TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 769 



defect of running only partly filled trains where full train-loads might and should 

 be adopted. There were, no doubt, certain descriptions of traffic more or less 

 perishable in their character that could not aiford to wait to be made up into full 

 train-loads ; but this did not apply to the great bulk of the goods traffic on English 

 railways, and especially not to mineral traffic, which forms nearly 70 per cent, of 

 the whole. It was not only that the train-loads, as such, were light, but it seldom 

 happened — at any rate in the case of ordinary merchandise — that the waggons were 

 loaded to more than one-half of their capacity ; and as the cost of working goods 

 traffic decreases in an almost direct ratio with the weight of the ' live ' or paying 

 load, the effect of adopting fuller waggon-loads would obviously be the establish- 

 ment of a much higher range of receipts in relation to the ordinary working 

 expenses. 



Specific reference was next made to the improvements that had been effected 

 within recent years in the systems and costs of transport on American railways, 

 whereby the working expenses had been enormously reduced relatively to the gross 

 earnings. The author attributed this improvement to the increase of capacity in the 

 goods waggons employed, to the running of larger train-loads, to the adoption of a 

 better permanent way, and to the use of more powerful locomotives ; and he showed 

 that, relatively to the weight of the train, the principal railways were now carry- 

 ing a much greater ' live ' or paying load than they did some years ago, while the 

 total weight of the train had in many cases been increased by nearly 100 per cent. 

 On the principal American lines the average train-load was more than twice that of 

 English railways, and in Continental countries there was also, generally speaking, 

 a considerably larger train-load than in England, where the average train mile 

 receipts were lower than in any European country, except Luxemburg, although 

 the average range of rates and fares was considerably higher. 



The special circumstances of the passenger traffic on English railways next 

 claimed consideration ; and the author dealt at some length with the relation of 

 passenger vehicles to the number of passengers carried, and to their average gross 

 earnings from year to year, showing that the tendency within recent years had 

 been to provide a larger number of carriages than was necessary, and so to diminish 

 the average annual gross income per carriage, which had fallen from 888Z. in 1874 

 to 774^. in 1885. The average receipts per passenger carriage were still higher in 

 England than in most Continental countries, but that was probably due, not so 

 much to the greater amount of work got out of English carriages, as to the higher 

 range of passenger fares. 



The same want of economy was traced in the working and the earnings of the 

 locomotives employed on English railways. Within the last twelve years there had 

 been a decrease in the annual income per locomotive of 570Z. This decrease was 

 certainly not due to any corresponding reduction of rates and fares, but could 

 easily enough be traced to the practice of running trains that were only partially 

 full. On the Continent the average earnings of a locomotive generally, took a 

 higher range than in England, the only exceptions to this rule being Germany and 

 Belgium, where, however, the traffic rates were very much lower than on English 

 lines. 



The eifect of the element of speed in railway working was nest considered, and 

 it was pointed out that, in England, both goods trains and passenger trains were 

 worked at a much higher average speed than in Continental countries. The English 

 railways were also distinguished for the larger number of express trains that were 

 run between the principal centres of population. There were no official data to 

 show how much it cost to carry on this express train traffic pei- se, but it was 

 probable that when the wear and tear of the railway stock and permanent way 

 were considered, together with the cost of shunting, and the delay occasioned to the 

 slower traffic, the express train service was not adequately remunerative, if indeed 

 it did not entail an absolute loss. 



On a survey of the whole matter, there was too much reason to believe that the 

 financial position and prospects of English railways were going from bad to worse. 

 Our railway Boards had not as yet apparently realised this great fact, and had 

 consequently done little or nothing to stem the tide of reduced dividends that 



1886. 3 D 



