Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/179

 CHAPTER X.

immense and continuous development of railway traffic during the last fifty years has taxed to the very utmost the ability and inventive faculties alike of those engaged in its management, and of constructive and mechanical engineers, in order to keep pace with it, and to enable it to be carried on with regularity and despatch, and with a minimum of delays and mishaps. In the foregoing chapters, some account has been given of the numerous mechanical and other contrivances which have been almost universally adopted by railway companies for this purpose; and the following pages will serve to afford an insight into the various administrative arrangements which alone enable the traffic of the chief lines in the country to be carried on. That traffic consists of varying elements. There are express and mail passenger trains, running at a speed of forty-five miles an hour, and, in some cases, more than that; others at a somewhat less speed, but still known as fast trains; stopping trains, calling at every station, and running at a rate of from twenty to twenty-five miles an hour; local suburban trains, running for short distances at a fairly high rate of speed, chiefly for residential purposes; express goods trains between the larger towns, attaining a speed of from twenty to twenty-five miles an