The machinery by means of which both draws and grade crossings
can be protected, will be referred to in another connection,[7]
meanwhile it is a curious fact that neither at grade crossings
nor at draws has the mere stopping of trains proved a sufficient
protection. Several times in the experience of Massachusetts' roads
have those in charge of locomotives, after stopping and while moving
at a slow rate of speed, actually run themselves into draws with
their eyes open, and afterwards been wholly unable to give any
satisfactory explanation of their conduct. But the insufficiency
of stopping as a reliable means of prevention was especially
illustrated in the case of an accident which occurred upon the
Boston & Maine railroad on the morning of the 21st of November,
1862, when the early local passenger train was run into the open
draw of the bridge almost at the entrance to the Boston station. It
so happened that the train had stopped at the Charlestown station
just before going onto the bridge, and at the time the accident
occurred was moving at a speed scarcely faster than a man could
walk; and yet the locomotive was entirely submerged, as the water
at that point is deep, and the only thing which probably saved the
train was that the draw was so narrow and the cars were so long that
the foremost one lodged across the opening, and its forward end only
was beneath the water. At the rate at which the train was moving
the resistance thus offered was sufficient to stop it, though, even
as it was, no less than six persons lost their lives and a much
larger number were more or less injured. Here all the precautions
imposed by the Connecticut law were taken, and served only to
reveal the weak point in it. The accident was due to the neglect of
the corporation in not having the draw and its system of signals
interlocked in such a way that the movement of the one should
automatically cause a corresponding movement of the other; and this
neglect in high quarters made it possible for a careless employé to
open the draw on a particularly dark and foggy morning, while he
forgot at the same time to shift his signals. An exactly similar
instance of carelessness on the part of an employé resulted in the
derailment of a train upon the Long Branch line of the Central Road
of New Jersey at the Shrewsbury river draw on August 9, 1877. In
this case the safety signal was shown while the draw fastening had
been left unsecured. The jar of the passing train threw the draw
slightly open so as to disconnect the tracks; thus causing the
derailment of the train, which subsequently plunged over the side
of the bridge. Fortunately the tide was out, or there would have
been a terrible loss of life; as it was, some seventy persons were
injured, five of whom subsequently died. This accident also, like
that on the Boston & Maine road in 1862, very forcibly illustrated
the necessity of an interlocking apparatus. The safety signal was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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