Page images
PDF
EPUB

LONDON

THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

No. CCXXI.

FOR JANUARY, 1862.

ART. I.-The Official Reports and Returns of the Railway Department of the Board of Trade. 1850-1861.

THE British public naturally desires to travel at as little cost as may be, but with speed, comfort, safety, and punctuality. It has practically only one means of conveyance. The iron rail has superseded the road of other metal; the six-legged horse has, for long journeys, driven the quadruped out of, or into the field; and the single stage-coach has made way for the train of more convenient carriages. The United Kingdom isto its infinite advantage-intersected by 10,500 miles of railway, of which two-thirds are constructed with a double line of rails; and the gaps over the country are being filled up at the rate of 400 miles a-year. The enormous sum of 400,000,000l. has been expended within the last thirty-five years upon these works; the total receipts derived from them during the year 1860 amounted to 27,766,6227.; and the net revenue for the same period was upwards of fourteen millions and a half.

It would no doubt have been better in many ways, for the shareholders as well as for the public, if the Government had exercised a judicious control over railway operations at an early stage, and had contrived, during the laying out of the different lines, to insure a greater uniformity of system, better routes, and superior management. But it is useless to regret the past. We prefer to look forward, and, with a view to the public benefit, to scan the present position of affairs, and to cull only from the experience of former years the ideas that will best serve for future guidance.

[blocks in formation]

There are now in the United Kingdom upwards of 300 railway companies, leasing and leased, working and worked, agreeing and combining, quarrelling and competing, entering into every conceivable complication with each other, and possessing in all directions ties of common ambition or objects of conflicting interest. They vary in the length of their lines from 2 miles to 1,000 miles, and in the amount of their capital from 20,000l. to 37,000,000l. They employ, altogether, 120,000 officers and servants; and they possess 6,000 locomotive engines, 15,000 passenger-carriages, and 180,000 trucks, waggons, and other vehicles. They carried, in the year 1860, besides 48,000 season and periodical ticket-holders, 163,000,000 passengers, of whom about an eighth were firstclass, five-sixteenths were second-class, and nine-sixteenths were third-class; and they received from them thirteen millions of money as the price of their conveyance.

These various companies command patronage, money, custom,-all that confers power, to an extent previously unheard of in the history of associations. They have Noble Lords and Honourable Members for their active agents and astute rulers. They have opportunities of affording advantages, or of withdrawing them; of granting or withholding favours; of indulging in civilities, and of acquiring popularity, which they often employ to great advantage. United, they form a strong party in Parliament. Separately, they have the issues of life and death, as we shall presently show, pretty much at their disposal. The press is too much at their service; and one section of it is specially devoted to them. The neighbourhood is sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile to them. The Bench is

often insufficiently informed in technical matters. The most eminent scientific witnesses are at their beck and call. They possess in all quarters an influence which may some day, unless proper precautions are observed, become alarming.

So

tive refreshment and waiting - rooms. valuable a weapon should be carefully preserved. The larger companies have repeated the process of extending their territories, and of combining with or swallowing up their neighbours, until at last they have become too unwieldy to be managed from within, or to be acted upon from without, in the manner most conducive to their own interests or the public benefit. If this course were per

To the tender mercies of this heterogeneous society of companies are our 163 millions of travelling public handed over, a helpless mass. They are all, as a rule, equally ignorant of the condition of the engine and car-mitted to proceed unchecked, it would terriages, and of the line over which they are to pass; of the strength of the bridges, the efficiency of the signals, or the regularity with which they are worked. They cannot, of course, know what train is before them, or what train will follow them; nor can they be aware of any of the thousand and one risks to which they are exposed.

The public cannot, then, be expected to exercise, of itself, any efficient control over this vast, highly organised, powerful conveyance-machine; but it has nevertheless great power if its influence be properly directed; for railway companies are extremely sensitive to well-instructed public opinion. The public knows very little of the dangers that it incurs, but is a good judge of the inconveniences which it encounters. It is patient under them to an extraordinary degree. Railways are worked for profit; and whilst a company is in undisturbed possession of its territory and traffic, it naturally strives to get as much as it can out of the public, and to give as little as possible in return.

