Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/184

 {|
 * Passenger trains||20,001,285||miles
 * Goods and mineral trains||19,141,030|||&bdquo;
 * Total|||39,142,315|||&bdquo;
 * }
 * Total|||39,142,315|||&bdquo;
 * }
 * }

but this was exclusive of empty mileage and of shunting, and, as a matter of fact, the total engine miles run during the year amounted to 55,525,334. In other words, the engines of this one company ran a mile and three-quarters every second, or 104 miles every minute, and in effect they put a girdle round the earth once in every four hours throughout the year, yet such is the perfection of mechanism attained in the present.day, that the engines were able to run a distance equal to twice round the world for every single case which occurred of a hot axle, the loss of a split pin or cotter, or anything tending to throw an engine out of gear.

During the year above mentioned, the number of passengers carried on the North-Western Railway was 56,830,2 16, and the number of tons of goods and minerals conveyed was 35,922,619. The revenue derived from all sources, except from rents, was £4,25 1,329 from passenger traffic, and £6,198, 583 from goods and mineral traffic, giving a total of £10,449,912.

The accompanying illustration (Plate XXVI.) is a specimen on a reduced scale, of the diagrams which are prepared for each section of the line, showing how the engine working is arranged, the time and speed of running, and the intersection of the trains at places where goods and slow passenger trains have to shunt into sidings for the fast express trains to pass them. It will be perceived that the perpendicular lines divide the day of twenty-four hours into periods of hours, half hours, quarters of hours, and of five minutes; the