Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/203

 CHAPTER XI.

In working the goods traffic on a line such as the London and North-Western, the trains are so arranged as to run with full loads between the most important points, as from London to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Scotland, and so on; but the traffic at the intermediate stations is collected by a service of local stopping trains, and conveyed to the large junctions, such as Rugby, Crewe, and Stafford, where the waggons are properly classified and marshalled for transit by the through trains. This operation of marshalling and classifying the goods and mineral traffic into district and station order, as will be readily believed, is one of immense magnitude and difficulty, and the work at the terminal stations, and at the important junctions, is extremely complicated, and carried out at a great cost. It is obvious that, unless the trains were properly marshalled for their various destinations, and the waggons arranged in station order, it is not enough to say that the traffic could only be carried on with the most serious interruption and delay; but it would, in fact, be impracticable to carry it on at all, now that it has attained its present dimensions. As it is, any neglect or omission on the part of the men employed in this duty results in great confusion and difficulty at the junctions and