Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/91

 system altogether, with regard to signalling the railway, the organisation of which was entrusted to Mr. F. W. Webb, Mem. Inst. C.E., the Company's chief mechanical engineer. Up to this time, all signal work upon the railway had been provided and kept in repair under contract by the different firms of railway signal manufacturers, but chiefly by Messrs. Saxby & Farmer, of which firm Mr. John Saxby, before referred to as having been the inventor of the first effective system of interlocking, was an active partner. The Company now determined in future to make and keep in repair their own signals and interlocking apparatus, so as to secure, not only efficiency and economy, but uniformity of pattern throughout the line. The scheme was brought to bear, and proved to be a success. The Company had already ample facilities in the locomotive works at Crewe for turning out all kinds of iron work; carpenters' and fitters' shops for making the cabins, signals, and other woodwork were added, a superintendent and a staff of artisans appointed, and the thing was done, the payment of royalties to inventors being soon dispensed with by the Company's engineers designing and patenting new systems of their own.

The signal-fitting shop at Crewe is 280 feet long, and 85 feet wide, the machine tools being driven by a fine Otto gas engine of 48 indicated horse-power. There is, of course, plenty of steam power available in the works, but the signal shop is often busy at a time when the other machinery is not working, and the gas engine is, for this reason, found to be a convenient and economical arrangement. One side of the shop is devoted to the preparation of the signal-posts, which are received from the saw-mill cut to the proper dimensions, and ready