Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/143

 upwards of 7,000 persons employed in connection with the locomotive department at Crewe. Although the steam sheds referred to form no part of the Crewe works properly so-called, they yet contribute in no slight degree to the establishment of Crewe as the most important locomotive centre of the London and North-Western Railway. About 140 engines are kept in steam at this station daily, for the stabling of which suitable sheds have been provided, covering an area of nearly 2½ acres, and including a washing shed and soap factory. Here the waste and sponge cloths used for cleaning engines all over the London and North-Western system, are washed and dried, and afterwards returned to the stations from which they have been received; the oil and grease collected from them in the process of cleansing being converted into soap, to be used in the various steam sheds.

The Company manufacture and supply gas, not only to their own works, but to the whole town of Crewe, and they also supply water to the works and to the town, the supply being derived from the red sandstone at Whitmore, about twelve miles distant, on the Crewe and Stafford Railway. The water is pumped from a large well into reservoirs, and descends to Crewe by gravitation.

Crewe, which previous to the establishment of the locomotive works was inhabited only by a few farmers and cottagers, has now developed into a flourishing town of thirty thousand inhabitants, composed almost entirely of the Company's workmen and their families, and the tradesmen who supply their wants. In 1877 the town applied for and obtained a charter of incorporation, and Mr. F. W. Webb, the chief superintendent of