Page:Engines and men- the history of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. A survey of organisation of railways and railway locomotive men (IA enginesmenhistor00rayniala).pdf/175

 ceremony. The two flower-covered coffins lay side by side in the Church, and at the close of the service, which was very largely attended, the South Western Railway Band played the "Dead March."

Then came, when the express, King's Cross to Scotland, did not pull up in the station, but passed through at high speed. But no harm need have come of that if the main line had been kept open. Instead of that, the express was turned on to the Nottingham branch line, which has a sharp curve and return curve, over which no train can pass safely at a speed greater than fifteen to twenty miles an hour. It was this which made disaster inevitable at Grantham. The fireman on the wrecked train was "a gentleman apprentice," which generally means that the driver is responsible for everything. Already a speed of seventy miles an hour had been reduced to forty miles by the first application of the vacuum brake, and the opening of the large ejector would have stopped the train soon, but the branch loop killed all hopes, and a dozen lives were lost in the destruction. Thus, although Grantham confirmed Salisbury as to speed on curves, the direct cause at Grantham certainly was the setting of the points for the branch. Driver Fleetwood knew the road well, and on the previous night had duly stopped the same train at Grantham.

The year 1906 was important to railwaymen for other and more permanent reasons. The "all-grades" movement put a sting into much of Mr. Bell's contact with the A.S.L.E. & F., but if the hostility and very paltry actions of the period were designed to rout the Associated, or even to check its prosperity, the designs were tremendously astray, for the membership funds continued to grow apace. Railwaymen were organising and breathing new life. They talked firmly about the eight hours day, and the ten hours maximum for all railwaymen. Their programmes all demanded better wages, less overtime, and less Sunday work. They wanted recognition by the companies, which would not meet either Society to discuss their programmes. They regarded their employees