Day Log/1890-11-14

On this day, John S Hughes received an amended Draft order from the Board of Trade, giving some exemption from the Regulation of Railways Act, 1889

The BoT had asked Colonel Rich, of its Railways Department, for his opinion of the situation, which he replied on the 12th November.

In his opinion, "it appears desirable to prevent the company following the present practice of running trains of 6-7 goods wagons in front of about 4 or 5 passenger carriages, and from 70-85 slate wagons behind". He thought that the company should be made to comply with the "Brake" and "Block" aspects of the order, adding "There no doubt will be some difficulties to overcome in fiting up the vehicles in consequence of the little room available, but we think these can be overcome. We do not think the wagons that go into the quarries could be piped. They are so low, the pipes would be broken by the rollers and the loose slates...." ending ".. we would suggest that 4 four-wheeled coaches, or 5 quarrymen's carriage or 4 goods wagons should count as one. Each large bogie passenger coach should count as one, and the large bogie engines, which weigh 24 tons, as three....."

The estimate for compliance with the order came to the round figure of £2000. The final order was made on 18 December 1890, received by Hughes on the 22nd. It gave 1 year to complete the Block system installation, and a further year to complete the interlocking and installation of continuous automatic brakes on passenger trains.

Some "original" BoT documentation on this has apparently not survived.