PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 697 



cent. Reckoned on the ordinary stock alone, however, the increase would be 

 about three times this amount. 



It may be of interest at this stage to compare the financial position and the 

 cost of the working of railways in their earlier days with the state of things now. 

 For this purpose tho position of the old London and Birmingham Railway is 

 compared with the position of the London and North Western Railway, the 

 system into which it has grown. The years selected are 1840 and 1908. 



I have taken out the cost per mile of working the traffic of the London and 

 Birmingham Railway from some accounts given in Winshaw's 'Railways.' The 

 details are grouped somewhat differently in the list just given, but in the main 

 the various items may be compared. 



The number of train-miles on the London and Birmingham Railway recorded 

 for the year January to December, 1839, is 714,998. The accounts given are for 

 the year June 1839 to June 1840. The mileage record is thus not strictly com- 

 parable with the expense account, but it may be regarded as covering the same 

 period with sufficient accuracy for our purpose. 



The costs work cut as follows : — 



Table II. 



Cost per Train-mile for the Year ending June 1840, London and 

 Birmingham Railway. 



Pence per mile. 



Locomotive power 23'2 



Maintenance of way 27"2 



Traffic expenses, including repairs to waggons . . . 25'9 



General charges, including legal charges 4'5 



Rates and taxes 4'5 



Government duty 7"65 



Accident account 0'35 



Total .... 93-30 



The receipts amounted to 23ld. per train-mile. Hence the working expenditure 

 was 40 per cent, of the gross receipts. 



The gross receipts for the year ending June 30, 1840, were 687,104?., which, 

 after deducting charges for loans, rents, and depreciation of locomotives, car- 

 riages, and waggons, enabled a dividend of 94. per cent, to be paid on the ordinary 

 stock. 



There are two noteworthy facts in these old accounts. First, the allowance 

 for depreciation on the rolling-stock of nearly 4 per cent, of the receipts. 

 Secondly, the fact that the cost of working the traffic is given per ton-mile. This 

 method of estimating the cost of working has gradually fallen into desuetude on 

 British railways. One company only at the present time records ton-mile statis- 

 tics. Quite recently (in 1909) the committee appointed by the Board of Trade to 

 make inquiries with reference to the form and scope of the accounts and statistical 

 retnrns rendered by the railway companies under the Railway Regulation Acts 

 have had the question of ton-mile and passenger-mile statistics under considera- 

 tion. There was considerable difference of opinion concerning the matter, and 

 in the end the committee did not recommend that the return of ton-mile and 

 passenger-mile statistics should be made compulsory on the railway companies. 



Returning to the London and Birmingham Railway accounts, the actual figures 

 given by Mr. Bury, the locomotive engineer, were, for the year ending December 

 1839 :— 



Passenger Trains. — Ton-miles, 21,159,796, giving an average of 542,533 ton- 

 miles per engine at 0'86 lb. of coke per ton-mile costing 17d. 



Goods Trains. — 17,527,439 ton-miles, giving an average of 584,247 per engine 

 at 057 lb. of coke per ton-mile costing O'lld. per ton-mile. 



Table III. shows various amounts and quantities in comparison with one 

 another. Beneath the actual figures are placed proportional figures, the London 

 and Birmingham item being in every case denoted by unity. 



