RAILWAY ACCIDENTS. 



munication can be made between the several carriages forming 

 the train and the engine-driver. If, in the last instance, the 

 engine-driver had been made aware of the accident at the 

 moment of the derailment, it is probable such fatal results 

 might not have occurred. 



A case will be mentioned hereafter, in which a private carriage 

 caught fire by a cinder projected from the funnel of the engine 

 falling on its roof. The carriage continued to burn until the 

 arrival of the train at the next station, the engine-driver and 

 conductor being ignorant of the accident. 



Previously to this, the necessity of some means of watching a 

 train, and of notify ing promptly to the engine-driver the occurrence 

 of any accident, had attracted the attention of the government 

 commissioners, and they consulted some of the principal railway 

 companies on the most desirable means of remedying the evil. 



2. The Great Western Company proposed to fix at the back 

 of the tender a seat for a conductor, in a sufficiently high position 

 to see along the roofs of the carriages, so as to have a perfect 

 view of the entire side length of the train, and a means of 

 passing from side to side of the tender, so as to get a view of 

 each side of the train. Such a conductor, from his proximity to 

 the engine, could immediately communicate with the driver, 

 and each guard upon the coaches of the train could communicate 

 with such conductor by signals. 



3. The North- Western Company proposed that the under guard 

 should always stand in his van next to the engine, with his face 

 to the train, so as to observe any signal of distress, irregularity, or 

 derangement among the carriages which the chief guard, stationed 

 at the rear of the train, might make. A communication between 

 the under guard and the engineman was only necessary to com- 

 plete this arrangement, and the company accordingly ordered that 

 means should be provided by which the under guard should be 

 enabled at pleasure to open the whistle of the engine. 



The late Colonel Brandreth had interviews with some of the 

 most eminent railway engineers, with a view to obtain some addi- 

 tional protection for the travelling public, by contriving a method 

 not only for securing the constant watching of the trains while 

 on their journey, but also to provide the passengers with means, 

 in case of accident or sudden illness, of communicating with 

 a guard, and of enabling the guard to communicate with the 

 engineman, for the purpose, when necessary, of stopping the train. 



There could be no difficulty in providing means by which any 

 passenger could at his pleasure sound the whistle of the engine 

 so as to give the engine-driver notice to stop ; but the govern- 

 ment commissioners considered that it would be objectionable 

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