anagement whenever he travelled over their
system. And on this gratifying note we may appropriately bring our
record of Cambrian "incidents" to a close.

CHAPTER XI. THE CAMBRIAN OF TO-DAY.

"_To stretch the octave 'twixt the dream and deed_,
_Ah! that's the thrill_."--RICHARD LE GALLIENNE.

I.

And so, by devious routes and with many a halt by the way, we come to the
Cambrian of to-day. In such a chronicle as this demarcations of time
must necessarily appear more or less arbitrary, and if we include under
this heading a period which goes back to 1904, it is merely because it is
from that year the system has, with only some subsequent minor extensions
in mileage, assumed the organic form familiar to us at the present time.
For it was then that the policy of amalgamation, entered upon forty years
earlier with the consolidation of the various independent companies, was
carried forward another important stage, and it is since that date the
most significant developments, both in road and rolling stock, made
necessary by the ever-increasing demands of modern traffic conditions,
have mainly been accomplished.

[Picture: Officers of the Cambrian Railways at the date of Amalgamation,
March 25th, 1922. Left to Right: Seated--W. Finchett (Goods Manager), R.
Williamson (Accountant), G. C. McDonald (Engineer and Locomotive
Superintendent), S. Williamson (Secretary and General Manager), W. K.
Minshall (Solicitor), T. S. Goldsworthy (Storekeeper), H. Warwick
(Superintendent of the Line). Standing--E. Colclough (Works Manager), J.
Williamson (Assistant Engineer), S. G. Vowles (Assistant Secretary), J.
Burgess and T. C. Sellars (Assistants to the General Manager)]

As far back as February 1888, the question of merging the Mid-Wales
Railway came before the Cambrian directors, under the earnest pressure of
Mr. Benjamin Piercy. It was not long before even wider schemes of mutual
co-operation among the railways of the Principality were being publicly
discussed, under the aegis of what was termed the Welsh Railway Union,
for which facilities were sought, by means of a private Bill. A
deputation, introduced by Sir George Osborne Morgan (as he afterwards
became) and headed by Mr. (later Sir John) Maclure and Sir Theodore
Martin, waited on Sir Michael-Hicks Beach, at the Board of Trade. Under
this scheme all the lesser Welsh railways were to form a link for through
traffic, by way of th