Mr. STEPHENS. There are comparatively few killed over there. Mr. SIMS. I have heard that before, but I did not know how accurate my information might be on that subject. Mr. STEPHENS. They operate under a positive block in that country as a rule, and they have frequent signal stations, and the following train is not permitted in that block until the preceding train has left it. Mr. SIMS. Is it not a fact that in such European countries as do have private and public ownership, or even exclusively public ownership, if there is any such country, that the accidents are materially less in proportion of the per cent of employees and passengers and the passenger public in this country? Mr. STEPHENS. That is a possible fact. Mr. SIMS. Therefore, so far as life-saving service is concerned, both employees and the traveling public, we are behind the average foreign country? Mr. STEPHENS. I think so. Mr. SIMS. As a whole? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. Mr. SIMS. Is not that due, more or less, to trying to make the greatest amount of showing in the way of net earnings and the greatest amount of disbursement in the way of dividends upon the American roads as compared with foreign roads either publicly or privately owned? Mr. STEPHENS. I understand it is a more difficult problem about the earnings in this country. Our rates are lower on the average, and they charge higher passenger rates than we do. Mr. SIMS. That is very much of a mooted question. They have higher rates upon the average than we do, but the character of the freight classification is such that they do not carry as much low tonmile freight as we do? Mr. STEPHENS. No. Mr. SIMS. On account of having water, inland, and sea-coast transportation facilities in excess of what we do, but when we get down. to the same classes of freight and the same distance of haul, it is very much of a mooted question whether we do it cheaper than they do or not, I understand? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. In the European countries there is more multiple track than in this country? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And by far the largest percentage of single trackage is in the United States? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And of course the danger of collision on a single track is very much greater than on multiple track? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And in the European countries they have a guard at every mile? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And the blocks are very much shorter than in the United States? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And as you say, they do not allow permissive movements where we do allow them? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. That is another cause? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. The automatic train control would allow permissive movements with safety? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And that is one way in which you expedite the traffic? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. They operate in the fog over there with fog horns. We trust to luck in this country that they will not hit. In a heavy fog they have a series of men along the track with fog horns by which they operate the trains. Mr. HAMILTON. Their trains are shorter and their cars are smaller? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. Mr. HAMILTON. And they do not proceed at the same speed as we do, the movement is slower? Mr. SIMS. That is not a fact, as I understand. The CHAIRMAN. Their express trains make as good time as ours do. Mr. HAMILTON. I must express some doubt as to that. Mr. STEVENS. They maintain a higher speed than we do except on a very few lines. Of course our Century Limited is faster perhaps than any train in England or the British Isles, but aside from that and some few other runs their speed is higher than ours. Mr. HAMILTON. Speaking of England? Mr. STEVENS. Yes, sir. Mr. HAMILTON. My opinion was to the contrary, particularly on the Continent. Mr. STEVENS. I can not speak of the Continent. Mr. HAMILTON. What they call de luxe trains are supposed to run rapidly; but they are not up to the standard of our trains, it seemed to me, and ordinarily I have the impression-I have not seen the statistics that they do not proceed at the same speed as our trains do uniformly. Mr. SIMs. If you will look up the actual figures, you will find that they do. Mr. WATSON. Was not the train between London and Edinburgh the "Flying Dutchman," the fastest train in the world? Mr. STEPHENS. At that time; yes, sir. Mr. WATSON. There were very few accidents? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. Mr. SIMS. I understand that the finest and most luxurious trains in the world are run in India, where the distances are as great as they are here. Mr. HAMILTON. There has been quite an extended controversy about that. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Stephens, you have fog on your line? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir." The CHAIRMAN. Have you met that successfully! Mr. STEPHENS. We have quite extensive snow through the mountains and we also have heavy snows and frosts over this division. The CHAIRMAN. There has been an objection against the ramp rail by contact with a shoe attached to some part of the locomotive due to the fact that there might be failure because of the frost? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Or because of snow or ice that would accumulate around the rail? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. What has been your experience? Mr. STEPHENS. That is the point that I wanted to settle above everything else, to insure the contact between the rail and the engine. I have tried various experiments. I have frozen 10 or 12 inches of ice on the rail, poured the water on in a cold day, and the shoe would plow right through it and get the contact. We had had the shoe frozen over in actual operation, just due to a leaky tank and the shoe will rise right up and operate; it came into the terminal incased in ice. The frost, however, did give us a lot of trouble in the beginning. Then, we increased the spring pressure in the shoe. We had a 300-pound spring and we put in a 700-pound spring. Then, we put on a cast-iron face on the shoe, thinking that would solve the problem, and we had no more trouble after that. In the experiments we found that the cast-iron shoe wore quite rapidly, in something like four or five months we had to renew it. We went all through last winter with the steel on the shoe hardened and we had no difficulty. That proved to me that we should go back to the casehardened shoe, and we have done so. Mr. MERRITT. Has that freed you from the evil? