Accrington on Rails - The Tramways: A Complete History - Robert Kenyon

77.Cars must be brought to an absolute halt wherever there is a sign stating ‘ ALL CARS STOP HERE ’, and having done so the Driver must not proceed unless signalled to do so by the Conductor who should have a clear view of the rear platform. 78.Drivers should keep a sharp lookout for intending passengers and on no account refuse to pick anyone up unless having previously received a signal from the Conductor that the car is full. 79.Cars will only stop at designated places excepting the case with elderly or infirm passengers, when on signalling the car may stop anywhere to enable them to board or alight. 80.Cars must slow at each stop whether there are passengers to get on or off or not. 81.Drivers must sound the foot gong where approaching outlets, passing other cars and on occasions when a warning is deemed necessary. But sounding the foot gong when passing a spirited horse or to the annoyance of passengers when not necessary should be avoided generally. 82.Drivers are to strictly ignore all other signals not coming from their Conductors. 83.Drivers should sound the foot gong once to acknowledge having heard the conductor’s signal to halt at the next stop. 84.The front platform gate of the car should always be closed when the car is running, and only persons with an official permit should ever be allowed access to this area. 85.Passengers should not be allowed to board or alight from a car via the front platform, with the exception of at a terminus, and even there, the Driver must supervise their safety in order to avoid accidents with other cars or vehicles. 86.Each time the car arrives at the central terminus the Driver must remove the sand pedal, open the car door and unlock the platform gate to allow passengers to alight safely. CONTROLLER 87.Drivers should avoid accelerating the car too rapidly. When running at full speed if it is necessary to reduce speed slightly, the controller should be notched back to 5, and if desirous then power should be shut off entirely. At no time should a Driver use the hand brake to slow down when the car is under power, as this is detrimental to the car’s equipment, a source of brake wear and costly in terms of electricity. 88.In running with power on when passing beneath circuit breakers, Drivers are instructed to run up as near as possible to the insulator, shut off and if necessary immediately afterwards notch up to fifth of sixth notch and then work gradually up to full speed again. In this method the speed is kept constant and there are no great strains on the motors. 89.If the car is running at say four or five miles per hour without power and the driver wishes to increase the speed it would not be necessary for him to observe the same protocols as when starting a car in motion, but as each notch on the controller is equivalent to a given speed, the Driver may bring the pointer of the power handle from zero to the notch representative of the speed at which the car may be travelling at that time, and then work up to whatever speed is required. 90.Drivers are strictly warned never to go directly from zero to eighth notch no matter what speed the car is travelling. 91.Drivers should shut off power from sixth or seventh position rather than put the pointer to eighth and be immediately compelled to throw it into the ‘off’ position as there would be no advantage gained by going to the eighth notch unless there is the possibility of the car travelling on at least a further 20 yards with the pointer in that position. Therefore to put the pointer to the full speed position when working up and in the very next instant to turn it back to zero would cause a great waste of current without any advantage in speed being gained. 92.Upon returning his car to the depot the Driver must leave its hand brake in the ‘on’ position. He must then enter into the Car Repair Book any faults he may have noticed, or conversely make an entry indicating that no faults were noted and sign his name as verification.

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