Page:A voice from the signal-box.djvu/12

8 in the way of his ascertaining the state of the signals in the densest and gloomiest of fogs.

He explains that the breakage of springs, axles, and tyres of vehicles is a prolific source of danger. These fittings are often fractured by violent shunting rendered necessary by insufficient siding accommodation, and they usually break when running at great speed over bad joints in the rails.

He thinks that a passenger train should not be allowed to run at a greater speed than 40 miles an hour; that it should not consist of more than fifteen vehicles, and that there should be one guard to every five carriages. At present passenger trains are frequently delayed at stations through the guards having too much work to do, thus causing unpunctuality, which, as has often been pointed out, is a primary source of disaster.

He bears testimony to the dangerous nature of the shunter’s occupation, and shows that although the companies profess to forbid “fly-shunting,” or uncoupling wagons in motion, it would be impossible in the present state of the railway system for the work to be got through in any other way.

Goods trains are usually too long and too heavy, he says, for the guards and break-powerbrake-power [sic] sent with them; and delays under these circumstances are of course inevitable. The coupling chains of wagons,