Nevertheless, when the public convenience is at stake in a particular locality, local boards, local authorities, and local newspapers are sometimes of avail in obtaining a remedy. The companies, too, are most of them obliged to come to Parliament for a renewal or extension of their powers from time to time; and they are in continual negotiation as to working agreements, leases, or amalgamations, projected or desired between them. The occasion of giving them fresh advantages is the best opportunity for extracting from them any proper facilities on behalf of the public which they have previously neglected to afford; and parliamentary sanction should not be given to further combinations without great caution.

minate in the country being swamped by one large monopoly, uncontrollable, unimproveable, and unmanageable. Parliament has of late shown itself more jealous of combination, and wisely. The public interest requires that as fresh competition is engendered, in consequence of the filling up of the open spaces still remaining, the greatest advantage shall be taken of it; and that any fresh combinations of an extensive nature shall be temporary, and liable to revision as circumstances may require.

It is a common opinion that keen competition between railway companies is as injurious in the end to the interests of the public as it is to those of the shareholders.

This theory is not, as a general rule, borne out in practice. The question of amalgamation does not rest entirely with the companies. By raising their rates beyond a certain point they check traffic or divert it into other channels. There are not many localities in which they can afford to be very arbitrary. The fares between London and Manchester have never returned to the higher figure at which they stood before the reckless competition which was carried on in 1857 between those places; while some of the advantages which the public derived from that competition, of rapid travelling, numerous trains, and few stoppages, have remained. The fares between London and Dover will probably never again rise to the prices which were paid before the Chatham line was made, unless upon the competing companies coming to good terms with each other, Parliament should permit them to amalgamate.

There can be no stronger instance of the advantages which may accrue to the public from competition in construction, than is to Competition is, indeed, the most effective be found in the railway works which are in weapon in the public armoury. Railway progress in different parts of the metropolis companies will, when competing, vie with at the present time, for the purpose of proeach other in providing good carriages, well viding central and convenient stations. Nolighted and comfortably warmed; in supply-hing else would have induced the different ing frequent trains at cheap fares; in running long distances at high speed with punctuality; in employing obliging officers and attentive servants; in constructing convenient stations, with ample platforms, and attrac

companies to undertake the outlay of time, trouble, and money, which they have thus forced upon each other.

That railway travelling is safer than any other mode of travelling is well known.

Taking the average of a series of years, it would appear that for an average journey, say of 10 miles, only 1 in every 8,000,000 of passengers is killed, and only 1 in every 330,000 injured, from causes over which they have no control. These numbers vary materially, however, from year to year. In the last half of 1860, as is shown by the latest return before us, 136 persons were returned as killed, and 414 as injured; but of these only 36 were killed and 364 injured as passengers; and of these again only 23 were killed and 351 injured from causes beyond their own control. There is no doubt that these numbers are below the mark. Many servants of companies are undoubtedly killed and injured whose deaths are not included in the official returns, in consequence of the necessary information not being furnished by the railway companies.

Of those disasters which have acquired the name of railway accidents, 840 have been inquired into and reported on during eleven years by the officers of the Board of Trade. These were not by any means all that occurred; but they were selected for inquiry from among those which were reported by the railway companies, or which came under the notice of the Board in other ways; and they may fairly be considered as representing the principal accidents which were accompanied with personal injury. Of the total number of accidents, an annual average of 44 out of 76 consisted of collisions between trains and engines. We will notice such of the accidents reported on as appear to us most worthy of attention.

In the case of a collision on one of the Scotch lines, it was ascertained that the engine-driver and fireman had been out for more than thirty hours, and that the guard, who had suffered from two broken ribs a fortnight previously, and had returned to his work for the first time after that misfortune, had been on duty from nine o'clock one evening until eleven o'clock on the next morning but one, with only two hours and a half for sleep during that period! The engine broke down, the guard was fast asleep in his van, and a passenger-train which was following came into collision with the train of which he was supposed to be taking charge.

On an Irish railway, an engine-driver whose ordinary duties extended from 5 A.M. till 10 P.M., with three hours' intermission, fell asleep from overwork, and caused an accident.

At no great distance from Birmingham, in one case, a signal-man had been on duty for twenty-six hours; and there were engine-drivers and firemen, in another case, whose average duty amounted to sixteen hours a-day,

but who had been out for nineteen, twentyone, and twenty-six hours. At Normanton a pointsman worked habitually for eighteen hours a-day.

The engine-driver of a coal train, near London, was at work from 6 A.M. one day until 8.30 the next morning. The engine-drivers in North Wales were occasionally kept out for twenty-three hours; and the ordinary duties of a stationmaster on the South-West of London extended over sixteen hours on week days, and thirteen hours on Sundays. Certain other men came on duty at 6 a.m., and were sent out with a fresh train after working to between 10 and 11 P.M.; and others again remained on duty from the middle of one day to the evening of the next day.

