Report of the Railway Department of the Board of Trade on the London, Worcester, and Wolverhampton, | Page 4

better for public interests that the wide gauge should come
up to Birmingham and Rugby, or that the narrow gauge should go
down to Bristol and Oxford?
It would be difficult to overrate the importance of this question in a
national and commercial point of view. If there is one point more fully
established than another in the practice of Railways, it is that the
inconvenience occasioned by a break upon a line of through-traffic,
occasioned by want of uniformity of gauge, is of such a serious
description as to detract most materially from the advantages of
Railway communication.
The following description of what has actually occurred at Gloucester
during the last few months, furnished to us by a gentleman who has
been practically engaged in the management of the traffic, will give

some idea of the working of the system:--
"We experience the greatest possible inconvenience from the change,
both as regards passengers and goods; coals we have not attempted to
tranship.
"In the first place as regards passengers and passenger trains:
"The passengers and their luggage have to be hurried across from one
train to the other, when there is a chance of the luggage being
misplaced. Gentlemen's carriages and horses have to be changed, a
process uniting time and risk. Valuable parcels have to be handed out
in the confusion, and handed in.
"The result is a delay, with the Mail-trains, for instance, of half an hour
sometimes, just sufficient if the coming-in train is after time, to miss
the Manchester or other train from Birmingham, or the Exeter or Bath
train from Bristol; annoyance to the passengers, who are anxious about
their parcels and luggage; risk, and expense, as a large body of porters
have to be maintained, who are not fully employed, in order that no
more time than is necessary should be lost in the change of trains.
"With regard to goods, the inconvenience attending the change is far
more serious.
"Up to this day a great number of waggons laden with goods of all
descriptions have been lying at Gloucester, which we have been unable
to remove in spite of every exertion. We keep an establishment of
clerks and porters to superintend and effect the transhipment, but, in the
hurry of business, mistakes occur; goods destined for Hull are perhaps
put into the Manchester truck; boxes are bruised, packing torn,
furniture and brittle articles damaged. There is the chance of mistake in
the re-invoicing of goods; the other day, for instance, a bale for Bristol
was laid hold of by a carrier at Gloucester and taken to Brecon, a claim
for some 30l. being instantly made upon us.
"In short, all the inconvenience, delay, and expense attending an
unloading and reloading of goods have to be encountered, and there is

nothing the senders of goods so much dread as this. The expense
involved is very considerable: there is the expense of porterage, which
varies from 3d. to 6d. per ton: the expense of clerks employed in
inspecting and invoicing the goods, the expense of shunting the
waggons, the waste of premises, the additional carrying stock it obliges
the Companies on each gauge to maintain, and, above all, the loss of
trade which is sure to result from the delay and risk attending the
change, and the advantage which uninterrupted communications,
whether by Water or Railway, are sure to have over you in competition.
"Much of this expense and delay, it may be said, can be obviated by
better arrangements and more care; by ample station accommodation,
by abundant carrying stock. No doubt some of it may be prevented, but
this is only another name for expense. The care, too, which is required
must not be confined to the Railways immediately affected, but must
commence on a Railway a long way off. The goods from Leeds for
Bristol, for instance, must be duly placed together at Leeds, packed in
such a manner as will enable you at Gloucester to get at them in the
best manner. They must be forwarded from Leeds, and again from
Birmingham, in such quantities as will be convenient at Gloucester.
The arrangements, in short, by which our interests at Gloucester will be
best consulted, will have to be made by another Company, often not
interested in the matter, and whose convenience may suggest another
course. You cannot, therefore, look forward to remedying many of the
difficulties attending on change of gauge, which are of this nature."
To the above summary of the practical inconveniences mentioned, we
have only to add, that the numerous representations addressed to us by
the principal carrying and commercial interests which have been
concerned in the traffic affected by the change of gauge at Gloucester,
have fully borne out the statement of the evils experienced, more
especially