Our rail fastenings, ties and ballast have kept pace with the development of the rail and equipment. An orthodox part of the rules governing the maintenance of railway property places in the hands of the maintenance force standard plans and specifications, not only for the elements, such as rail and ties, but for the complete make-up of the finished track structure and roadbed, and these plans are the result of current experience and study of the several railroads, and of the various associations of engineers, maintenance officers and manufacturers, and it is safe to say that these plans, specifications and standard practices represent the best known state of the art. GRADE-CROSSING ELIMINATION. In the early days both the railroads and public ways used the natural surface of the ground, as a matter of economy. The public question then was how they were to get the railroads, and _not_ how they were to restrict them in the manner of their construction. The districts traversed were sparsely settled and trains were few and slow in their movement; the highways were little used; all of which made for freedom from accident where the two crossed. The conditions in England were vastly different. There the country was thickly settled and an assured traffic was evident from the inception of the enterprise, which would warrant expenditures on original construction that could not be entertained by the promoters of our first companies. So it was not through any blindness that made grade crossings grow up in this country, but it was purely the result of economic conditions which precluded their elimination. With the increase in population and the development of the country came the need of increased transportation facilities. More frequent, faster and heavier trains were moving up the railroads and a greater number of people came to use the highways. The inevitable result followed, and at length the great number of accidents occurring at the grade crossings attracted public attention. The Legislature of Massachusetts took the first action in 1869, when it provided for the appointment of a Railroad Commission, to investigate and report upon "Safer and Better Methods of Construction and Operation." They very promptly took up the Grade-Crossing question. At this time in Massachusetts there was 1 mile of track to 5.47 square miles New York there was 1 mile of track to 14.12 square miles United States there was 1 mile of track to 46.72 square miles Great Britain there was 1 mile of track to 8.60 square miles This showed that the railroad network in Massachusetts was more extensive in proportion to the area of the State than existed in Great Britain. In their report the Commission suggested the avoidance of future crossings of railroads and highways at grade, and the propriety of the railroads changing some existing crossings which presented no great difficulty or expense.