Table Of Contentii
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THE SEARCH FOR SAFETY: A History of Railroad Signals and the People Who Made Them
By Mary Brignano and Hax McCullough
with graphic design by Sid Navratil
Copyright © 1981, American Standard Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 81-67462 ISBN 0-9606202-0-6
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to those unnamed,
unsung individuals who have kept alive the original
pioneering spirit of railroad signaling.
This industry could not have survived without
the untiring dedication of those maintainers and
helpers, signalmen, draftsmen, circuit designers and
signal engineers who have upheld the high
standards of safety which have been the cornerstone
of this industry for more than 100 years.
ii
the
Search
for Safety
Commissioned by Union Switch & Signal Division, American Standard Inc.
iii
PREFACE
May, 1981, Pittsburgh, PA
The Union Switch & Signal Company was founded they faced. Because America is so big and its develop
by George Westinghouse in May, 1881. We are using its ment was so fast, important changes had to occur rapid
Centennial year as the occasion for an illustrated history ly. The pace of life had to quicken in the 19th century
about the progress of railroad signaling. because expansion, invention, adventure and risk were
Transportation and progress have gone ahead a part of everyday existence.
together throughout history. Moving people and goods Railroad trains rumbled from place to place
helps civilization advance, helps people exchange ideas throughout America carrying people and goods at
and products, and helps pioneering people build and unheard-of speeds. New systems of scheduling and
enhance their lives. While this has always been true, it safety had to be created by people ready to make
has been particularly so because of the railroads, in dreams come true.
North America and in the last 100 years. The Union Switch & Signal Company and other
Our story in the following pages is mostly about important. signaling companies answered the need.
the signal industry in America and the creative people Creative, vastly imaginative work was done (and is
who have helped us use our railroads efficiently and being done today) to make railroading safer, surer and
safely. America was built by people of ambition, more efficient. What was once man's dedication to a
imagination and engineering ingenuity. They "made" schedule and a safe trip is now a technology.
America into the world's most advanced, affluent, This is the American way.
educated and fulfilled nation. These people are more All of us - and the rest of the world - have
than history to us. If the future is to learn from the past, benefited.
we should know about how they solved the problems
v
CONTENTS
Dedication ................................. II XII POWER FROM THE HEAVENS ................ 112
Preface ....... .................... ........... v XIII John D. Taylor and
ALL-ELECTRIC INTERLOCKING .............. 120
ON THE MOVE ... ........................... 1
XIV Trolleys, interurbans, "els" and subways: THE
II From the Acropolis to Stockton, England:
"ELECTRIC HORSE" COMES TO AMERICA ... . 126
THE IRON HORSE IS BORN .... ....... ........ 9
xv
Light signals: PUTTING NATURE'S
III Off to a good start: STEAM LOCOMOTION
SWIFTEST MESSENGER TO WORK ........... 135
COMES TO AMERICAN RAILROADS ....... .. 20
XVI Highway grade crossings:
IV As we made ourselves known: SIGNALING
AMERICA GETS THE MESSAGE TO
THROUGH THE AGES ..... ...... ...... ...... 30
"STOP, LOOK, LISTEN" ...................... 144
v MANAGING THE MUST ANG ..... ...... ...... 36
XVII Automatic train control: BRINGING THE
VI The tick, tick, tick of WAYSIDE SIGNALINTO THE ENGINE CAB .... 154
TAMED LIGHTNING .............. ..... ..... 45
XVIII Train control continued:
VII A change in thinking: CODING THE TRACK CIRCUIT ...... ......... 164
FROM TIME TO SP ACE ..... ................. 54
XIX Human drama in work and play:
VIII THE SIGNALMAN'S BRAWN ................. 62 RAILROAD TERMINALS ..................... 175
xx
IX The adolescence of American railroads: "Running the train, reading the paper":
LUXURY AND DANGER .................. ... 74 CENTRALIZED TRAFFIC CONTROL .......... 182
x
THE PROUDEST, MOST OUTSPOKEN, XX! SAFE AND SENSIBLE ... ...................... 191
MOST IMPORTA NT AND SUPREMELY
CONFIDENT INVENTOR -
WHO SAID SO HIMSELF .. ...... ............. 80 Acknowledgements ........................... 196
XI George Westinghouse: A MAN OF
IMAGINATION, COURAGE AND GENIUS .... . 94 Bibliography .................. ............... 197
I. ON THE MOVE
"All Aboard,"
first called out in 1837, still can thrill tlie spirit.
This is a book about railroad signaling ... and about people and
accomplishment, about power and speed and the revolution of
technology, about inventors, invention, building, communica
tions, glamor, intrigue, international travel, legends, changes in
art, music, and literature, enormous social changes ... all in rela
tion to the railroads.
Our story is about people and materials on the move.
In America, motion is a way of life. Sail a river, climb a
mountain, find the continental divide and cross it. Go - and get
there. Perhaps you'll be famous or rich or both. Perhaps you will
want to settle down. But first, adventure, self-expression, build
ing, conquest, and achievement.
The 19th century, particularly in America, was an age of
thrust. Slow became fast, little became big, the past became a
bore, the future a promise. Strength was equated with good,
money with happiness, old ways with mediocrity, new things with
power and glory. This was the century of the railroads' birth.
Railroads were big, long, romantic, exciting to plan and con
struct, thrilling to ride upon, symbols of progress, part of the good
life, and a source of peer approval to have traveled upon.
Railroads were the way to go.
But all thinking Americans did not idolize tracks of metal that
stretched to the horizon and beyond. At Walden Pond outside
Concord, Massachusetts, the self-sufficient philosopher, Henry
Thoreau, deplored their existence as he did most of human society.
To him they were the antithesis of privacy, peace, and justice. He
equated railroads with crowds and desperation. He saw them as
having been brought on by greedy people hurrying lustfully after
ill-gotten wealth. He saw the railroads "paving" the surface of our
planet - and ruining it. He saw fools racing to catch a train to
rush to another place to make money-fast.
Our American way of life, particularly its basics as created
and developed by the 19th-century men and women who "built
and preserved us a nation," often has been compared to the
Roman Empire. Both were big, varied in geography, confedera
tions of states, and dedicated to growth and efficient transporta
tion. Both often callously changed what and who stood in their
way. When the Romans built roads through Gaul, down went the
great oaks that the Druids had worshipped. Down also went the
culture of ancient Gaul and in its place was a Roman road with a
