Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/250

212 in which the company he represents is in any way interested.

In cases where traffic, in being conveyed from its starting point to its destination, has to be carried over the railways of two or more companies, the receipts are divided between the companies concerned in proportion to the mileage travelled over each railway. In the case of merchandise traffic, before this division is made, a certain fixed sum is allowed (according to the class of traffic) to the forwarding and receiving companies respectively, for terminal expenses; that is to say, for the use of the stations, and for the services of loading and unloading and clerkship. A simple illustration will perhaps best serve to show the working of this arrangement.

We will suppose that a ton of goods has to be forwarded a distance of loo miles, and in completing its journey has to travel 60 miles over one railway (A) and 40 miles over another (B). We will assume that the freight amounts to 23s. and that the terminal allowance at each end is 4s.:

Company A will receive—

Company B will receive— The question of division of traffic brings us to the consideration of one of the most important features of the railway system, which is known as the Railway Clearing-house. In the early days, when railways