Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/284

 Glasgow in 8¾ hours, but even this rate is sometimes exceeded, and during the tourist season of 1888 the journey to Edinburgh was accomplished in less than 8 hours, the distance being 401 miles, giving a speed throughout of 50 miles an hour, including all stoppages.

The 8.50 p.m. train from London to Scotland, well-known for many years as the "Limited Mail," and which formerly ran to Aberdeen in 14 hours and 50 minutes, conveying, under contract with the Post Office, a limited number of passengers as well as mails, has been superseded in its functions as the principal mail train from London to Scotland, and since the 1st July, 1885, a special train, conveying no passengers, but only the mails and postal parcels, has left Euston at 8.30 p.m., and reaches Aberdeen at 9.55 a.m., thus performing the journey (540 miles) in only 13 hours and 25 minutes, and travelling at the rate of about 40 miles an hour, throughout, including all stoppages. Between London and Carlisle, this train travels at an average speed of 46 miles an hour.

These exceptionally high rates of speed add to the cost of working in more ways than one; in fact they have a tendency to increase almost every item of expenditure. In the first place, there is a greater wear and tear of the engines and vehicles, and more frequent repairs and replacements become necessary. Secondly, the engines must be worked at much higher pressure, and be of greater capacity, and the increased consumption of fuel, as has already been shown (see page 104), is a very serious item. Then again, to permit of heavy trains being run at such high rates of speed the permanent way must be proportionately strengthened, and becomes more expensive to provide and maintain