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“danger” before the whole train has passed, the facing points can be jerked open.
I very much doubt whether there would be any indication on the points to show how this had been done. Again, this movement can be more easily effected where the points have had great wear. They thus become very much weakened, and will the more readily answer the strain of the lever. The oscillation of a train passing at great speed through facing points would be in favour of my statement, for this reason: at the same instant that the jerk was given upon the lever by the signalman, the part of the train then passing the points might oscillate in the same direction as the jerk, in which case it would ease the points to a certain extent, and let them more readily answer the movement of the lever. There is one more way in which some part of a train’s course may be altered during the time it is passing through facing points, and this arises chiefly from the unskilfulness or insufficient training of the signalman himself. In hot and dry weather, points require a much sharper jerk to close them than in wet sloppy weather, and if the signalman has not had this well pointed out to him while learning, it will greatly deceive him. The dust and dryness of the fittings between the points and lever will, in adverse weather, make them work very hard and stiff; and if he moves the lever over with a gradual strain, instead of with a good sharp jerk, all the “loose motion” in the fittings—which, through long wear, may become very great—will be taken up, and the points be left partly open. If a crowbar be placed in this opening, it may perhaps be possible to prise the thin end of the points nearly over to the wrong side; therefore it is possible that in bad weather, when a train is passing through facing points at a great speed, the thin end of the points may be jerked far enough open by the oscillation of the train upon the heel for some of the wheels to take them on the reverse side, because the lever in the signal box (under such circumstances) does not hold them firmly. But in such a case, I should expect to find the points strained, or the fittings injured to a certain extent.
