Let us turn now, for a brief space, to Edwin Gurwood. He is seated
before a desk in one of the rooms of that large building in Seymour
Street, Euston Square, London, where a perfect army of clerks--about a
thousand--clear up many of the mysteries, and overcome a number of the
difficulties, incident to the railway traffic of the kingdom.
At the particular time we write of, Edwin was frowning very hard at a
business-book and thinking of Emma Lee. The cause of his frown, no
doubt, was owing to the conflict between duty and inclination that
happened to rage in his bosom just then. His time belonged to the
railways of the United Kingdom; to Emma belonged his heart. The latter
was absent without leave, and the mind, thus basely forsaken, became
distracted, and refused to make good use of time.
That day Edwin met with a coincidence, he made what he believed to be a
discovery, and almost at the same moment received an inquiry as to the
subject of that discovery. While endeavouring, without much success, to
fix his attention on a case of lost-luggage which it was his duty to
investigate, and frowning as we have said, at the business-book, his eye
was suddenly arrested by the name of "Durby."
"Durby!" he muttered. "Surely that name is familiar? Durby! why, yes--
that's the name of Tipps's old nurse."
Reading on, he found that the name of Durby was connected with a diamond
ring.
"Well, now, that _is_ strange!" he muttered to himself. "At the first
glance I thought that this must be the brown paper parcel that I made
inquiry about at the station of the Grand National Trunk Railway long
ago, but the diamond ring puts that out of the question. No nurse, in
her senses, would travel with a diamond ring tied up in a brown paper
parcel the size of her head."
We may remind the reader here that, when the brown paper parcel was
found and carried to the lost-luggage office of one of our western
railways, a note of its valuable contents was sent to the Clearing-House
in London. This was recorded in a book. As all inquiries after lost
property, wheresoever made throughout the kingdom, are also forwarded to
the Clearing-House, it follows that the notes of losses and notes of
inquiries meet, and thus the lost and the losers are brought together
and re-united with a facility that would be impracticable without such a
central agency. In the case of our diamond ring, however, no proper
inquiry had been made, consequently there was only the loss recorded on
the books of the Clearing-House.
While Edwin was pondering this matter, a note was put into his hands by
a junior clerk. It contained an inquiry after a diamond ring which had
been wrapped up in a large brown paper parcel, with the name Durby
written on it in pencil, and was lost many months before between
Clatterby and London. The note further set forth, that the ring was the
property of Mrs Tipps of Eden Villa, and enclosed from that lady a
minute description of the ring. It was signed James Noble, M.D.
"Wonderful!" exclaimed Edwin. "The most singular coincidence I ever
experienced."
Having thus delivered himself, he took the necessary steps to have the
ring sent to London, and obtained leave (being an intimate friend of the
Tipps family) to run down by train and deliver it.
While he is away on this errand, we will take the opportunity of
mounting his stool and jotting down a few particulars about the
Clearing-House, which are worth knowing, for that establishment is not
only an invaluable means of effecting such happy re-unions of the lost
and the losers, as we have referred to, but is, in many other ways, one
of the most important institutions in the kingdom.
The Railway Clearing-House is so named, we presume, because it clears up
railway accounts that would, but for its intervention, become
inextricably confused, and because it enables all the different lines in
the country to interchange facilities for through-booking traffic, and
clears up their respective accounts in reference to the same.
Something of the use and value of the Clearing-House may be shown at a
glance, by explaining that, before the great schemes of amalgamation
which have now been carried out, each railway company booked passengers
and goods only as far as its own rails went, and at this point fresh
tickets had to be taken out and carriages changed, with all the
disagreeable accompaniments and delays of shifting luggage, etcetera.
