A stipulated time is fixed in the Bill for the purchase of the property and construction of the line, and if this time be exceeded before the completion of the works, it will be necessary to obtain further Parliamentary powers for an extension of time. Every new railway, or extension of railway, in the United Kingdom, must be inspected, and certified, by one of the inspecting officers of the Board of Trade, previous to Government sanction being granted for its opening as a passenger line. To facilitate these inspections, and as a guide both to their own inspecting officers and the engineers in charge of the construction, the Board of Trade have issued a list of the principal requirements in connection with all new lines. The following is a copy of the list so far as relates to works of construction and signals:-- Requirements of the Board of Trade.--1. The requisite apparatus for providing by means of the block telegraph system an adequate interval of space between following trains, and, in the case of junctions, between converging or crossing trains. In the case of single lines worked by one engine under steam (or two or more coupled together) carrying a staff, no such apparatus will be required. 2. Home-signals and distant-signals for each direction to be fixed at stations and junctions, with extra signals for such dock, or bay lines, as are used either for the arrival, or for the departure of trains, and starting-signals for each direction, at all passenger stations which are also block posts. On passenger lines all cross-over roads and all connections for goods, or mineral lines, and sidings to be protected by home and distant signals, and as a rule at all important running junctions a separate distant-signal to be provided in connection with each home-signal. [Illustration: Fig. 8.] _Signals may be dispensed with on single lines under the following conditions_:-- (_a_) _At all stations and siding connections upon a line worked by 20 one engine only (or two engines coupled together), carrying a staff, and when all points are locked by such staff._ (_b_) _At any intermediate siding connection upon a line worked under the train staff and ticket system, or under the electric staff or tablet system, where the points are locked by the staff or tablet._ (_c_) _At intermediate stations, which are not staff or tablet stations, upon a line worked under the electric staff or tablet system: Sidings, if any, being locked as in (b)._