648 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



The engine hour is taken as the unit of cost so far as'the conduct of transporta- 

 tion is concerned. This unit varies, however, in actual cost, and this points to 

 the necessity of organising locomotive cost statistics in a form to record fluctua- 

 tions in actual costs per engine hour, and generally to organise cost statistics in 

 various departments so as to co-ordinate with ' operating ' cost statistics, as at 

 present worked out. This branch of the question is still in an experimental state. 



Theoretically, the question of railway statistics is complicated by the fact that 

 there is no single unit of product — ^the ton-mile and the passenger-mile cannot be 

 combined. The costs of passenger and freight working can theoretically be 

 worked out separately, bat it is not yet certain if this will have practical value. 



Certain costs, however, can be taken separately for the two branches, and, in 

 particular, train costs. As regards passenger working, little iise has been made of 

 this, but this is due — 



(1) To the impossibility of ascertaining the product in terms of passenger 

 miles, owing to the wide use of contract tickets. 



(2) To the control exercised over the working by non-economic causes, the 

 necessities of public service, &c. * 



(3) To the more speculative character of the business. 



• 



In the case of freight working, however, the fact that freight train costs can be 

 taken out separately enables us, as described, to work out the foundation of a 

 fairly complete system of statistical analysis. This has been found to be of 

 great practical value, and to point the way to fresh improvements. 



2. Some Principles of Freight- traffic Working, 

 By W. T. Stephenson, B.A. 



The growing demands of ' Labour,' the increased cost of coal and materials, 

 and the increase in rates and taxes, which occurred during the last decade so 

 increased the cost of conducting transportation as to seriously lower railway 

 profits. In con.sequence, great efforts have had to be made to work traffic in a 

 more economical manner. The investigations into the cost of conducting certain 

 operations have brought to the front some principles of freight-traffic working 

 which, when applied, have proved very effective in reducing the cost of operating 

 the traffic. 



The first principle is to work the traffic in large train-loads. By increasing 

 the train-load the number of trains on the line is proportionately decreased. 

 This tends to prevent detention on the road by making it easier to obtain clear 

 times for the train. Again, exactly the same staff is required to work a 

 through train, whether it has a small or a large number of wagons on it. On 

 the other hand, it is quite true that the powerful locomotive capable of working 

 a large load costs more to build and consumes more coal, oil, and water per mile 

 run than the smaller engine. However, neither the constructional cost nor the 

 working cost increases proportionately to the increase in capacity. 



Growth, however, in gross train-load is only a very small move forward. 

 The growth in net or r»venue-earning train-load is what matters most. The use 

 of powerful engines can do no more than increase this in proportion to the 

 increased capacity of the engines. Improved loading of the wagons is quite as 

 important a matter as increased gross train-load. By increasing the load of a 

 wagon we reduce the ratio of dead-weight to revenue-earning weight. Wheji 

 it is borne in mind that the dead-weight hauled is on the average more than 

 double the paying load, the importance of loading the traffic into a smaller 

 number of wagons becomes very clear. Improved wagon loading also has the 

 advantage of reducing the number of wagons required to deal with the traffic 

 and so reducing the capital it is necessary to invest in wagon stock. 



With goods traffic the means adopted to improve wagon load are 'inter- 

 cepting' and 'organised transhipping.' The former has as its objective the 

 .'taring of haulage of light-loaded wagons by combining thp loads of two or 



