Referring to the various forms of warning devices, the secretary said a very large number of ideas were brought before the notice of the department and where there was any likelihood of success, they were carefully examined and tested by the department’s experts.
Those who put them forward did so with unbounded confidence in their success, but unfortunately the department could not always agree with such claims. It was essential that any mechanical device should be as nearly as possible 100% mechanically efficient, for should a moving sign of any type fail to operate, the road user who had become accustomed to heeding its warning might be led on to disaster and the Railway Department in installing a faulty device would most certainly come in for very severe condemnation.
The fact that self-closing gates or balanced booms descending across the road were employed successfully in other countries did not necessarily prove that similar devices would be a success in New Zealand.
Everything depended upon the local conditions. Other systems mentioned were "Z" and "island" devices employed on certain crossings.
Both plans had the same object — to ensure that the driver of the road vehicle would slow up before crossing the railway line.
The "Z" or zig-zag in the road alignment was so set out on either side of the crossing, that, while travelling along one arm the motorist would look up the line and after turning the sharp bend (necessarily at slow speed), would examine the down length of the line.
The same principle was employed in various other forms, but an objection to all of them, at any rate where the traffic volume was considerable, was that road traffic congestion was caused.
"So far the best results have been achieved with the combined visual and auditory system, as in a wig wag, such as has been installed at the Petone crossing and at a considerable number of other busy crossings in both islands.
"This form of signal is track-circuited and a bell is set ringing and a signal swinging by the approaching train operating an electric switch, which can be at any necessary distance from the crossing. The zig-zag costs something over £200 to install."
The department would shortly be trying out the Pearson Visual and Auditory signal, he stated.
This device consists of the usual bell and pair of crossed arms (not unlike the crossed bones of a pirate’s coat of arms) which rotate in opposite directions, in warning an approaching train and, like the zig-zag, it is track circuited.
The inventor, Mr A. Pearson, of Wanganui, is not a railwayman, but has for some years taken a keen interest in level crossing devices and has put forward his device as a possible improvement upon the wig wag. It had a good deal to recommend it, but it could only be proved by a thorough test under working conditions.
"The department is always on the defensive in this matter," the secretary concluded.
"But the fact remains that the department is doing everything it can to protect the public against itself, and at the same time to carry on its work as a transport organisation.
"It cannot stop the Limited express to let a man drive past in his buggy."
Speeding buses
Reports about alleged excessive speed by motorists on the Beach Rd from the city to Portobello were brought to the notice of a meeting of the Portobello Road Board yesterday, a bus proprietor complaining that such reports were detrimental to the service.
The acting chairman of the board said he had timed buses on several occasions and they had not exceeded 20 miles per hour where the limit was 18 miles.
That was not so much out of the way.
Several members spoke of instance of excessive speed, one member stating that on straight portions of the road he had seen a bus going at a "terrific speed".
The board resolved to disclaim responsibility for reports of excessive speed, and to notify motorists that the speed limits must not be exceeded. — ODT, 5.3.1926
