Stokers and pokers : $b or, The London and North-Western Railway, the electric telegraph, and the railway clearing-houseHead, Francis Bond, Sir
History
Stokers and pokers : $b or, The London and North-Western Railway, the electric telegraph, and the railway clearing-house
Head, Francis Bond, Sir
London and North-Western Railway; Railway Clearing House (London, England); Telegraph -- Great Britain
At the entrance of the Clearing-Office, in the corner, there is a
small post-office of compartments for the letters and returns daily
transmitted by the manager to each company.
The office usually receives and despatches 4500 communications per
day, employing five lads to open, endorse, and arrange them.
The office is open daily from 9 A.M. till 5 P.M.
* * * * *
With a deep sigh we can truly say that we have now concluded a sketch
of the Railway Clearing-House, which, as it gave us one headache to
investigate, and another to endeavour to explain, will probably be
equally afflicting to our readers.
In justice, however, to the system, we must confess that it is
impossible to convey in writing an adequate conception of the
infinity of details with which it has to grapple.
The number of items which in the course of a year, by the London
office, are examined, traced through many returns, checked, and
transferred from one account to another, exceeds rather than falls
short of (50,000,000) fifty millions!
It must be obvious to any person conversant with the working of
railways, that, without a centralised system of this description, so
constituted as to command the confidence of the railway companies,
the railway system generally would not only soon become clogged, but
constant squabbles and disagreements between the various companies
would ensue, to the detriment of their interests, as well as to the
discomfort and inconvenience of the public.
The true object, therefore, of the London Railway Clearing-House is
to enable the railway companies of the United Kingdom who are parties
thereto, to work that enormous traffic, in which they have a common
interest, with as much security to themselves, and with as little
inconvenience to the public, as if all the associated companies were
ONE; and it is evident that in no way could this important object
have been effected, except by the establishment of an office which,
based on principles of complete centralisation, should be--as the
London Clearing-House really is--independent of each company, but
under the common control of ALL.
CHAPTER XV.
MORAL.
The few rough sketches which we have now concluded, insignificant
and trivial as they may appear in detail, form altogether a mass of
circumstantial evidence demonstrating the vast difficulty as well as
magnitude of the arrangements necessary for the practical working of
great railways; and yet we regret to add, in their general management
there exist moral and political difficulties more perplexing than
those which Science has overcome, or which order has arranged.--We
allude to a variety of interests, falsely supposed to be conflicting,
which it is our desire to conciliate, and from which we shall
endeavour to derive an honest moral.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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