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Show GIVES WARNING OF GALES Method in Use on Irish Railroad to Prevent the Derailment of Trains by Wind. The derailment of railroad trains by wind is not an uncommon occurrence In the case of light, narrow-gauge railroads. rail-roads. Mr. E. H. Curtis, writing In Symons' Meteorological Magazine, tells how this danger has been virtually virtu-ally eliminated on one such line; viz., a stretch of 36 miles along the Atlantic Atlan-tic coast of Ireland, forming part of the West Clare railroad. Probably there Is no other line in the British isles exposed to sue violent gales, and during a few years prior to J909 as many as five "blow-offs" occurred. In which the carriages were completely complete-ly smashed though there was fortunately fortu-nately no loss of life. In that year Mr. Curtis devised for the railroad a pressure-tube anemometer, with electrical elec-trical apparatus for giving two warnings warn-ings by ringing a bell in the station-master's station-master's house at Quilty ; the first when the velocity of the wind reached 65 miles an hour and the second when It reached 85 miles an hour. When the first warning is given, 2,400 pounds of movable ballast, kept for the purpose pur-pose at every station, is placed on each vehicle of any train on the line at the first station It reaches. When the second signal Is given, trains are stopped until the storm abates. Since the apparatus was installed, In December, De-cember, 1909, there has been only one storm-derailment, and this was due to deliberate disregard of the signals. Scientific American. |