Telephone communication with moving trains goes
back further than most people might imagine, as this
extract from THE STRATFORD UPON AVON & MIDLAND
JUNCTION RAILWAY, by Arthur Jordan (Oxford Publishing
Company, 1982) illustrates:
The SMJ had shown an
interest in technological progress as early as 1912,
when in July of that year the following message was
transmitted from a train travelling between Ettington and
Stratford-upon-Avon, picked up in the signal box and
conveyed to His Majesty the King, then on a visit to
Bristol:
‘Representatives of railway companies,
universities and scientific bodies are today
inspecting the Von Kramer wireless inductive
railophone system for signalling to and from
trains to stations. With this system it is
possible to stop trains in motion by pressing a
button in the signal-box. This telegram was
dispatched wirelessly from a moving train by the
inventor’.
Professor Silvanus
Thompson, presiding over the gathering of some 120 guests
in a marquee behind Stratford-upon-Avon station, thought
that there was great scope for this invention whilst the Stratford
Herald expressed the following opinion:
‘. . . it is possible in the future that
our borough will attain considerable importance
in the eyes of the scientific world as the
birthplace of a system which may play a prominent
part in the railway kingdom, inasmuch as it
claims to ensure safe travelling by rendering
collision impossible, and repairing (also
recording) mistakes made by careless signalmen.
We refer to the Railophone double-automatic
signalling apparatus.’
Von Kramer had conducted
his first experiments as far back as 1910 at Three
Bridges, Sussex, on the London, Brighton & South
Coast Railway when he had succeeded in establishing a
telephonic link between an express train and a signal
box. In April 1911 a public demonstration of this system
for a 'phone link between train and signal box had been
given on the SMJ at Stratford-upon-Avon when Miss Made
Corelli, authoress, performed the inaugural ceremony.
Since then, making use of a coach loaned by the Great
Central Railway, the inventor had perfected his system so
that it could be used for controlling trains as well as
for communication.
These proceedings were
reported in the local newspaper thus:
‘Very interesting were the trials devoted
to distress signalling, a powerful hooter on a
moving train sounding by the simple closing of a
switch in the signal cabin, and then the mere
pressure of a button by Professor Silvanus
Thompson automatically pulled up the train
passing at a good speed into the station. The
train ran from the old carriage shed through the
station against the railophone signal, which was
at danger, and directly the Professor touched the
button the hooter on the train showed that the
contact had been made, and the screeching wheels
and dense smoke from the engine proved that the
train was slowing up under compulsion. The driver
and guard were powerless to do anything until the
pressure was released and the train was permitted
to resume its journey’.
Shortly afterwards Von
Kramer was answering questions when he accidentally leant
on the train-stopping button bringing to an unexpected
halt the trial train which was backing into the platform!
To end the day, the
assembled visitors were conveyed by train to Clifford
Siding where they alighted and climbed on to a bridge to
witness ‘possibly the most realistic tests of the
day’. Two trains raced towards each other on the
single line and use of the Railophone system averted a
head-on collision. Perhaps this was not quite so exciting
as it sounds because the Herald told its readers,
‘A liberal margin was allowed for safety, and so
there were no thrills’.
At the luncheon provided
for the visitors Von Kramer related that during the
months in which he had been carrying out tests along the
SMJ line a shunter had one day commented to [the
railway's general manager] Willmott, ‘Don’t you
think that Railophone chap is a bit dotty? He does
nothing at all except run backwards and forwards’
(laughter). More recently, that shunter had expressed the
opinion that Von Kramer had ‘got a snip this
time’ (laughter and applause). However, despite the
encouraging results of the tests, nothing further was
heard of the Railophone.
