Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland

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Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland

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Scotland and Ireland, by Joseph Tatlow
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Title: Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland
Author: Joseph Tatlow

Release Date: December 13, 2005 [eBook #17299]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY YEARS OF RAILWAY LIFE IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND***

This eBook was prepared by Les Bowler.

FIFTY YEARS OF RAILWAY LIFE IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND
by Joseph Tatlow
Director Midland Great Western Railway or Ireland and Dublin and Kingstown Railway; a Member of Dominions Royal Commission, 1912-1917; late Manager Midland Great Western Railway, etc.
Published in 1920 by The Railway Gazette, Queens Anne's Chambers, Westminster, London, S.W.1.
[The Author: tatlow.jpg]

CONTENTS.
I. Introductory II. Boyhood III. The Midland Railway and "King Hudson" IV. Fashions and Manners, Victorian Days V. Early Office Life VI. Friendship VII. Railway Progress VIII. Scotland, Glasgow Life, and the Caledonian Line IX. General Railway Acts of Parliament X. A General Manager and his Office XI. The Railway Jubilee, and Glasgow and South-Western Officers and Clerks XII. TOM XIII. Men I met and Friends I made XIV. Terminals, Rates and Fares, and other Matters XV. Further Railway Legislation XVI. Belfast and the County Down Railway XVII. Belfast and the County Down (continued) XVIII. Railway Rates and Charges, the Block, the Brake, and Light Railways XIX. Golf, the Diamond King, and a Steam-boat Service XX. The Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland XXI. Ballinasloe Fair, Galway, and Sir George Findlay XXII. A Railway Contest, the Parcel Post, and the Board of Trade XXIII. "The Railway News," the International Railway Congress, and a Trip to Spain and Portugal XXIV. Tom Robertson, more about Light Railways, and the Inland Transit of Cattle XXV. Railway Amalgamation and Constantinople XXVI. A Congress at Paris, the Progress of Irish Lines, Egypt and the Nile XXVII. King Edward, a Change of Chairmen, and more Railway Legislation XXVIII. Vice-Regal Commission on Irish Railways, 1906-1910, and the Future of Railways XXIX. The General Managers' Conference, Gooday's Dinner, and Divers Matters XXX. From Manager to Director XXXI. The Dominions' Royal Commission, the Railways of the Dominions, and Empire Development XXXII. Conclusion

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
The Author George Hudson, the "Railway King" Sir James Allport W. J. Wainwright Edward John Cotton Walter Bailey Sir Ralph Cusack, D. L. William Dargan The Dargan Saloon Sir George Findlay Sir Theodore Martin The Gresham Salver
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY
North-West Donegal. A fine afternoon in September. The mountain ranges were bathed in sunshine and the scarred and seamy face of stern old Errigal seemed almost to smile. A gentle breeze stirred the air and the surface of the lakes lay shimmering in the soft autumnal light. The blue sky, flecked with white cloudlets, the purple of the heather, the dark hues of the bogs, the varied greens of bracken, ferns and grass, the gold of ripening grain, and the grey of the mountain boulders, together formed a harmony of colour which charmed the eye and soothed the mind.
I had been travelling most of the day by railway through this delightful country, not by an express that rushed you through the scenery with breathless haste, but by an easy-going mixed train which called at every station. Sometimes its speed reached twenty-five miles an hour, but never more, and because of numerous curves and gradients--for it was a narrow gauge and more or less a surface line--the rate of progress was much less during the greater part of the journey.
The work of the day was over. My companion and I had dined at the Gweedore Hotel, where we were staying for the night. With the setting sun the breeze had died away. Perfect stillness and a silence deep, profound and all-pervading reigned. I had been talking, as an old pensioner will talk, of byegone times, of my experiences in a long railway career, and my companion, himself a rising railway man, seemed greatly interested. As we sauntered along, the conversation now and again lapsing into a companionable silence, he suddenly said: "Why don't you write your reminiscences? They would be very interesting, not only to us younger railway men, but to men of your own time too." Until that moment I had never seriously thought of putting my reminiscences on record, but my friend's words fell on favourable ground, and now, less than a month since that night in Donegal, I am sitting at my desk penning these opening lines.
That my undertaking will not be an easy one I know. My memory