394 History of Inland Transport 



which is always in excess of the supply. Goods of great 

 variety and of great value are stored here. The warehouse is 

 found especially useful in connection with the extensive goods 

 traffic carried by the Great Eastern Railway Company between 

 England and the Continent. 



Mention might also be made of the fact that the cartage 

 work done at Bishopsgate requires a stud of about noo 

 horses and 850 road vehicles, and gives employment to nearly 

 800 carmen and van-guards ; that nine weighbridges have been 

 provided ; that a large staff of railway police is always on 

 duty to regulate the traffic in or out of the station and to 

 protect property ; that the station has its own steam fire- 

 engine and fire brigade (the company likewise undertaking 

 the fire insurance of goods warehoused) ; and that the general 

 arrangements include a complete ambulance equipment for 

 the rendering of first aid in the event of accidents to the 

 workers. 1 



Apart from the provision of depots and warehouses, the 

 railway companies facilitate the operations of traders by giving 

 them certain free periods in respect to the unloading of coal, 

 potatoes, hay, straw and various other commodities from the 

 railway trucks, which serve the purposes of warehouses on 

 wheels and involve the trader in no further cost, in addition 

 to the railway rate, provided he can find a customer and 

 arrange for the unloading to be done within the free period 

 allowed to him, thus escaping the alternative charge for 

 demurrage. Other conveniences afforded by the English 

 railway companies to traders include the provision for hire 

 at cheap rates of grain sacks, meat hampers and meat cloths. 

 The Great Eastern Railway, for instance, who serve a district 

 mainly agricultural, keep on hand, for the convenience of 

 traders, from 700,000 to 750,000 sacks, 1200 meat hampers, 

 and between 4000 and 5000 meat cloths. 



Railways, as developed in England, have thus done more 

 than increase the facilities and decrease the cost of actual 

 transport. They have, in various ways, increased the facilities 

 for, and decreased the cost of the exchange of, commodities, 

 since there is many a trader in the country who conducts his 

 business much more with the help of a railway company's 



1 See an article on " Bishopsgate Goods Station," by Frank B. Day, in 

 the "Great Eastern Railway Magazine" for July, 1911. 



