was ready for opening it was
agreed that no train should attempt to enter or leave the North Union
line at Euxton junction within fifteen minutes of a train being due on
the main line which might interfere with it. The movable rails at
junctions had to be removed by hand and fixed into position by hammer and
pin. Mr. Watts, engineer to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, is
believed to have been one of the first to use the tapering movable
switch. One of Mr. Watts's men invented the back weight, another
designed the crank, while a third suggested the long rod. These
improvements were all about the year 1846. The first fixed signal set up
at stations was an ordinary round flag pole having a pulley on the top,
upon which was hoisted a green flag to stop a train and a red one to
indicate danger on the road. The night signal was a hand lamp hoisted in
the same way. These were superseded by a signal on which an arm was
worked at the end of a rod, and a square lamp with two sides, red and
white, having blinkers working on hinges to shut out the light. These
were used until 1848. The semaphores only came into practical use some
20 years ago, and it is remarkable that the first time they were used on
the Liverpool and Manchester line they were the cause of a slight
collision. The use of signal lights on trains was much advanced by two
accidents which occurred on the North Union line on the 7th September,
1841. One of these happened at Farrington, where two passenger trains
came into collision. The other happened at Euxton, where a coal train
ran into a stage coach which was taking passengers to Southport. The
Rev. Mr. Joy was killed, and several others, including the station
master, who lost one leg, were injured. These were the first serious
accidents investigated by the now Government Inspector of Railways, Sir
Frederic Smith, who was appointed by the Board of Trade under Lord
Seymour's Act.

--_Manchester Guardian_.

FOG-SIGNALS.

During the prevalence of fogs, when neither signal-posts nor lights are
of any use, detonating signals are frequently employed, which are affixed
to the rails, and exploded by the iron tread of the advancing locomotive.
All guards, policemen, and pointsmen who are not appointed to stations,
and all enginemen, gatemen, gangers and platelayers, and tunnel-men, are
provided with packets of these signals, which they are requir