Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/158

 the carriage department employs 2,234 workmen at Wolverton, besides 489 at other workshops which have been established at Euston and Crewe, and 731 men engaged at out stations in executing small repairs, and in cleaning, lamping, and examining the carriages. In the old days, when a journey of moderate length occupied a much longer time than it does now, the Wolverton passenger station was a very important place, having extensive refreshment and dining rooms, but the traveller of to-day is only on the threshold of his journey from London to the North when his train dashes through Wolverton without even deigning to stop there.

With the consent of our readers we will now pay a visit to the Wolverton Works, and endeavour to gain some insight into the method in which the rolling-stock of a great railway is built up and maintained. The smaller companies, of course, do not build their own carriages, but obtain them from one or other of the firms of railway carriage manufacturers in the country.

Entering at the main gateway, facing the old London and Birmingham Railway, and, for the moment, passing by the extensive ranges of shops devoted to various purposes, which meet the eye, we first visit (by way of beginning at the beginning) the timber stores, containing at all times a two years' supply of the raw materials of which the carriages are constructed. Here we find the spoils of the West Indian and American forests in the shape of huge logs of mahogany, baywood, pine, and Quebec oak, the East Indies being represented by teak, largely used in the framing and fittings of the carriages, while English oak and ash are not wanting. Overhead is a high-speed travelling