30 Railway Accidents. [January, 
interval between them to allow of its proceeding forward to 
the next place of refuge before it is overtaken, and it is 
stated that the want of improvement in, and addition to, 
the siding accommodation, combined with the want of 
modern appliances for working the points and signals from 
suitable cabins, and interlocking the levers with one another, 
and of telegraph-working for assisting in protecting an 
obstructed station, have principally to answer not only for 
the accidents themselves, but also for the negligence of the 
servants by which those accidents were more or less directly 
occasioned. 
7. Break Power.—The subject of break power is one of 
especial importance, many lives and much property being 
hourly dependent, in a greater or less degree, on the power 
and efficient state of the breaks. It has been found that 
most of the collisions which have occurred might have been 
prevented had those in charge of the trains possessed the 
power of stopping within a few hundred yards. This is 
more particularly necessary on account of the high speeds 
and heavy trains now adopted on ali lines. It is therefore 
essential that there should be ample break power to each 
train, and, whatever system may be adopted, it should be 
powerful, simple, and capable of being applied in the shortest 
possible time. On certain railways, where the necessities 
or convenience of the companies have been the means of 
inducing more rapid improvements in this respect, systems 
of continuous breaks have for many years been in successful 
operation; and the experience of these lines has left no 
doubt of the value of such systems of breaks. Amongst the 
simpler means of providing extra break power are—increas- 
ing the numbers of guards and of break-vehicles ; enabling 
a guard or breaksman to apply the breaks of two adjacent 
vehicles; allowing the guards and breaksmen to walk 
through the trains, and to apply the breaks of the various 
vehicles provided with them; or by such a system as may 
enable a guard from his own van to apply the breaks of 
several vehicles, in which may be combined an economy in 
guards with efficiency in break power. In the use of any 
good system of this description, it becomes unnecessary to 
skid the wheels of break-vehicles, and flat places in the 
wheel tyres are thus avoided. Perhaps the most perfect 
system of continuous breaks yet introduced is that which 
enables the engine-driver to control the train, and by means 
of compressed air to apply all the breaks at once without 
the development of any manual exertion. 
The limit of space to which we are necessarily confined 