These and other instances of over-work of servants are examples of one way in which accidents are caused. There are other causes which are equally inexcusable, but there are none which are more discreditable to the directors and managers of railways. The work that the men undergo is certainly not hard work, such as that of a navvy; but it is work in which great vigilance is required, and the public safety depends upon that vigilance being properly exercised. It is impossible for men who are employed over periods varying from fifteen to thirty hours, to do justice either to themselves or to their employers. The class of men so employed is not so good as it would otherwise be. Discipline cannot be maintained among them. They become stupid and reckless. They make mistakes in their signals, or neglect to keep a good lookout from their engines. They have an additional inducement to resort to stimulants, and even an excuse for excess; and they return to duty after their hours of rest, scarcely more fit for their work than when they left it.

No passenger would willingly allow his life to depend upon the activity and vigilance of a man who had been out with his engine for thirty hours; but any passenger may be obliged to do so without being aware of it. Unfortunately a traffic-superintendent is not in much danger of being punished for allowing a signalman, or a locomotive-superintendent for allowing an engine-driver or fireman, to be left on duty for excessive hours. The tendency is even in the opposite direction, and a manager is more likely to be considered extravagant, and to lose his situation, in consequence of a desire to maintain his staff in what he considers a state of efficiency.

The best mode of obliging railway companies to keep up a sufficient staff, would be by preventing them from employing their servants habitually for more than twelve hours a-day; and it is probable that railway mana

gers would be very glad in many instances to shelter themselves under such an obligation. One collision brought to light the case of a little girl, thirteen years of age, who was doing duty as gatekeeper and signalman at an important post in Staffordshire. In other cases, a little boy was acting as a pointsman in Lancashire; a youth of sixteen was doing regular duty of fifteen hours daily in a midland county; another youth was in charge of telegraph-instruments in Kent, and, although these instruments were intended specially to provide for the safety of the traffic, he was saddled with numerous other duties which rendered it impossible for him to attend to them. A youth of nineteen, also, was found to have been in charge of a long train in North Wales, who had only once previously been on the line, who knew nothing of the running of the trains, or of the company's regulations, and who had not been provided with a watch, a time-table, or a book of rules.

The want of signals is obviated in recentlyconstructed lines, because the companies are required to complete them in this respect before they open them for passenger traffic; and much improvement has been made of late years on lines that have been in use for longer periods. In addition to station, or platform signals, distant-signals, as they are called, are also necessary. These are placed at distances varying from 500 to 900 yards from the stations, to warn an engine-driver of any obstruction which renders it necessary that he should stop his train. When a train is travelling at high speed, it frequently cannot be stopped in less than from half a mile to a mile; and if a driver is not warned by means of signals of this sort, at a greater or less distance from an obstruction according to the nature of the gradients and other circumstances, he cannot be expected, particularly in hazy weather, to pull up in time to avoid a collision. Signals are similarly required at the junctions between two lines of railway, or between a main line and mineral sidings; and at some other places, such as level-crossings, when the gradients are steep and the view is obstructed. On many of the older lines, as well as on some of the more recent lines on which additions have been made since the opening, improvements in the way of signals are still required; and these are now and then brought to light when collisions occur for the want of them. In one year alone fifteen accidents occurred from this cause.

When signals are not strictly obeyed there can be no safety. They are the only indications by which an engine-driver is informed when it is necessary for him to slacken his peed, and prepare for stopping his train. In

[ocr errors]

several cases in which a disregard of signals has led to a collision, it has turned out that for some reason they had previously been habitually disobeyed.

Over-work, as we have already stated, tends to occasion want of discipline; and sometimes regulations are disobeyed from the want of means, or from the force of circumstances. Time-tables are so drawn up that they cannot be carried out. Regulations are printed and supplied to the servants of a company which are not suitable, and which they are unable to obey, but which they are punished for not complying with when an accident happens.

Thus, trains have been arranged in the working time-tables of a railway to start at the same moment, while the regulations of the company have directed that an interval of five minutes should be maintained between them. The servants of some companies are constantly intrusted with the responsibility of maintaining that interval without being provided with any means of ascertaining it. A signalman in Northumberland stated on one occasion that he had been unable to carry out his regulations in this respect, and that he had, therefore, allowed them to fall into disuse. In the case of another accident, an engine-driver, who required to shunt. his train at a particular place, but was forbidden by his regulations to do so when another train was due, was unable to ascertain the time, and had no means of knowing whether the other train had passed or not. Under these circumstances, he made the best guess he could as to the time; he came to the conclusion that the mail train must have passed; he began to shunt his train across the main line; and, whilst he was engaged in the operation, the train in question came up and ran into him.

