The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950)(about) |
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Saturday 13 December 1913
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2 corrections, most recently by John.F.Hall - Show corrections
NEW RAILWAY SIGNAL. EXPERIMENTS
One of the leading French railroads is engaged in making trials of appara- tus for giving automatic-signals to the engineer upon the locomotive in connection with the usual track sig- nals, and in order to test the method
on a large scale it is fitting out the line from Paris to Dijon and other sections to the extent of 250 miles of double track, upon which there are 268 disc signals. As many as 140 lo- comotives are equipped with automa- tic devices, and these consist of an electric contact brush mounted under the front of the locomotive, and in the middle of the track. At the proper place the track has a short piece of electric rail which is curved so that it rises for a certain distance and the brush, can make the contact with the surface. The current thus enters the locomotive and works a magnet de- vice for a steam whistle placed near the usual one, but having a lower tone, and this shows the presence of a "stop" signal at the point in ques- tion. Combined with the usual speed chart is a device for registering the present signal. The engineer then cuts off the special whistle by pulling upon a cord.