Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/199

 London and North-Western Railway alone, fogmen had to be provided at 2,462 signal posts; 2,375 men were employed, in addition to 1,377 relief men, making a total of 3,752 men. During the week scarcely any express train was more than half-an-hour late, and some of the trains actually ran to time.

Various plans have from time to time been suggested for dispensing with the fog-signalmen, and conveying to the drivers the requisite warning as to the state of the signals during a fog, by mechanical means, either in connection with electricity or otherwise, and it appears probable that sooner or later some efficient system of this kind will be devised, but, so far, none has been developed which has been thought to be sufficiently reliable, and the matter is still within the region of experiment.

A great deal of difficulty was formerly experienced in getting the fog-signalmen to their posts, especially if the fog came on during the night, as is frequently the case. In remote country districts the men often found it impossible to obtain dwellings near their work, and even in the vicinity of large towns the only houses available were sometimes those of a type unsuited to the means of men of the class to which they belonged. Thus the signalman, confined to his cabin, perhaps in some lonely cutting, far from any station or town, during the solitary hours of the night, would see a fog approach and blot out his signals, and, not daring to leave his post to call assistance, and knowing that the nearest fog-signalman lived a mile, or perhaps more, from the spot, he was frequently placed in a position of great anxiety and perplexity. This difficulty is being gradually met by the expedient of the Company themselves building in