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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. All these are moving about in different directions at the same time, and the signalman may easily take one of them as a signal that the line is clear before it is so. I have known many accidents to occur through misunderstandings under these circumstances. Moreover the gong is not always to be relied upon, for the signalman may forget what number of beats has been given.
To prevent such mistakes, a lever should be placed in a convenient spot as near to the points in the sidings as possible, and this should be attached to a small arm, or indicator, placed in the signal-box. It should be kept locked over by means of a padlock, so as to show the “all-right” signal (in the box) when no shunting is being done, the key being in charge of the signalman; when any shunting is required to be performed, he should hand it to the man in charge, who ought to be held responsible for locking the lever over to “danger” as soon as the shunting commences, and keep it so until everything is put back into the siding, and the main line all clear; then he should lock the indicator over to “all-right,” which would show the signalman for certain that all was right. The indicator in the box should interlock with the main line signal lever, so that it would be quite impossible for the signalman to let a train pass in that direction during the time the former was at “danger.” This simple suggestion could be carried out at a very trifling outlay, and would save thousands of pounds.
Warnings of Signalmen Disregarded.
The warnings of signalmen are, fortunately, too often disregarded by the officials. Some time ago I pointed out where
