gencies that are in constant
operation on railways day and night, to ensure the safety of the
passengers to their journey's end. The road is under a system of
continuous inspection. The railway is watched by foremen, with "gangs"
of men under them, in lengths varying from twelve to five miles,
according to circumstances. Their continuous duty is to see that the
rails and chairs are sound, their fastenings complete, and the line clear
of all obstructions.

Then, at all the junctions, sidings, and crossings, pointsmen are
stationed, with definite instructions as to the duties to be performed by
them. At these places, signals are provided, worked from the station
platforms, or from special signal boxes, for the purpose of protecting
the stopping or passing trains. When the first railways were opened, the
signals were of a very simple kind. The station men gave them with their
arms stretched out in different positions; then flags of different
colours were used; next fixed signals, with arms or discs of rectangular
or triangular shape. These were followed by a complete system of
semaphore signals, near and distant, protecting all junctions, sidings,
and crossings.

When Government inspectors were first appointed by the Board of Trade to
examine and report upon the working of railways, they were alarmed by the
number of trains following each other at some stations, in what then
seemed to be a very rapid succession. A passage from a Report written in
1840 by Sir Frederick Smith, as to the traffic at "Taylor's Junction," on
the York and North Midland Railway, contrasts curiously with the railway
life and activity of the present day:--"Here," wrote the alarmed
Inspector, "the passenger trains from York as well as Leeds and Selby,
meet four times a day. No less than 23 passenger-trains stop at or pass
this station in the 21 hours--an amount of traffic requiring not only the
utmost perfect arrangements on the part of the management, but the utmost
vigilance and energy in the servants of the Company employed at this
place."

Contrast this with the state of things now. On the Metropolitan Line,
667 trains pass a given point in one direction or the other during the
eighteen hours of the working day, or an average of 36 trains an hour.
At the Cannon Street Station of the South-Eastern Railway, 627 trains
pass in and out daily, many of them crossing each other's tracks under
the protection of the station-signals. Forty-fi