onding strengthening of the
fastenings, sleepers, etc., and to expedite the running of non-stop
trains, mainly during the pressure of the tourist season, special
appliances have been erected at wayside stations for the exchange of the
"tablet," by means of which the working of a single-line railway is
controlled, additional passing places have been constructed, station
platforms in several cases considerably lengthened, and one or two new
stations opened, bringing the total on the system up to 100.

During the war when Park Hall, Oswestry, was converted first into a vast
training camp and later, in part, into a German Prisoners of War camp, a
large amount of military transport work fell to the Cambrian, a network
of sidings being constructed through the area occupied, and about a
quarter of a million of troops were carried over the system to and fro,
an additional strain on the human and mechanical resources of the Company
which, however, was most efficiently sustained.

Nor does this entirely exhaust the efforts of the Company to serve the
district through which its railways pass, to increase the comfort and
convenience of the travelling public and to augment and proclaim the
amenities of the resorts to which it carries us. To this end, two
enterprises, though not directly under the control of the Cambrian, but
with which they are linked by close co-operative ties, have materially
contributed in recent years. Though Mr. Savin's ambitious schemes for
erecting hotels to house the tourists whom the trains might bring ended
in financial disaster, the idea was an excellent one; and, when revived,
some years ago on a more limited scale and under more propitious
conditions, it successfully matured in the formation of the Aberystwyth
Queen's Hotel Company, of which a prominent Cambrian director, Mr. Alfred
Herbert, is chairman, and some other members of the Board, as well as the
General Manager, Mr. S. Williamson, are directors, with the Assistant
Secretary of the Cambrian, Mr. S. G. Vowles, serving as Secretary. Not
the least advantage of this sort of quasi-partnership is the facility
which it has enabled the Cambrian to offer to the public in the shape of
combined rail and hotel tickets from the principal inland stations on the
system, entitling the visitor to travel to and fro and enjoy the
excellent week-end hospitality of the Queen's for an inclusive moderate
charge.

It may be truly said, however, that no such allur