Part 9 (1/2)
Thus on this same Liverpool and Manchester road, as a first-class train on theat a speed of some thirty er carriage, causing the whole train to leave the rails and throwing it down the eh The carriages were rolled over, and the passengers in them turned topsy-turvy; nor, as they were securely locked in, could they even extricate themselves when at last the wreck of the train reached firs And yet no one was killed”
RIVAL CONTRACTORS AND THE BLOTTING PAD
In rails, the saainst each other, as to which should produce an apparent rail at the lowest price At the outset of railways the rails were radually produced rails in which a core, of what is technically called ”cinder,” is covered up with a skin of iron; and the cleverest foreman for an ironmaster was the man who could make rails with the maximum of cinder and the minimum of iron Inan old line the worn-out rails have been sold at a higher price per ton than the new ones were bought for; yet this would hardly open the eyes of the buyers The contrivances which are resorted to to get hold of one another's prices beforehand by co contractors are manifold; and, when they attend in person, they co up of their tender till the last moment
Once a shrewd contractor found himself at the same inn with a rival who always trod close on his heels He was followed about and cross-questioned incessantly, and gave vague answers Within half-an-hour of the last moment he went into the coffee room and sat himself down in a corner where his rival could not overlook him There and then he filled up his tender, and, as he rose from the table, left behind him the paper on which he had blotted it As he left the roo paper, and, with the exulting glee of a consciously successful rival, read off the aht, as he filled up his own tender a dollar lower, and hastened to deposit it To his utter surprise, the next day he found that he had lost the contract, and coly asked his rival hoas, for he had tendered below him ”How did you know you were below ht so I left it on purpose for you, and wrote another tender in my bedroom You had better make your own calculations next time!”
-_Roads and Rails_, by W B Adams
RAILWAY LEGISLATION
A writer in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ re an Act of Parliaenerally are excessive The adherence to useless and expensive for orders, or general regulations for the observance of pro for opposition of railway cohts, supposed injurious cost the sources of excessive expenditure Mr Stephensonhow Parliament has entailed expense upon railway companies by the system complained of The Trent Valley Railas under other titles originally proposed in 1836 It was, however, thrown out by the standing orders committee, in consequence of a barn of the value of 10, which was shown upon the general plan, not having been exhibited upon an enlarged sheet In 1840, the line again went before Parliament It was opposed by the Grand Junction Railway Company, now part of the London and North-Western No less than 450 allegations wereorders subco those objections They ultiations were proved, but the committee nevertheless allowed the bill to proceed It was read a second time and then went into committee, by whom it was under consideration for sixty-three days; and ultiued before the report could be made
Such were the delays and consequent expenses which the forms of the House occasioned in this case, that itthe whole line was verypermission from Parliament to make it This example serves to show the expensive formalities, the delays, and difficulties, hich Parliaislation Another instance, quoted by the same authority, will show not only the absurdity of the syste spirit of competition and opposition hich railway bills are canvassed in Parliament, and the expensive outlay incurred by companies the went before Parlia on the wisdom of Parlia! Nineteen different parties condeation! They each and all had to pay not only the costs of prohteen other bills And yet conscious as government must have been of this fact, Parliament deliberately abandoned the only step it ever took on any occasion of subjecting railway projects to investigation by a prelienerally satisfied theame of competition for which the public are ultiislation became a mere scramble, conducted on no system or principle Schemes of sound character were allowed to be defeated on rounds, and others of very inferior character were sanctioned by public act, after enor lines were granted, soh the same district, and between the same towns”
AN EXPENSIVE PARLIAMENTARY BILL
A writer in the _Popular Encyclopaedia_ observes:-”But the most conspicuous example in recent times, which overshadowed all others, of excessive expenditure in Parliaation as well as in land and compensation, is supplied in the history of the Great Northern Company
The preliminary expenses of surveys, notices to landowners, etc, commenced in 1844, and the Bill was introduced into the House of Commons in 1845, when it was opposed by the London and North-Western, the Eastern Counties, and the Midland Railways It was further opposed successively by two other schemes, called the London and York and the Direct Northern
The contest lasted eighty-two days before the House of Co been consumed by opposition to the Bill The Bill was allowed to stand over till next year (1846), when it began, before the Committee of the House of Lords, where it left off in the Lower House in the year 1845 on account of the nitude of the case The Bill was before the Upper House between three and four weeks, and in the saranted The proht off, and all their expenses paid, including the costs of the opposition of the neighbouring lines already named, before the Great Northern bill was passed; and the 'preli the whole expenditure of every kind up to the passing of the bill was 590,355, or , incurred at the end of two years of litigation Subsequently to the passing of the Act an additional su expenses in Parliament to 31st Dece leave from Parliament to make various alterations Thus it would appear that a sues for obtaining leave to construct 245at the rate of 3,118 per mile”
THE RECTOR AND HIS PIG
”I have been a rector for yh I have never iven to me which was of a choice breed, and only just able to leave his e to the X station; from thence, twenty-three hty-two e I had a comfortable rabbit-hutch of a box es for his dinner on the road I started off with y proved to be the most formidable First, a council of as held over him at X station by the railway officials, who finally decided that this s tickets were therefore procured for him; and so we journeyed on to Y station There a second council of as held, and the officials of Y said that the officials of X (another line) s, but that he e horse-box entirely to hihty-two miles
I declined to pay for the horse-box-they refused to let -officials swarmed around me-the station master advised me to pay for the horse-box and probably the coe I scorned the probability, having no faith in the company-the train (it was a London express) was already detained ten le; and finally I whirled away bereft ofI felt sure that he would be forwarded by the next train, but as that would not reach Z till a late hour in the evening, and it was Saturday, I had to tell o to the adjacent hotel and hire a pig-stye till the Monday, and fee a porter for seeing to the pig until I could send a cart for hi was sent after e for him was less than a halfpenny a mile, I presume he was not considered to be a horse Yet this fact reical Society, if not of railway officials-that this san his railway journey as two dogs, and was then changed into a horse”
SIR MORTON PETO'S RAILWAY MISSION
Mr, afterwards Sir S Morton Peto, having undertaken the construction of certain railways in East Anglia, was at this ti a considerable part of the year in the neighbourhood of Norwich, and, with his faation It will afterwards appear how many important movements turned upon the friendshi+p which was thus formed; but it is only now to be noted that, in the course of frequent conversations, the practicability was discussed of atteht serve to interest and ie nuress They were part of that peculiar body ofcourse of years for eable canals, and then of railways, and called, from their earlier occupation, ”navvies” They were drawn from diverse parts of the British Islands, and professed, in souished chiefly by extrenorance and all but total spiritual insensibility They had, at the sa their relations to each other, their employers, and the rest of the world That they were accessible to kind attentions-clearly disinterested-followed fro reatest caution and patience Mr