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,