Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/201

 Besides the cottages for fog-signalmen, the Company provide houses for their station-masters, foremen, signalmen, engine-drivers, brakesmen, and others, who cannot easily obtain suitable dwellings near the stations to which they are attached, the houses owned by the Company and occupied by their servants, being in all nearly 4,000 in number.

It is only during the passage of the Royal train to convey Her Majesty and suite to and from Scotland twice a year, that the ordinary arrangements for working the line are suspended. The exceptional nature of the regulations then adopted may be considered as affording the nearest approach to perfection in railway travelling that has yet been arrived at. The train is lighted with gas, and fitted throughout with the Westinghouse and vacuum brakes, with an electrical communication between the compartments of each saloon and carriage, and the guards, and with a communication between the front guard and the driver. A pilot engine is run fifteen minutes in advance of the train throughout the entire journey, and in order to guard against any obstruction or interference with the safe passage of the train, no engine, except the pilot, or any train or vehicle, is allowed to proceed upon or cross the main line during an interval of at least thirty minutes before the time at which the Royal train is appointed to pass. All shunting operations on the adjoining lines are suspended during the same period, while, after the Royal train has passed, no engine or train is permitted to leave a station or siding upon the same line for at least fifteen minutes. In addition to these regulations, no engines or trains, except passenger trains, are allowed to travel between any two stations on the opposite line