For the maintenance of good discipline, responsible men should be employed, for reasonable hours, on sufficient wages, and under good regulations. They should be furnished with all necessary appliances, and should be subjected to irregular, but constant supervision. It has been found that the hope of reward has a better effect on such men than the fear of punishment; and on this principle a premium, dependent on their good conduct, is sometimes wisely paid to them half-yearly.

The want of a sufficient proportion of break-power to the trains is a defect which is constantly pointed out, not only in the case of collisions, but also with reference to accidents of other descriptions. When an enginedriver suddenly finds an obstruction before him, or a signal against him, or when any failure takes place in any portion of his en

gine or train, the amount of danger that is caused to the passengers varies very often directly as the distance at which he is able to bring his train to a stand; and that distance depends upon the weight of the train, the speed at which it is travelling, the state of the rails, the nature of the gradients, the power of the engine, and the proportion and weight of vehicles to which available breaks are attached. If the train be light, the break-power ample, the rails dry, and the gradients favourable, the driver may pull up within a short distance, and may avoid an impending collision. If the contrary be the case, he may not be able to pull up under a mile or a mile and a quarter, and he may, if the warning afforded to him have not been sufficient, meet with a serious accident at some point within that distance.

Trains are habitually run, on the principal lines in the country, without a suitable amount of break-power, and they are constantly despatched without any break-van behind them. Vehicles to which breaks are applied should be properly distributed in a train. If they are all in front of it, the carriages from behind are liable to run forward upon them when any accident occurs; and the results are more serious to the passengers. Or when a coupling gives way in the middle of a train, the detached carriages, having no controlling power, may run for ward upon the front part of the train, or may run back until something occurs to stop them. A powerful break, at the tail of a train is, on the other hand, of the greatest use in every sort of accident. If an engine leaves the line, if a tyre gives way, if an axle fails-on the engine or on any of the carriages-the hind guard, by at once applying such a break, stretches the couplings or tends to do so; keeps the carriages back; prevents the disabled vehicle, perhaps, from being overturned, and the other carriages from mounting upon and fracturing one another; and converts what might otherwise be a very serious accident, into one which is attended with only slight results.

On some parts of the Continent, and in America, where more guards are employed in proportion to the number of vehicles than in this country, each guard is able in general to apply the breaks of two adjacent vehicles; but the description of vehicles in use among us, and the defective communication which exists between them, do not admit of this being done; and on certain lines, where the gradients are steepest, and the necessity for additional break-power greatest, other means have therefore been resorted to. Continuous breaks, as they are called, have been constructed, which can be applied simultaneously

to several vehicles by one guard riding in one of them; and they have been used on some lines for many years with excellent effect. A great number of inventors, English and foreign, have spent much time and money in producing different designs for these breaks; but three descriptions of them have been principally adopted in practice, those of Messrs. Newall, Fay, and Chambers. Without attempting to discuss in this place their respective merits, we may safely say that they are all superior to the ordinary single break, and may any of them be employed with advantage.

A recent case in South Durham strongly proved the advantage of continuous breaks. As 300 passengers were returning in an excursion train from the Lake district, the engine suddenly left the rails whilst it was descending a steep gradient at considerable speed, mainly in consequence of a defect in the permanent way. After running down the side of an embankment, it fell on its right side, at 82 yards only from the point at which it first quitted the rails. The driver was killed, and the fireman nearly so, but the passengers were comparatively unhurt, only six of them having complained after the accident. Continuous breaks of Mr. Newall's pattern were there used on three vehicles connected with the van at the tail of the train. They had fortunately been fully applied before the accident happened, to check the speed of the train in descend-" ing the incline; and to their action the safety of the passengers was chiefly due.

A system which has been found after long experience to be good for lines with heavy gradients, cannot but be good also for more level lines. The expense of fitting up a great number of carriages with such breaks would no doubt be considerable. Some extra trouble would be incurred in marshalling the trains at terminal, and in attaching and detaching carriages at intermediate stations; and, which is the great difficulty, several companies would be obliged, in order that they might be employed to the greatest advantage, to agree in adopting one particular form of break. But these difficulties are, after all, more apparent than real. They may be got over on any of the great lines by arranging that a van and two or three post-office, or other vehicles, shall be run through from one point to another, backwards and forwards, without separation. The companies would thus effect an important saving in compensation for accidents; and also, if the breaks were properly used, in the tyres of the wheels, and in the permanent way. The employment of continuous breaks renders the skidding of the wheels (or

« PreviousContinue »