RAILWAY CLEARING-HOUSE.
It is a curious fact that human ignorance, and especially good honest
homespun English ignorance, often produces important and highly
beneficial results. “_If I had but known what I have had to contend
with I would never have undertaken the job_,” is a remark which many
a poor emigrant, many a weary traveller, many a journeyman labourer
in every department of life, has fervently muttered to himself. The
ejaculation is particularly applicable to the original projectors of
our railways, who, had they but known the hydra-headed difficulties
which, one after another, they would have to encounter, would most
surely have kept their money in their pockets, or, in the phraseology
of the vulgar, “would never have undertaken the job.”
Besides the difficulty of raising money, which during the railway
mania certainly amounted to _nil_, there were parliamentary
difficulties, engineering difficulties, difficulties of management
of various descriptions; and yet, when all these were overcome,
when each railway, with its beautiful system of committee-men,
secretaries, engineers, surveyors, station-masters, engine-drivers,
stokers, pokers, guards, police, superintendents, artificers,
labourers, &c., was fully organised and completed, and every line
competent along the whole or any portion of its length to convey with
safety and due attention every description of traffic, there suddenly
appeared a new difficulty, which not only most seriously embarrassed,
but which threatened almost to prevent, the combined action of the
vertebral railways which at such trouble and cost had just been
created. The difficulty alluded to was what is now commonly called
“the _through_ traffic.”
Even before the railway system came into full operation, it was soon
found, that to conciliate, or rather to satisfy the just claims
of the passenger public, it would be necessary not to harass warm
“through” travellers by forcing them to migrate to cold carriages
as often as, asleep or awake, dozing or dreaming, they reached each
terminus of the various railway companies who, in enmity rather than
in partnership, were the proprietors of the consecutive portions of
the thoroughfare line.
Again, it was soon found that our merchants and manufacturers
as justly insisted rather than requested that their goods and
merchandise should go “_through_” to their destinations without being
subjected to the delay and serious injury which were unavoidable in
repeatedly unpacking and repacking them into fresh waggons. Lastly,
it was found that, for cattle and horses, changes of carriages were
equally objectionable. The will of the people becoming, therefore, in
these instances, the law of the rails, passengers, parcels, goods,
horses, and cattle, were, generally speaking, carried “_through_”
without change of carriage.
But though the traveller, the receiver of the parcel, of the
package, of the horse, dog, bullock, sheep, or pig, after paying
for the fare, of course cared not the hundred-thousandth part of a
farthing what was done with the money, yet it will be self-evident
that he left behind him sources of endless vexation and almost
unpreventible disputes; for not only was the paltry fare he had paid
for his own conveyance, or that which he might have paid for the
conveyance of a lean pig, to be divided among the proprietors of
two, three, four, five, six, or seven different companies, but of
these companies all excepting one would have not only to remunerate
by a mileage allowance the company in whose carriage or waggon, for
the benefit of all parties, the traveller, or his parcel, or his
goods, or his cow, calf, horse, dog, sheep, or sow, had been carried
“through,” but an extra charge for demurrage was evidently due to
the said company for every day that its carriage or waggon had been
detained by the companies to whom it did not belong. The railway
companies between London and York first saw the absolute necessity
of their endeavouring by some arrangement to settle accounts of
this description, which daily and hourly were growing up between
them; but inasmuch as each company, from feelings of jealous
independence, kept their books in a different form, dissensions
arose, angry correspondence followed, until the settlement of
their joint accounts was impeded by the most vexatious delays. The
virulence of the disorder, however, was the means of its cure. Mr.
Morison, the present very able manager and sole organiser of the
new system, conceived the formation of a central office, and the
idea was no sooner suggested to Mr. Glyn, the chairman of the London
and North-Western Railway, than, seeing at a glance its practical
bearing, he gave it the whole weight of his well-earned influence,
and was mainly instrumental in the establishment of the astonishing
system of minute detail which we will now endeavour very briefly to
describe.
The Railway Clearing-House, which adjoins the right-hand side of the
entrance-gate from Seymour Street to the Euston Station, is under the
control of a committee composed of the chairmen of all the railway
companies who are parties to the clearing arrangements; the expense
of maintaining the establishment being divided rateably among the
companies in proportion to the extent of business transacted by it
for each.