Before through-booking was introduced, a traveller between London and
Inverness was compelled to renew his ticket and change luggage four
times; between Darlington and Cardiff six times. In some journeys no
fewer than nine or ten changes were necessary! This, as traffic
increased, of course became intolerable, and it is quite certain that
the present extent of passenger and goods traffic could never have been
attained if the old system had continued. It was felt to be absolutely
necessary that not only passengers, but carriages and goods, must be
passed over as many lines as possible, at straight "through" to their
destinations, with no needless delays, and without "breaking bulk." But
how was this to be accomplished? There were difficulties in the way of
through-booking which do not appear at first sight. When, for instance,
a traveller goes from London to Edinburgh by the East Coast route, he
passes over three different railways of unequal length, or mileage. The
Great Northern furnishes his ticket, and gives him station accommodation
besides providing his carriage, while the North-Eastern and North
British permit him to run over their lines; and the latter also
furnishes station accommodation, and collects his ticket. To ascertain
precisely how much of that traveller's fare is due to each company
involves a careful and nice calculation. Besides this, the _whole_ fare
is paid to the Great Northern, and it would be unjust to expect that
that company should be saddled with the trouble of making the
calculation, and the expense of remitting its share to each of the other
companies. So, too, with goods--one company furnishing the waggon and
tarpaulin, besides undertaking the trouble of loading and furnishing
station-accommodation and the use of its line, while, it may be, several
other companies give the use of their lines only, and that to a variable
extent. In addition to all this, the company providing its carriages or
waggons is entitled to "demurrage" for every day beyond a certain time
that these are detained by the companies to which they do not belong.
Now, if all this be unavoidable even in the case of a single fare, or a
small parcel, it must be self-evident that in lines where the
interchange of through-traffic is great and constant, it would have been
all but impossible for the railway companies to manage their business,
and the system would have given rise to endless disputes.
In order to settle accounts of this description, it was soon seen to be
absolutely necessary that some sort of arrangement must be come to, and,
accordingly, the idea of a central office was conceived, and a system
established without delay, which, for minute detail and comprehensive
grasp, is unrivalled by any other institution. At first only a few of
the railway companies united in establishing the Clearing-House in 1842,
but by degrees, as its immense value became known, other companies
joined, and it now embraces all the leading companies in the kingdom.
It is said to be not inferior to the War Office, Colonial Office, and
Admiralty in regard to the amount of work it gets through in a year!
Its accounts amount to some twelve millions sterling, yet they always
must, and do, balance to a fraction of a farthing. There must never be
a surplus, and never a deficiency, in its funds, for it can make no
profits, being simply a thoroughly honest and disinterested and
perfectly correct go-between, which adjusts the mutual obligations of
railways in a quick and economical manner. Its accounts are balanced
every month, and every pound, shilling, and penny can be accounted for.
It annually receives and dispenses a revenue greater than that of many
European kingdoms. In 1847 its gross receipts were only 793,701 pounds.
In 1868 they had risen to above eleven millions.
Each line connected with the Clearing-House has a representative on the
committee to look after its interests, and bears its proportion of the
expenses of the establishment.
Before showing the manner in which the work is performed for the railway
companies, it may be well to premise that one great good which the
Clearing-House system does to the public, is to enable them to travel
everywhere with as much facility as if there were only one railway and
one company in the kingdom.
To avoid going too much into detail, we may say, briefly, that in regard
to goods, statements of through-traffic _despatched_ are sent daily from
thousands of stations to the Clearing-House, also separate statements of
through-traffic _received_. These are compared. Of those that are
found to agree, each company is debited or credited, as the case may be,
with the proportion due to or by it. Where discrepancies occur,
correspondence ensues until the thing is cleared up, and then the
distribution to the accounts of the several companies takes place. As
discrepancies are numerous and constant, correspondence is necessarily
great. So minutely correct and particular are they at the
Clearing-House, that a shilling is sometimes divided between four
companies. Even a penny is deemed worthy of being debited to one
company and credited to another!
As it is with goods, so is it with passengers. Through-tickets are sent
from all the stations to the Clearing-House, where they are examined and
compared with the returns of the tickets issued, and then sent back to
their respective companies. As these tickets amount to many thousands a
day, some idea may be formed of the amount of labour bestowed on the
examination of them. The proportions of each ticket due to each company
are then credited, and statements of the same made out and forwarded to
the several companies daily. From the two sets of returns forwarded to
the Clearing-House, statements of the debit and credit balances are made
out weekly.
