Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/29

 stations there are two officials, one of whom, called the "Station-master," attends to the passenger work, and is accountable to the District Superintendent,and the other, styled the "Goods Agent," is responsible for the goods working, and is under the control of the District Goods Manager.

It will thus be seen that the chain of responsibility and of supervision is a very complete one, and, in fact, the secret of organising the management of a great service, such as this, is nothing more than a carefully arranged system of devolution combined with watchful supervision. It is not, of course, practicable for the General Manager to superintend in person the every-day actions of the porter or the signalman, but these latter act under the immediate direction of the Station-master, the Station-master is accountable to the District Superintendent, the District Superintendent to the Superintendent of the line, the Superintendent of the line to the General Manager, and the General Manager to the Chairman and Directors. If anything goes wrong, or any mishap or irregularity occurs, each of these has to bear his own share of the responsibility in turn, and thus all are kept on the alert, and each one has an interest in seeing that those subordinate to him are fit and capable in every way to discharge the duties placed upon them.

There are two "Conferences" held every month (so called to distinguish them as meetings of Officers from the meetings of the Directors, which are termed "Committees"). The first is called the "Officers' Conference," and meets monthly, the meetings being held usually, but not invariably, at Euston. It is presided over by the General Manager, and is attended by the chief