Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/173

 railway is still conducted by means of waggons owned by the traders. Of course, where the railway company find the waggons, they make a fair charge for their use, which charge varies from 6d. to 1s. per ton according to distance and other circumstances.

It must be confessed that the Midland Company's new departure was not without some justification in the fact that private owners' waggons are, always have been, and probably always will be, a fruitful source of trouble and anxiety. A railway company, in building its stock, has too much at stake to risk sacrificing efficiency to economy, and the vehicles are constructed with the utmost solidity and perfection of workmanship, without regard to cost; but the same considerations do not apply with equal force to private traders, and the companies are obliged to exercise the most stringent precautions, both in the matter of imposing a certain standard of construction and maintenance, and in keeping up a watchful system of examination, in order to guard against unsuitable waggons being run in their trains. The breaking down of a waggon may endanger the safety of a whole train, and cause the loss of valuable lives and property, and a very complete and elaborate system is adopted, with a view to guarantee that every private waggon shall be properly built and maintained. The system is as follows:—

A "Standard Specification," accompanied by drawings and dimensions, is drawn up, and private owners are required to build their waggons strictly in accordance with it, down to the minutest details, working drawings and descriptions of the waggons being first submitted for the approval of the Company's waggon superintendent before the work is 'commenced. When the