FOOL-PROOF TRAINS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4364, 11 January 1922, Page 3

FOOL-PROOF TRAINS.

ENGINE’S ELECTRIC BRAIN.

SMASHES. IMPOSSIBLE.

An engine wi th a brain of its own, a fool-iprpof railway, an end to collisions and other accidents, alopg with a great saving of. expense and a quickening of traffic—the possibility of such a revolution, in transport was demonstrated on the Dyke branch of the Londori, Brighton, and Sputa Cpast Railway, near Brighton, by Mr Angus the Australian inventor. A special correspondent at Brighton of the “Daily Mail” says: I stood beside the driver of one engine charging at good speed another engine advancing on it in ,a narrow chalk cut- , ting. At the moment things became exciting the whistle blew an alarm, but without intervention by the drivers the two engines slowed down and stopped automatically. This is to be the final demonstration or preparatory test of a notable Invention that has taken ten years to perfect. The system has already been installed in Sweden, and is to come into active use in this country almost immediately. It is about to be ini stalled by the inventor on the Metropolitan railway between Moorgate and ■ Finsbury Park stations, where the traffic is dense, with a view to general adoption. The invention is simple, but marvellous in its results. It enables any engine to be continuously in telegraphic or, telephonic communication with signal or earth boxes. It stops the engine iff a line is broken or displaced in front. It forces the driver (by means of a speed indicator) to slow down as much as he should at a curve. Any fallowing op end-on or sideways collision is quite impossible. It tells driver and signaller exactly where the train is going, however dense the fog or heavy the snow. As the terminus is approached the numi ber of the platform is automatically announced to the driven These are some of the marvels demontsyated on various bits of line in England and other countries during the last ten years, but it is only in the last few months that the final triumph has been achieved. We shall soon see the invention further tested under difficult practical conditions. What is this invention ? First, Mr Angus has found out a philosopher’s stone or secret power, sought for fifty years by railway engineers. He can run electricity at amazingly low power along the railway line, and enable the engine to pick it up without contact, or "ramps” or "shoes.” A few simple coils on the engine 2in. above the rail do the trick. All you see on the tracks is a wire joining the rails at their junction. A small box of electrical fittings is outside the boiler, and a compact magnet under the hand of the driver. The whole of those lengths of signalling wire we see beside the lines would vanish as well as a certain number of signal-boxes. Electrical sympathy between engine and rail prevents the brakes ifrom going on and steam being shut off. Directly that sympathy is broken the brakes go on automatically, and steam is automatically shut off. And this sympathy must be broken if another engine Js on the same section of Jinj or if the line is broken in any way. The liability to human error is not done away with, but error is rendered harmless; fpr any or every mistake simply stops engines, and has only a negative effect. If a driver fainted or a signalman died the only itfect would be a temporary cessation fcf traffic oji one section.