On opening a street door, which a brass plate beamingly announces to
be that of the “Railway Clearing-House,” the stranger sees before him
a long passage, on both sides of which are hanging, as if for sale, a
variety of very decent-looking hats, cloaks, and coats, which he has
no sooner passed than he finds himself in a spacious hall or office
78 feet long, 20 wide, and 26 feet high, in which, at one glance, he
sees seated or standing before him, at 13 parallel desks, upwards
of a hundred well-dressed clerks, each silently occupied either in
writing or in apparently carefully investigating that which others
have written. The stillness of the scene, to which the public have no
admittance, is very remarkable; and before we enter on the subject
of the avocation of those before us, we cannot help observing that,
to any one who has lately had an opportunity of seeing the number
of half-starved men in Paris who, with interminable mustachios and
noble bushy beards, are, with depressed heads, intently engaged in a
variety of occupations, down to that of--say--painting a tiny brooch
to ornament the bosom of a lady’s gown--it is amusing to contrast
a body of such fierce-looking warriors “_à demi-solde_” with the
plain, clean, close-shorn men of business, who throughout the United
Kingdom are, week after week, month after month, and year after year,
unassumingly labouring in behalf of that which republicans only talk
of instead of attain--a commonwealth.
The business of the Railway Clearing-House is transacted by one
manager and 110 clerks. The system comprehends 47 railway companies:
in short, it extends to all railways north of the Thames--from
Bristol, London, and Harwich, to Aberdeen; and it contains no less
than 648 clearing-house stations, by the correspondence of which with
the London clearing-office the accounts of the “through” traffic of
all the companies is adjudged and settled.
The aforesaid business is divided into four departments:--
First, and most important, the goods and live-stock traffic.
Second, the coaching traffic.
Third, the mileage of carriages and waggons, as also the mileage of
tarpaulins for covering waggons.
Fourth, lost luggage.
GOODS.--From each of the 684 Railway Clearing-House Stations which
we have enumerated, there is forwarded to the London office a “daily
abstract of goods” (printed in black ink), containing the invoice,
the amount carted, the sums paid or the sums to pay, the undercharge,
the overcharge, and the description of the traffic “_forwarded_”
each day from each station to each of the other stations enumerated
in the return. Of these goods the gross total is composed of a
number of articles, each of which, from the station from which it is
forwarded, is charged according to the established rate agreed on by
the companies for “through” goods. Some of these weights are only
14 lbs., in which case they, as well as every package below 56 lbs.
(termed “a small”), are charged at a higher rate.
2. From each railway clearing station there is forwarded _daily_ to
the London office a return similar to the above (but for distinction
printed in red ink), of the description, weight, &c. &c., of goods
_received_ at each station, and thus from two opposite points a
detailed return of the amount of goods conveyed between them is
declared.
3. As soon as these two returns (black and red) are received at the
London office, they are carefully examined, to ascertain if the
articles returned in each are correct--that is, if the declaration of
the goods _despatched_ corresponds with the return of the same goods
from the point at which they should have been received. About 30 per
cent., however, of the number of items in these returns do _not_
correspond, the difference being sometimes a few pounds, sometimes a
few pence. Ten clerks are constantly occupied in checking these two
sets of returns.
4. As fast as these errors are detected, a “_statement of omissions
and inaccuracies_” (in one month 7000 of these statements have been
transmitted) are sent from the London office to both parties for
explanation, and, when returned by each with “remarks,” the errors
are corrected according to their replies.
5. From the above accounts a division of the receipts of the goods
traffic is made monthly; and as there are 4500 of these settlements
(each on an average wanting 2½ copies), about 11,000 copies per month
are required. These abstracts are for the following object:--All
“_through_” goods arriving in London are by agreement charged with
certain terminal expenses for carterage and porterage, which are
about double those charged in the country. This monthly settlement,
therefore, shows to every company concerned what each is entitled by
mileage to receive from one or more companies,--what actually has
been received by each,--and consequently the balance due from the one
to the other. Hull alone, from its numerous connexions with other
stations, receives on an average 200 of these monthly abstracts.
Twenty-four clerks are constantly occupied in preparing them.