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. We can guarantee the contact between the rail and the shoe transmitted to the engine. Mr. DOREMUS. Mr. Chairman, the report you read for 1917, does it contain any classification of the causes of the accidents? The CHAIRMAN. This is merely a summary, but the accident bulletin issued by the Division of Safety Appliances gives them in the greatest detail, whether they are rear-end or head-on collisions. Mr. DOREMUS. Does it give any classification of causes? The CHAIRMAN. Yes, sir; in the greatest detail. Mr. DOREMUS. Mr. Stephens has testified, as I understand it, that there are certain accidents that no automatic stop device could prevent, like a defective rail. Mr. STEPHENS. A defective rail-that is, a broken rail-you can. prevent, not a broken bolt or a portion broken out of the rail. It would not prevent such accidents as are due to car equipment; nothing will prevent that. It will prevent such accidents as result from open switches, broken rails, train in the block, disregard of signals, and due to extreme foggy conditions. There has been a number of serious accidents, some two or three on the New York Central, which Mr. DOREMUS (interposing). What I am interested in knowing is what proportion of these accidents that occurred upon your road were due to causes which could not have been prevented? Mr. STEPHENS. I should have to look up the recoords to answer that question; I have not the remotest idea. The CHAIRMAN. There was an accident recently on the road from Atlantic City to Philadelphia; a number of Washingtonians were going to Atlantic City. Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. I think they ran 14 or 16 sections, and due to some error of judgment there was a rear-end collision, resulting in one person being killed and many injured. Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. What were the actual facts about that accident? Mr. STEPHENS. I have not seen the official investigation, but I will state indirectly that it was due to a disregard of the signals, a failure to see the signals. The CHAIRMAN. If there had been an automatic train-control device on that line, the train would have been stopped? Mr. STEPHENS. The train would have been stopped approximately a mile from the other train. In fact, all sections would have received an automatic stop, alternating in turn. The CHAIRMAN. Your system provides for both? Mr. STEPHENS. Yes, sir. We can operate more trains and we can handle our present movement without any serious delay to the trains. They could run 16 sections of the Pennsylvania on automatic train control, but they can not run them as close together; in other words, you run them in safety, but you get them over the road practically as quick as with the automatic signals. Mr. MERRITT. Is it fair to presume that if this device will operate successfully upon your line in the winter that it will operate successfully upon lines farther north in the winter? Mr. STEPHENS. I do not see any reason why it would not operate in any country. We have made tests. In the ice test we had the snow cover the rail and frozen, and it did not affect it. It does not have any effect on the contact; nothing but frost ever did affect it. Mr. MERRITT. Does the depth of the snow along the sides of the track cut any figure? Mr. STEPHENS. It might with a contact shoe riding too low if the snow was frozen. There is one point on which I should like to make ourselves clear. We have the most extreme clearance to meet. I think, of any road in the United States. We operate a Mikado engine that has a very low guide yoke, and in order to clear this guide yoke we had to lower the shoes and ramp rails. This necessarily makes our clearances lower than would be required on other roads; however, we have not experienced any serious trouble. We are planning to remove this guide yoke and we will raise the shoes up 4 inches, and any obstruction that would then hit the shoes would also hit the steps of the coaches. This would permit the shoes to ride 26 inches from the rail and 10 inches above. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Stephens, the committee thanks you. committee. LETTERS SUBMITTED BY MR. CALVIN W. HENDRICK. The CHAIRMAN. I should like to place in the hearings at this point a statement of Mr. Calvin W. Hendrick, president of the American Train Control Co., giving some statistics as to the number of collisions and the number killed and injured, property lost, and so forth. (The statement of Mr. Hendrick, referred to by the chairman, follows: AMERICAN TRAIN CONTROL CO., 1105 American Building, Baltimore, Md., May 28, 1919. HON. JOHN J. ESCH, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. ESCH: I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of May 17. From records of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the following data have been secured covering train accidents that could have been prevented by the use of American train control system. The figures submitted, however, cover head-on and rear-end collisions only. There are many other classes of accidents not included, such as broken rails, washouts, burnt bridges, open switches, cars fouling on sidetracks, etc., which our system could prevent. The collection of these data is difficult, but we hope to secure it. The numerous fatal accidents that are known to have occurred during the last six months of 1912 (not yet published by the commission) give reason to believe the report for that period will be more serious even than for the first six months. A most startling fact brought out by the above data is that notwithstanding the immense amount of energy and money expended in installing and developing the present system of wayside signals, collisions recorded, and available, during the year 1918 are proceeding at a rate far in excess of the average performince of the nine years immediately preceding. How astounding it is that except for the years 1913 and 1917, more people were killed in the first six months of 1918 than during any previous 12 months. These undebatable facts demonstrate that positive action must be taken to stop such serious loss of life and inordinate destruction of property. The Interstate Commerce Commission bulletins Nos. 48, 52, 56, 60, 62, and 66, covering accidents investigated by that body, show that three and onefourth times more collisions occur on single-track roads than on roads of more than one track. Their records further show that approximately 88 per cent of the main line mileage in this country is single track. As a practical matter, then, any scheme of automatic train control primarily must meet all single-track requirements. You now have knowledge at first hand that such a device exists in the American train control system installed on the Chesapeake & Ohio. It is marketable as it is remarkable; it is elastic in its adjustability; provides absolute and permissive block movements; affords entire protection under forward or reverse direction either upon single or multiple tracks (thereby increasing the transportation capacity of the railroad); it has been exhaustively tried and tested under conditions of the greatest severity and is now declared a perfect system and stands unchallenged in the field of safety and economic operation. The unsolicited approval of those experts in the science of (railway) transportation who have written editorially in the Railway Review, the Railway Age, |