ Suppose the man leaving be the careless one, and the man sent to take his place the careful one; perhaps the latter, with good and proper training, would be the right man in the right place: but he may learn from his predecessor to make the following mistakes:—Not properly to place signals at danger after a train has passed, thus allowing another train to follow too soon; to let shunting take place across the main line when fast express trains are due; to neglect to telegraph to the next station on the passing of a train ”

“ I have often thought, when I have seen express trains rushing past my box, how little the passengers know the anxiety their trains have cost me to get them past without check or stoppage. There is very little to encourage the signalman in his difficult task, and he stands but very little chance of promotion. ”

“ He complains loudly of the system practised by the railway companies, of harassing their signalmen with letters of inquiry respecting paltry delays to trains at busy junctions. This, he emphatically asserts, is productive of many accidents by causing the men to be too anxious to get trains past their boxes without detention. For they often allow trains to follow each other with too short an interval of space between; or permit two trains to cross a junction almost simultaneously, to the destruction of one or other of them. ”

“ Under these circumstances, the inquiry system spoken of previously will have its effect, for both men will know that one or other of them will be called upon to answer for any delay that takes place in connection with the second train, and a fine, or the loss of his bread, may be the result. These thoughts will be quite enough to cause them to lose all confidence in themselves, particularly in the case of young signalmen. ”

“ The sun was not yet quite down when I traversed the field-path near the top of the deep cutting. I would extend my walk for an hour, I said to myself, half an hour on and half an hour back, and it would then be time to go to my signal-man’s box.
Before pursuing my stroll, I stepped to the brink, and mechanically looked down, from the point from which I had first seen him. I cannot describe the thrill that seized upon me, when, close at the mouth of the tunnel, I saw the appearance of a man, with his left sleeve across his eyes, passionately waving his right arm. ”

“ He calls attention to the fact that in foggy weather signals fixed at a considerable distance from the ground are of no use whatever, because the enginemen of many express trains are obliged to rush by them without noticing whether they are on or off. ”

“ He took me into his box, where there was a fire, a desk for an official book in which he had to make certain entries, a telegraphic instrument with its dial, face, and needles, and the little bell of which he had spoken. On my trusting that he would excuse the remark that he had been well educated, and (I hoped I might say without offence) perhaps educated above that station, he observed that instances of slight incongruity in such wise would rarely be found wanting among large bodies of men ”

“ When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; but instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about, and looked down the Line. ”

“ When a subscriber wishes to be connected to another subscriber, he either turns the handle of a magneto generator, which causes a shutter to fall and expose his number at the exchange, or simply depresses a key which works a relay at the exchange and lights a tiny electric lamp. The operator, seeing the signal, connects her telephone with the subscriber's circuit and asks the number wanted. This given, she rings up the other subscriber, and connects the two circuits by means of an insulated wire cord having a spike at each end to fit the "jack" sockets of the switchboard terminals. ”

“ The first operator closes his key, and as the trailer passes around, it will make contact with the line wire and his instrument will be connected about 30 times in one second, thus transmitting that number of impulses. Now, if he desires to send a signal corresponding to a dot, he would close his key for a brief interval, which may be one-twelfth of a second, thus allowing three impulses of current to be transmitted over the line wire to the corresponding instrument at the other station, which is only in a position to receive the signals from the one transmitter. ”

“ The circuits are so organized that at all times whether the line is busy or not, the movement up and down of the switch hook, at any sub-station, operates a signal before the operator. Such a movement, when made slowly and repeatedly, indicates to the operator that the subscriber has an emergency call and she may use her judgment as to taking the line away from the parties who are using it, and finding out what the emergency call is for. ”

“ Automatic signals are sometimes made to stand normally (when no train is in the section) in the " stop " position. The local circuit is connected with the rail circuit so that it is closed only when a train is approaching within, say, 1 m. With the rail circuit, distant signals are controlled, without a line wire, by means of a polarized relay. Each signal, when cleared, changes the polarity of the rail circuit for the next section in its rear, and inis, by the polarized relay, closes the local circuit of the distant signal, without affecting the home signal for that section. ”

“ The operator, whose attention is thus attracted, inserts a peg in the jack, then throws over the speaking key of the cord circuit, and having ascertained particulars of the requirement places the other peg of the pair in the nearest multiple jack of the wanted subscriber, whom she proceeds to ring up. In the meantime the calling lamp, has darkened; and each subscriber's line being equipped with a cut-off relay whose function it is to disconnect the calling apparatus while the circuit is in use, the insertion of a peg is immediately followed by the disappearance of the calling signal. ”

“ The visible signal is better adapted to lines in which the signaling is done by means of direct current, as, for example, in systems where the removal of the receiver from the hook at the subscriber's station closes the line circuit, causing current to flow through the winding of the visible signal and so displaying it until the receiver has been hung upon the hook or the circuit opened by some operation at the central office. ”

“ The ordinary double current cable key with two levers, was arranged with an additional lever in such a manner that while in ordinary use in the telegraph office, it could also be put in circuit with the chronometer and chronograph in the observatory, and a signal sent through the cable would have its time of sending registered on the chronograph. Ordinarily in speaking over a cable line, connection is made in such a way that the current sent does not pass through the recorder at the sending station, as a violent movement of the siphon would result. ”

“ How is the noise caused by a high voltage battery absorbed so that the dispatcher may talk and signal simultaneously? Draw a diagram showing the circuit arrangement for the dispatcher's outfit of the Gill system. Explain fully the purpose of the retardation coil in connection with a waystation set. In case of accident to a train wire between two stations, how can the connection be patched if the road is also equipped with a message circuit in addition to the train wire? Why do some railroads have block wires in addition to train wires and message circuits? ”