32
railways, boxes being placed at intervals of about two miles. That is to say, all stations under, say, three miles apart, should be worked from station to station, and where the distance is over three miles and under five, a signal-box should be erected half-way between; where the distance reaches seven miles, two signal-boxes should be so erected; and so on. By these means a safe space between all trains on the road could be maintained. Goods trains at the present time are frequently kept thirty or forty minutes at stations, waiting for fast expresses to pass, and excursion and slow passenger trains from fifteen to twenty minutes (in some cases these delays are much greater). Further, it often happens that after a goods train has been waiting some considerable time for an express to pass, a stopping train may arrive from a branch line, which must have precedence of this already much delayed goods train. The same thing may occur again at the next shunting station, and by the time it reaches its journey’s end it may be from two to three hours late. Whereas, if the system which I have explained were in use, a goods train could leave one signal-box for another with as little as five minutes precedence of a fast train, and with more safety than under a system where the space between trains is regulated by time only, with fifteen or twenty minutes’ precedence. It could easily be ascertained, by means of the single needle instrument, how far the fast train was off when the goods arrived at a shunting station. All signal-boxes should be supplied with this instrument, and the men well-instructed in their use. Moreover, at all two-mile signal-stations or boxes, there should be “cross-over roads,” and good siding-room for the accommodation of trains. If, under the conditions suggested, a breakdown or stoppage of any kind took place between stations, arrangements could be made for working by “single line” in a very short time, and with but little, if any, delay to the traffic. Most junctions, I may add, are already supplied with a single-needle instrument for each double line of rails.
