Tui: HiiAi ii-1s.n1':li, oi' Hritnii I 



\AII.WA\ 



279 



square luol. A wagon rct|iiirLS a standing spacj 01 

 ubuut 20D square feet, and, thus, £800 worth of land 

 to accommodate it. Detention of a goods wagon is 

 accounted for in loading, unloading, shunting, mar- 

 shalling, repairing, and waiting. Is it to be wondered 

 at that there are 14,353 miles of sidings in the United 

 Kingdom (as compared with 23.117 miles of open line) 

 costing ahout £2 727,000 per annum for maintenance? 



In London alone the rateable value of the railway 

 property, mostly' goods yards, is £2^57,514, and the 

 capital v.ilue at thirty years' purchase is £70,000,000. 

 At 7s. ^(1. in the { the rate; p.mount to about £.Soo,ooo 

 ;'.nnuall\'. 



There arc seventy-four goods stations in London' 

 joined by 500 milei of line, and interchanging goods 

 by 700 trains per day running between them, whilst 

 only about 300 arrive from the country. In a Board 

 of Trade Blue-book of 1909 we find the following 

 figure", as to railway capital and dividends : — 

 lielween 1880 and 1906 gross 



earnings increased by ... 79 per cent. 

 Working e.xpenscs increased by 1 16' 6 per cent. 

 ]n 1908 over £97,000,000 ordi- 

 nary stock paid no dividend. 

 In 1908 over £1,000,000,000 

 ordinary stock paid less 

 than 



Only about £3,000,000 ordinary 

 :torkpaid more than 6 per cent. 



I'Vom 1904 to 1908 the stock pay- 

 ing N') dividend grew by £18,000,000. 



Let us now look at the effect of 

 this hopelessly unpractical freight 

 system of the railways upon the 

 countr)- at large. It is disastrous 

 and is the direct cause of much 

 of the a;,'ri<ultur.il depression. The 

 fertile soil of Ivigland can produce 

 foodstuffs, bit l!io;e who produci- 

 them cannot market them. And 

 this not only because of the cost 

 of carriage, lv.it because of the 

 delay and didiculty in getting them 

 on the train and oflf the wagons 

 when they finally a-rivc at their 

 de.stinition. Nor must we forget 

 that should the goods not be salt • 

 able they are returned, but only 

 after so long a delay a": to be worse 

 than useless if they happen to be 

 perishable articles. And so to-day 



per cent. 



tlii; country only produces 25 per cent, of the f.) jd it 

 consurnes, the remainder, tj the tune of £200,000,000, 

 coining from abroad. The railways of this country as 

 at pre.sent constituted cannot hope to come to th? aid 

 of the agriculturist or the small manufacturer. Even 

 willi the present high rates of carriag;, we have seen 

 how small are the dividends. 



The dimensions of the business have entirely out- 

 grown such organisation as it possesses, and a \'ery 

 simple job is frequently done five time; over, fojr of 

 which times are obviously unnecessary. If we e.\aniine 

 a railway goods station, we find that there is notliing 

 about it which, from an engineering point of view, can 

 be called design. It is usually a wilderness of sidings, 

 sometimes nearly a mile in length, and perhaps a 

 quarter of a mile broad or more. It is furnished with a 

 loosely congregated juml.le of sheds, which are dotted 

 over it higglcdy-piggled\' from one end to the other. 

 It has absolutely no design, and it is too unwieldy and 

 scattered to admit of the rapid inter-communication 

 of parts which is essential to a building intended for 

 a place of exchange. 



W'h'le the average speed of a goods train may be 

 taken at twenty miles an hour, the actual time s[;ent 

 in covering distances from point to point is so small 

 a portion of the period which must elapse before the 

 agriculturists' goods reach their destination as to be 



( /',•//.. 1/. 



Chaos where Order should R.iiii: How produce v. unloaded from goods 

 wagons on arrival at terminus. 



