The subsequent application, during Federal control, of the eight-hour
day (instead of the former basis of 10 hours for a large proportion
of employees) to practically all of the classified employees had
the effect of increasing the number of men required to do a given
number of hours of work. At the end of Federal control the total
was about 2,000,000 employees, not including conductors and porters
on Pullman cars employed by the Pullman Company.
Construction and Equipment.—The tendency in the decade 1910-20 was toward the use of heavier rails. On heavy traffic lines, using the most powerful locomotives, rails weighing 100 lb. per yd. were being replaced by rails weighing 105 to 110 lb. On other lines which had used 85-lb. rails, the tendency was toward 100-lb. rails. Greater attention was paid to the relative proportions of the chemical elements in steel and the mills were turning out rails of improved design and of greater strength and wearing qualities. The marked development in the weight of locomotives and cars placed much greater strains on the track superstructure and roadbed. In 1921 American Railway Engineering Association standards for depth of ballast had not been changed recently, but some of the heavy traffic roads were increasing the amount of ballast from 12 in. to 20 in. below the ties. The experiments in the use of steel and concrete ties as substitutes for wood ties (sleepers) had not given satisfactory results under the heavy axle loads of American equipment, and there was little inclination to use substitutes for wood, notwithstanding the marked depletion of the lumber supply. There was, however, a more general use of preservatives in treating ties chemically to strengthen their resistance to decay, and a more general use of tie plates, between the base of the rail and the top of the tie, to lessen the mechanical wear on the tie. The screw spike, in place of the cut spike, for fastening the rails to the ties, was having greater use, but was not common. The heavier axle loads required a general strengthening of bridges, and throughout the whole field of maintenance engineering the adoption of higher standards during the decade was noticeable.
There was a marked development in the art of signalling. The use of electrically controlled automatic block signals is distinctively an American characteristic. There was a steady tendency to substitute automatic block signals for the older type which are manually operated. In 1911 there were about 29,000 m. of main track equipped with automatic block signals. In 1920 the mileage so equipped was over 61,000 miles. The use of these modern signals not only increases the safety of train operation but it also has the effect of increasing the capacity per mile. In the interest of safety there was a popular demand that block signalling should be made compulsory by law, and the Interstate Commerce Commission has repeatedly recommended legislation which would require the railways to adopt an annual programme under which all railways would eventually be completely equipped with block signals. Congress, however, had not by Jan. 1921 legislated on the subject, mainly because of the difficulty of formulating a plan which would fit the varying needs of roads with differing degrees of traffic density, and because of the heavy financial burden which compulsory block signalling would place upon the railways. There was also a widespread demand for the adoption of a device of some kind which would automatically stop the train when the engineman failed to observe the signal and ran past one which was in the stop position, but Congress appears to take the position that it is more important first to extend the installation of block signals before insisting upon the expensive supplementary safeguard of the automatic stop.
In 1910 the average weight of all locomotives, exclusive of tender, was about 73 short tons. In 1920 it was about 90 short tons. The tendency was steadily toward the use of more powerful locomotives and the retirement of the lighter types. The locomotives ordered in 1920 weigh from 100 to 200 tons, with a few of the Mallet compound type of much greater weight. The use of steel passenger cars calls for larger locomotives in that class of service, and the American policy, consistently followed for years, of increasing the freight-train load, required the use of more powerful locomotives in freight service. The average freight-train load, in tons of freight, grew from less than 400 tons in 1910 to more than 700 tons in 1920. Not all of this increase is to be attributed to the heavier locomotive. Reductions in grades and curvature have made heavier trains possible. There was also a general improvement in the technique of tonnage ratings for locomotives. In addition there was a more general use of the superheater on locomotives. This device reduced the loss in steam pressure between the boiler and the cylinder and increased the drawbar pull. The use of automatic stokers on the most modern type of freight locomotive removed one limiting point: the capacity of the fireman in shovelling coal into the fire box. A recent device for increasing locomotive capacity is known as the “booster.” It is a small auxiliary engine geared to the trailing axle (on locomotives which have a pair of wheels not connected with the main drivers) and may be used in starting the train or in giving an extra drawbar pull on the limiting grades.
While not so marked as in the case of the locomotive, there has been a steady increase in the weight and capacity of freight cars, particularly in those designed to carry coal, ore, or steel or iron products. The standard coal car of 1921 had a capacity of 100,000 lb., and in some cases cars of double that capacity were used locally on the owning road in coal or ore traffic. There was no appreciable increase in the capacity of box cars as the commercial standards do not call for larger units than 60,000 to 80,000 lb. per car.
