Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/99

 CHAPTER VI.

might not inaptly be termed "the hand-maid of steam," for it plays an important part in almost every operation connected with railway working. By its means the trains are started from the stations and conducted safely from point to point throughout their journey; the signalmen who regulate their passage are placed in an unbroken chain of communication one with the other; the nature of the train and its destination, and the fact of its punctual running, or otherwise, are flashed ahead from signal cabin to signal cabin as it speeds on its journey; while the faithful telegraph warns the signalman if his signals are not acting freely or if his lamps are not burning brightly. By telegraph the marshalling of goods waggons, the loading of trains, and the movements of empty waggons are intelligently controlled, and the whole business of the railway is carried on with a promptitude and despatch that could not otherwise be attained. In short, the uses of telegraphy as applied to railways are so numerous, and so diversified, that it would be a formidable task even to catalogue them, and one still more formidable to attempt their description in detail.

In the earlier days of railways, and before electricity had been brought to bear upon their working, the only