6 Continuous Railway Breaks. [January, 
of England appear so unfavourably at the head of the acci- 
dent list.” “ The 238 train-accidents which occurred this 
year were all more or less of a preventable character. The 
means of prevention are well known, and have sufficiently 
often been urged, as well in individual as in general reports.” 
Why these means of prevention have not hitherto been en- 
forced upon the Companies is, that although it has been the 
practice of the Railway Department of the Board of Trade 
to urge upon Companies, by way of advice, the adoption of 
measures from time to time, as tending tc diminish the risk 
of danger, they have no power of compelling the Companies 
to adopt them against the advice of their own officers. 
In recent years no doubt many improvements have been 
introduced in the working of railways, in view to insuring 
increased security for passengers, all of which have neces- 
sarily been attended by increase of expenditure on the part 
of the Companies. So far as can at present be ascertained 
the prevailing weakness in our railway system just now is a 
want of efficient break-power ; not that efficient breaks do 
not exist, but that the Railway Companies have hesitated 
too long to adopt them. The Royal Commission recom- 
mends that Railway Companies “ should be required by Law 
to provide every train with sufficient break-power to stop it 
absolutely within 500 yards, at the highest speed upon which 
it travels, and upon any gradient on the line.” This break- 
power, they further explain, should be sufficient to stop 
trains within 500 yards <£ under all circumstances,” and 
Mr. Galt-— one of the Commissioners— further explained, in 
a separate Report, that “the break-power that brings to a 
stand both portions of a train in case of its being divided 
by an accident is certainly the only kind thoroughly 
effective.” 
It is clear that nothing but a continuous break will satisfy 
the necessities of safety for railway travelling, as is shown 
by the evidences above referred to. There are many kinds 
of continuous breaks, however, and they have not all the 
same powers or properties, and in considering which is 
really the most efficient several considerations must be taken 
into account. On this subject Capt. Tyler has laid it down 
that a break should possess the following properties in order 
to render it thoroughly efficient, and safe under all but the 
most exceptional circumstances, against which, of course, 
no human ingenuity could devise adequate safeguards. A 
break, then, should be— 
1. Simple and easy of control, especially by engine* 
drivers, but also by guards of trains* 
