290 History of Inland Transport 



The process of amalgamation has been carried even further 

 than these figures suggest, some of the companies absorbed 

 into the great systems having themselves previously amal- 

 gamated a number of still smaller companies. The North - 

 Eastern, for example, came into existence in 1854, through a 

 combination of three companies the York, Newcastle and 

 Berwick, the Leeds Northern, and the York and North 

 Midland which three companies then represented between 

 them what had originally been fifteen separate undertakings. 

 Since 1854 the North-Eastern Company have purchased or 

 amalgamated thirty-eight other companies, one of which, the 

 Stockton and Darlington (absorbed in 1863), was already 

 an amalgamation of eleven companies. 1 



That the conveniences of travel and the advantages to 

 traders have been greatly enhanced by the substitution of 

 these few great companies for a large number of small ones 

 is beyond question, and actual experience has shown that the 

 fears of grave evils resulting from prospective abuses of the 

 railway " monopoly " brought about by amalgamations such 

 as these have been mainly imaginary, notwithstanding the 

 fact that they have formed the basis of so much of the policy 

 of the State in its dealings with the railways. 



There are still various small and even diminutive companies 

 which have escaped the fate of being swallowed up by their 

 big neighbours. One of the smallest engaged in a general 

 traffic as distinct from dock or mineral lines is the Easing- 

 wold railway, Yorkshire, which connects with the North-Eas- 



1 When giving evidence before the Departmental Committee on Rail- 

 way Agreements and Amalgamations, on June 21, 1910, Mr A. Beasley, 

 general manager of the Taff Vale Railway Company, called attention to 

 the fact that in " Bradshaw's Railway Manual" for 1909 there was pub- 

 lished a special index of all the railways of which notices had appeared in 

 that publication during sixty years (practically covering the whole position), 

 the total of such railways, including light railways, being 1129. Of this 

 number 86 were recorded as having been abandoned, closed or wound up, 

 leaving a balance of 1043. In " Bradshaw's Railway Guide " for March, 

 1910, only no railways including light railways, railways operated by 

 joint committees, as well as railways in the Isle of Man, the Isle of 

 Wight, and Jersey were given as being in actual operation. "That 

 shows," continued Mr Beasley, " that there must have been 933 railways, 

 all separately authorised, most of them separately constructed, and many 

 of them, for a time, separately worked, which have been purchased, 

 amalgamated, leased or otherwise absorbed or taken over by other 

 undertakings." 