6. The next operation is, by a consideration of all these balances,
to determine what the clearing-house, as the representative of all
the creditor companies, is entitled to receive from the debtor
companies. The final result of all these operations is exemplified by
a monthly return forwarded by the office to each of the forty-seven
companies, showing separately to each, for each of its stations, the
weights, the mileage proportions, the terminal expenses, and, lastly,
the balances, whether due to it or by it, on the traffic from each
of its stations to all other clearing-house stations to which goods
had been sent, or from which received. The number of entries in these
monthly summaries averages 11,186.
The above closes the account of the goods traffic. Any omission or
errors in these accounts are corrected in those of the subsequent
month, the balances being, in the first instance, always paid as
declared by the London railway clearing-house.
When the balances are finally struck, a letter is addressed from the
office to each company, advising it of the amount due to or by it on
the traffic of the month; and, unless these balances are paid by each
company within twenty-one days, interest at 6 per cent. is charged,
and credited to the companies to whom the clearing-house is nominally
indebted.
For the convenience of the companies a weekly notice is sent by the
London office to each, informing each of the amounts of the receipts
of the _through_ goods traffic to which it is respectively entitled.
This single operation, which enables the companies to publish their
weekly receipts, employs nine clerks.
PASSENGERS.--All tickets collected at all the clearing-house stations
from _through_ passengers are transmitted daily to the London
clearing-house, from whence, after being examined and compared
with the returns of the tickets issued, they are sent back to
the respective companies. From Euston, as well as from all other
stations, passenger tickets for every station are each numbered
separately from 1 to 10,000, and are issued consecutively, not only
for each station, but for each _class_ of passengers. In examining
these collected tickets, which on an average amount to 9000 per
day,--in comparing them with the consecutive numbers as entered
in the daily Returns received from the various stations,--and
in checking the consecutive numbers themselves, five clerks are
employed. The railway clearing-office thus receives--
1. Return from Euston booking-office, as also from all clearing-house
passenger stations, stating the number of passengers of each class
booked for all clearing stations, the portions of fares paid by each
passenger and due to “foreign” companies.
2. From this account the London clearing-house prepares and forwards
daily to each company a return, showing the portion of the fares
received at Euston due to each respectively. The above returns are
despatched on the evening of the second day.
3. The London clearing-house receives daily from every clearing
station a similar return.
4. From these two sets of returns the debtor and creditor account
of each company is made up, and kept separate in a book, from which
a statement of balances is prepared and forwarded weekly to each
company, showing the amount received on its account by the other
companies, as also on account of the other companies by it, the
balances due to it or by it, and the weekly balance due to or by the
clearing-house on behalf of the companies. We may here observe that
by the foregoing arrangements, without which the _through_ passenger
traffic could not possibly be practically carried out, 2,700,000
persons are annually saved the inconvenience of changing their
carriage during their journey.
5. The same minute process is pursued with horses, carriages, and
dogs, the tickets for which are numbered consecutively, and checked
as for passengers. In this duty thirteen clerks are employed.
PARCELS.--The daily returns of the number of parcels despatched and
received are checked, and the balance of receipts divided, precisely
as the goods, with this addition, that a “waybill” is sent by each
train with the parcels for each station, showing the number of
the parcel, the weight, address, and charge; similar bills being
also sent from the receiving station to the clearing-house, thus
constituting an additional check. For small parcels carried by the
passenger-trains from London to Edinburgh the gross charge of 4_s._
is divided among four companies; small charges are often divided
among seven companies; and in some cases a charge of 6_d._ is divided
among two companies. In this duty eight clerks are employed.
At the end of the London Clearing-House three clerks are employed
for the live-stock traffic, principally composed of lean stock going
to be fattened, of fat cattle, pigs, sheep, and calves going to
market. The rates for live stock, like those for goods, are agreed on
by all the joint companies, and the returns are sent weekly to the
clearing-house. The gross receipts, after deducting a small sum, per
waggon, for terminal expenses, are divided, by mileage, among the
companies (frequently six in number) concerned.
We have now to endeavour to explain a new branch of the department,
termed “_Mileage Branch_.”
In 1848 no less than 443,604 loaded waggons were by various companies
(averaging three in number) sent “_through_” besides 267,228 sent
back empty. The course of each of these waggons the clearing-house
had to trace, in order to ascertain the exact time each was detained
on each railway.
