of the London and North-Western Railway; to Mr. Harry Footner, the Assistant Engineer; to Mr. A. M. Thompson, the Signalling Superintendent; Mr. J. W. Fletcher, the Telegraph Superintendent, and to the other Chief Officers and Heads of Departments of that Company for the able assistance they have rendered to me in the preparation of the work, and I must further confess my indebtedness to the valuable "History of the English Railway," published by Mr. John Francis in 1851, and to the "Treatise on the Law of Carriers," published by Messrs. Chitty and Temple, Barristers-at-Law, in 1856, both of which works had great interest for me during my early career as a Railway Manager.
In Chapter XV. of the present edition of the work, I have endeavoured to make what I trust may be a useful contribution to the discussion of a subject which has been, in recent years, much debated in railway circles, viz., the Composition of Passenger Trains and the Relation of the Classes. I scarcely venture to hope for universal concurrence in the views which I have expressed, but I know they are fully shared by many of those best qualified to form an opinion upon the subject, and I hope at least that the enumeration of the undoubted facts which I have been able to adduce as the result of actual experience, may have the effect of inducing those most interested to bestow their serious attention upon a question having so much importance for those whose capital is invested in English railway enterprise.
G. F.
Hill House, Edgware, 1889.