Reference has already been made to the more general use of steel in passenger-car construction. Virtually no new wooden cars were built for passenger service after 1915. On Jan. 1 1911 the passenger-train equipment consisted of 50,201 wooden cars, 1,636 of steel underframe construction, and 3,133 of all-steel construction. On Jan. 1 1919 the numbers were: wood, 36,810; steel underframe, 8,805; all-steel, 18,652. The use of the old wooden cars was generally confined to local trains and branch lines.
Accidents.—A comparison of the latest available complete accident statistics (in Bulletin 74, Interstate Commerce Commission, published in Nov. 1920) with the statistics for 1907 and 1908 (see 22.832) indicate a gratifying improvement. The casualties in 1919 were less than those of 1907 or 1908, notwithstanding the fact that the volume of traffic in 1919 was nearly double that of 1907. The improvement may be attributed to several factors, but it is difficult to list them in the order of their importance as the influence of any one factor cannot be measured separately. Among them are (1) higher standards of construction and maintenance of way, structures and equipment; (2) enforcement of laws relating to safety appliances, boiler inspection, and hours of service; (3) extension of block signalling; (4) other improvements in operating methods; (5) the psychological effect of the “Safety First” movement, begun about 1910 (a nation-wide movement to interest railway employees in accident prevention); and (6) the publication of results of investigations made by the Interstate Commerce Commission in specific accidents. The data contained in the appended table were taken from Bulletin 74.
Casualties to Persons in Train Accidents and Train Service Accidents
| Item | 1919 | 1918 | 1917 | |||
| Killed Injured | Killed Injured | Killed Injured | ||||
| Passengers:— | ||||||
| In train accidents | 110 | 4,549 | 286 | 4,655 | 131 | 4,460 |
| In train service accidents | 191 | 3,598 | 233 | 3,427 | 212 | 3,914 |
| Total passengers | 301 | 8,147 | 519 | 8,082 | 343 | 8,374 |
| Employees on duty:— | ||||||
| In train accidents | 359 | 2,955 | 547 | 4,179 | 439 | 4,214 |
| In train service accidents | 1,334 | 33,325 | 2,212 | 42,782 | 2,177 | 48,022 |
| Total employees on duty | 1,693 | 36,280 | 2,759 | 46,961 | 2,616 | 52,236 |
| Employees not on duty:—Total | 66 | 321 | 169 | 595 | 165 | 544 |
| Other persons, not trespassing:— | ||||||
| In train accidents | 9 | 61 | 117 | 433 | 109 | 473 |
| In train service accidents* | 1,873 | 5,134 | 1,878 | 5,268 | 2,091 | 5,514 |
| Total other persons | 1,882 | 5,195 | 1,995 | 5,701 | 2,200 | 5,987 |
| Trespassers:— | ||||||
| In train accidents | 32 | 63 | 39 | 67 | 68 | 76 |
| In train service accidents | 2,521 | 2,595 | 3,216 | 2,738 | 4,175 | 3,753 |
| Total trespassers | 2,553 | 2,658 | 3,255 | 2,805 | 4,243 | 3,829 |
| Grand Total | 6,495 | 52,601 | 8,697 | 64,144 | 9,567 | 70,970 |
*Includes persons struck by trains at highway crossings.
The analysis of train accidents in 1919 shows that the total number was 25,596, divided as follows:—collisions, 6,904; derailments, 15,897; locomotive accidents, 674; and miscellaneous, 2,121. These figures include all train accidents, with and without personal injury. Collisions caused the death of 238 persons and the injury of 3,931. The casualties in derailments were 175 deaths and 2,979 injuries. The casualties in locomotive and miscellaneous accidents were relatively few. (W. J. C.)
RAILWAY STATIONS. The improvements made during the decade 1910-20, especially in the United States, in the construction and operation of railway passenger stations, may be said to have revolutionized railway terminal construction; and the newer stations, of which the Grand Central terminal in New York is the outstanding example, demonstrated even after a short period of operation their superiority from practically every point of view. The substitution of electricity for steam as a motive power was the basic factor in the newer methods of construction. As long as steam was used little could be done to mitigate the noise or noxious gases that made the old-fashioned railway yard a public nuisance. It was virtually necessary to operate these yards on the surface where the products of combustion could make a free escape to the open air. In any confined space steam operation is not only dangerous, owing to the tendency of smoke to obscure the signals, but unpleasant for pas-