Parcels are treated much in the same way as the goods.
"Mileage" is a branch of the service which requires a separate staff of
men. There are hundreds of thousands of waggons, loaded and empty,
constantly running to and fro, day and night, on various lines, to which
they do not belong. Each individual waggon must be traced and accounted
for to the Clearing-House, from its start to its arrival and back again;
and not only waggons, but even the individual tarpaulins that cover them
are watched and noted in this way, in order that the various companies
over whose lines they pass may get their due, and that the companies
owning them may get their demurrage if they be improperly detained on
the way. For this purpose, at every point where separate railways join,
there are stationed men in the pay of the Clearing-House, whose duty it
is to take the numbers of all passenger carriages and goods, waggons and
tarpaulins, and make a _daily_ statement of the same to the
Clearing-House.
As daily returns of all "foreign" carriages arriving and departing from
all Clearing-House stations are forwarded to the same office, they are
thus in a position to check the traffic, detect discrepancies, and
finally make the proper entries as to mileage and demurrage in the
accounts of the respective companies. Frequently the charge of
one-tenth of a penny per mile for a tarpaulin is divided among several
companies in various proportions. For a waggon or carriage from
Edinburgh to London, mileage and demurrage accounts are sent out by the
Clearing-House to four companies. Formerly, before demurrage was
introduced, carriages were frequently detained on lines to which they
did not belong, for weeks, and even months, until sometimes they were
lost sight of altogether!
Once a month the balances are struck, and the various railways, instead
of having to pay enormous sums to each other, obtain settlement by means
of comparatively small balances.
For example, the London and North-Western railway sends its through
passengers over the Caledonian line. The mileage charged for its
"foreign" carriages is three farthings per mile. Small though that sum
is, it amounts at the end of a month perhaps to 5000 pounds. This
little bill is sent to the Clearing-House by the Caledonian against the
London and North-Western. But during the same period the latter company
has been running up a somewhat similar bill against the former company.
Both accounts are sent in to the Clearing-House. They amount together
to perhaps some fifteen or twenty thousand pounds, yet when one is set
off against the other a ten or twenty pound note may be all that is
required to change hands in order to balance the accounts.
The total mileage of lines under the jurisdiction of the Clearing-House,
and over which it exercises complete surveillance on every train that
passes up or down night or day, as far as regulating the various
interests of the companies is concerned, amounts to more than 14,000.
The _Times_, at the conclusion of a very interesting article on this
subject, says,--"Our whole railway system would be as nothing without
the Clearing-House, which affords another illustration of the great
truth that the British railway public is the best served railway public
in the world, and, on the whole, the least grateful." We hope and
incline to believe that in the latter remark, the great Thunderer is
wrong, and that it is only a small, narrow-minded, and ignorant section
of the public which is ungrateful.
Disputed claims between railways are referred to the arbitration of the
committee of the Clearing-House, from whose decision there is no appeal.
The trouble taken in connexion with the lost-luggage department is very
great; written communications being sent to almost innumerable stations
on various lines of rails for every inquiry that is made to the House
after lost-luggage.
It is a striking commentary at once on the vast extent of traffic in the
kingdom, and the great value in one important direction of this
establishment, the fact that, in one year, the number of articles
accounted for to the Clearing-House by stations as left by passengers,
either on the platforms or in carriages, amounted to 156,769 trunks,
bags and parcels, and of these nearly ninety-five in every hundred were
restored, through the Clearing-House, to their owners. It is probable
that the property thus restored would amount to half a million of money.
This reminds us that we left Edwin Gurwood on his way to restore Mrs
Tipps her lost ring, and that, therefore, it is our duty to resume the
thread of our story, with, of course, a humble apology to the patient
reader for having again given way to our irresistible tendency to
digress!