RAILWAYS 



6469 



RAILWAYS 



the expenditure 87,320,000, the 

 net receipts being thus 52,131,000. 



THE RAILWAYS ACT, 1921. Dur- 

 ing the war, and after it until Aug. 

 15, 1921, the great bulk of the 

 British rlys. were under Govern- 

 ment control. During this period 

 the gross revenue increased, be- 

 cause the traffic was very heavy 

 and large successive increases were 

 made in the passenger fares and 

 goods rates ; but the working ex- 

 penses increased in a still greater 

 ratio, chiefly owing to the payment 

 of higher wages to the employees, 

 and the institution of an eight-hours 

 day. The consequence was that in 

 1920, while the gross revenue was 

 barely double what it was in 1913, 

 the expenditure had increased more 

 than threefold, and, according to 

 the figures prepared by the Rail- 

 way Accountants Committee 

 (which are not in the same form 

 as those of the board of trade re- 

 turns), the total net receipts of the 

 controlled companies from all 

 sources had fallen from 45 '6 mil- 

 lions in 1913 to 8-9 millions in 

 1919, and to less than 6 millions 

 in 1920. The pre-war revenue suf- 

 ficed to pay an average of about 

 4 per cent, on the whole capital in- 

 vested ; that of 1920 was less than 

 half the amount required to meet 

 the fixed interest on the debenture 

 and rent charge stocks. 



In these circumstances the prob- 

 lem had to be faced of restoring, if 

 possible, the financial stability of 

 the rlys., and of putting them again 

 on a dividend-earning basis ; and it 

 was largely for this purpose that 

 the ministry of transport was 

 formed by an Act passed on Aug. 

 15, 1919. One result of its efforts 

 was the Railways Act, which be- 

 came law in Aug., 1921. Broadly 

 speaking, this measure was based 

 on two main principles : (1) Reduc- 

 tion of expenditure by economy in 

 management and administration, 

 and by the elimination of the losses 

 attributed to wasteful competition 

 between the different rly. com- 

 panies ; and (2) increase of revenue 

 through higher charges, to the ex- 

 tent necessary to bring the rlys. to 

 the position of self-supporting 

 commercial undertakings. 

 British Railway Groups 



In pursuance of the first of these 

 principles the Act provided for the 

 reorganization of the railways in 

 Great Britain by amalgamating 

 them into four large groups. (1) 

 Southern group (London and South- 

 western, London, Brighton and 

 South Coast, and South -Eastern 

 and Chatham) ; (2) Western group 

 (Great Western and the railway 

 companies in South Wales) ; (3) 

 North-Western, Midland and West 

 Scottish group (London and North- 



Western, Midland, Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire, North Staffordshire, 

 Furness, Caledonian, Glasgow and 

 South-Western, and Highland) ; 

 and (4) North-Eastern, Eastern and 

 East Scottish group (North-Eastern, 

 Great Central, Great Eastern, 

 Great Northern, Hull and Barns- 

 ley, North British and Great North 

 of Scotland). In 1923 the group 

 system was finally settled, and the 

 official titles chosen were : South- 

 ern ; Great Western ; London, 

 Midland and Scottish ; London and 

 North-Eastern. The Great Western 

 retaineditsname. ($eeMap,p.2914). 



In addition to the constituent 

 companies named, each group was 

 to include a number of smaller 

 subsidiary companies. Roughly, 

 the grouping was designed on a 

 territorial basis, but no group had 

 an area entirely to itself. The 

 Southern and Western groups, for 

 example, actually intertwined hi 

 Devonshire, the North-Western 

 group penetrated the Western 

 group in South Wales, and 

 touched the Eastern group at 

 points like Cambridge, Lincoln, 

 and Doncaster ; the Eastern group 

 threw out tentacles to the North- 

 Western at Carlisle , and in Scot- 

 land the North-Western group cut 

 across the Eastern group to 

 Aberdeen, and the Eastern across 

 the North-Western to Mallaig on 

 the West Coast. 



Fixing of Bates 



For the purposes of these amal- 

 gamations the Act set up a special 

 Amalgamation Tribunal, and it 

 provided that the schemes should 

 be framed to come into operation 

 on July 1, 1923. The under- 

 ground rly. companies in London 

 were not mentioned in the Act, and 

 may be regarded as forming a group 

 by themselves. A few small lines 

 in other parts of the country were 

 also omitted from the scheme. 



As regards the charges to be 

 made for the conveyance of traffic, 

 the Act provided for the estab- 

 lishment of a Rates Tribunal, 

 the permanent members of which 

 were appointed in Nov., 1921, 

 which should fix them in such a 

 way that the companies would 

 secure an annual revenue equiva- 

 lent to their annual net revenue 

 in 1913. 



TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAYS. 

 Long transcontinental lines have 

 had an incalculable effect, politic- 

 ally and commercially, in consoli- 

 dating the countries through 

 which they run, opening vast areas 

 to settlement and trade, and 

 quickening transit from sea to sea. 

 The first transcontinental rly. 

 rqute hi North America was com- 

 pleted in 1869 by the junction of 

 the Union Pacific and the Central 



Pacific from Omaha to San Fran- 

 cisco, and before the end of the 

 19th century four others had been 

 added. 



In Canada the Canadian Paci- 

 fic (1885) was the first transcon- 

 tinental line, stretching under one 

 ownership from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific. In S. America the 

 last section of a rly. from Buenos 

 Aires to the Chilean coast was 

 finished in 1910. The Trans- 

 Siberian Rly., giving through rly. 

 communication from European 

 Russia across Asia to the Pacific, 

 was completed in 1902, except 

 for a short section at Lake Baikal, 

 which was constructed in 1904. 



THE PERMANENT WAY. It is 

 essential that the sleepers on 

 which the rails are carried, shall 

 be firmly supported by material 

 which will keep them in position, 

 be easily packed under them when 

 necessary, give good drainage, and 

 distribute the pressure over a large 

 surface. The " ballast " used for 

 this purpose consists of broken 

 stone, broken slag, gravel, and 

 sometimes cinders. It is distri- 

 buted evenly over the road bed to a 

 depth of about 12 ins., and levelled 

 to grade. When the sleepers are 

 in position on top, more ballast is 

 added till it is level with their 

 upper surface, and they are well 

 " tamped " by driving the material 

 beneath them. The total width of 

 ballast, including slopes of about 

 45 at the sides, is about 25 ft. for 

 a double track. 



Types of Sleepers 



Transverse sleepers are now used 

 almost universally. The materials 

 employed are wood, cast iron, 

 steel, and, to a limited extent, 

 reinforced concrete. Wood sleepers 

 for standard gauge (4 ft. 8 ins.) 

 heavy-traffic tracks in Great Bri- 

 tain are 9 ft. long, 10 ins. wide, and 

 5 ins. thick. At crossings they are 

 longer, to give room for more than 

 two rails ; and at each side of rail 

 joints a couple of inches wider. 

 They are spaced about 30 ins. 

 apart, centre to centre. The life of 

 good sleepers is greatly prolonged 

 by impregnating them with hot 

 creosote or some other preserva- 

 tive, forced into the pores under a 

 pressure of 100 Ib. to the sq. in. 



Metal sleepers are much used in 

 Germany and India. In the latter 

 country and Argentina several 

 thousand miles of rails are sup- 

 ported on large iron " bowls," each 

 pair of bowls being connected by a 

 transverse tie rod to keep the 

 gauge correct. 



There are two main types of 

 rails : (1) the " bull-headed," 

 carried hi cast-iron chairs bolted to 

 the sleepers; and (2) the fiat-bot- 

 tomed or flange, secured directly 



