The South Manchester railroad has had another distinction added to its list. It has long been known as the shortest railroad system in the United States and for several years past has also been known as the railroad with more side track than main line and it is also the only railroad operating exclusively in Connecticut that is not in any way owned or controlled by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company.

Its latest distinction came yesterday when the rolling stock of the company, that is about two-thirds of its whole rolling stock, was used in making experiments for the protection of passengers from accident. When President Mollen offered a big prize to a person who would invent a device that would prevent two trains from coming together and which will automatically stop an approaching train, he started a lot of inventors working and one of the devices was tried out yesterday on the South Manchester railroad. It worked, too!

The first thing done was to wire certain sections of the railroad track in the vicinity of the roundhouse and later shunt a car onto the track some distance from the entrance of the roundhouse. When everything was ready a system of batteries was attached to the locomotive and the signal was given to proceed. The engineer mounted the cabin after being given orders to see that the locomotive by no chance crashed into the freight car if the system did not work, pulled over the throttle and the locomotive started to move from the roundhouse along the rail on which the box car was standing. Two trains have not been known to pass each other on the same track going in opposition [sic] directions and a whole lot of people who did not know much about the railroad knew this. As the locomotive moved over the rails and came to where the tracks had been wired, the batteries in the locomotive threw over the throttle, applied the air and in a few yards the locomotive came to a stop without crashing into the box car. The test was a preliminary one and today further tests are to be made at which time it is expected railroad officials will be present and their stamp of approval may be given to the device.