The number of miles for which the companies received, through
the London clearing-house, payment from each other, amounted to
45,580,384.
The manner in which these extraordinary results are effected is as
follows:--
At every junction of railways there are stationed men in the
pay of the London Clearing-House, to take the number of all
passenger-carriages and goods-waggons, as also of all tarpaulins
or sheets covering waggons. These men make to the clearing-office
_daily_ a detailed statement of the same.
Returns are also sent _daily_ from all the clearing-house stations
on all the lines of railway, by the servants of the respective
companies, of all foreign carriages arriving and departing from each
of the said stations. From these returns the London Clearing-House is
enabled to trace the course of all waggons and passenger-carriages
travelling on what are termed “foreign” lines, and to debit and
credit every company with the sums it has respectively incurred for
mileage, as also what is due from and to the respective companies for
demurrage per day of waggons or of passenger-carriages.
These accounts are transmitted to each company monthly.
Sheets covering waggons are in like manner all checked at the
junctions by the men placed there by the London Clearing-House, as
also by returns forwarded to the office from the various stations at
which the waggon stops to be loaded or unloaded; and thus the charge
of one-tenth of a penny per mile for the use of each of these tarred
coverings is divided according to its proper proportion among the
respective companies over whose lines it has travelled! For a waggon
or carriage from Edinburgh to London, mileage and also demurrage
accounts are sent to four companies, and from Arbroath to London to
seven companies.
Fourteen clerks are required to keep the mileage and demurrage
accounts of carriages and waggons, and eight clerks to keep those of
the tarpaulins or sheets,
THE ACCOUNTANT.--Lastly, in the corner of the London office, in
a small elevated compartment, about four feet square, sits “the
Accountant,” who keeps--
1. An account for each separate company (forty-seven in number),
showing briefly the sums at their debits and credits, and the balance
due to or by each.
2. An interest ledger, showing the amount of interest accruing on
balances in arrear, which interest is received by the clearing-house
from the Dr. company, and paid to the Cr. company.
3. By the Act of Parliament, every railway company is bound to pay to
Government a duty on all sums received by it from passengers, whether
on its own account or for other companies. The consequence of this
is, that one company is continually obliged to pay duty for another,
thus creating a debtor and creditor account for duties, which account
the Clearing-House also settles monthly.
LOST LUGGAGE.--The Clearing-House, from its connexion with almost
every railway in the kingdom, undertakes the duty of corresponding
with all the clearing-house stations from which it receives _daily_
returns respecting any unclaimed luggage left on the rails.
At the entrance of the Clearing-Office, in the corner, there is a
small post-office of compartments for the letters and returns daily
transmitted by the manager to each company.
The office usually receives and despatches 4500 communications per
day, employing five lads to open, endorse, and arrange them.
The office is open daily from 9 A.M. till 5 P.M.
* * * * *
With a deep sigh we can truly say that we have now concluded a sketch
of the Railway Clearing-House, which, as it gave us one headache to
investigate, and another to endeavour to explain, will probably be
equally afflicting to our readers.
In justice, however, to the system, we must confess that it is
impossible to convey in writing an adequate conception of the
infinity of details with which it has to grapple.
The number of items which in the course of a year, by the London
office, are examined, traced through many returns, checked, and
transferred from one account to another, exceeds rather than falls
short of (50,000,000) fifty millions!
It must be obvious to any person conversant with the working of
railways, that, without a centralised system of this description, so
constituted as to command the confidence of the railway companies,
the railway system generally would not only soon become clogged, but
constant squabbles and disagreements between the various companies
would ensue, to the detriment of their interests, as well as to the
discomfort and inconvenience of the public.
The true object, therefore, of the London Railway Clearing-House is
to enable the railway companies of the United Kingdom who are parties
thereto, to work that enormous traffic, in which they have a common
interest, with as much security to themselves, and with as little
inconvenience to the public, as if all the associated companies were
ONE; and it is evident that in no way could this important object
have been effected, except by the establishment of an office which,
based on principles of complete centralisation, should be--as the
London Clearing-House really is--independent of each company, but
under the common control of ALL.