Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/193

 illustration of its ability to do so, occurs to the writer in connection with what happened some years ago, at the commencement of the civil war in America. It was at the time when the British Foreign Secretary had sent a despatch, in the nature of an ultimatum, to the Federal Government, with respect to the case of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, the Confederate Envoys, who had been forcibly taken out of a British ship by a Federal cruiser. There was no Atlantic cable in those days, and although all England was on the tip-toe of expectation to know the terms of the reply which would govern the issue of peace or war between two great nations, there was no quicker means of communication than by steamer to Queenstown, thence by rail to Dublin, then again by steamer to Holyhead, and by rail again to London. During this anxious period from the 2nd to the 9th of January, 1862, an engine was kept constantly in steam at Holyhead, and when at length the long expected despatch arrived, it was brought from Holyhead to Euston, a distance of 264 miles, in five hours, or at an average speed of 53 miles an hour throughout, including one stoppage at Stafford for the purpose of changing engines. It may be added that although at that time the Company had not adopted the block telegraph system, and the working was carried on by the ordinary telegraph signals from station to station, the entire journey was performed without the slightest stoppage or interruption of any kind.

For the working of single lines of railway, most companies adopt what is known as the "Train Staff and Ticket System," which is carried out in the following manner:—Supposing the line, or the section of line, extends from A to B, and there are three trains at A