Railway clearing house

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The Railway Clearing House (RCH) opened on January 2, 1842. It was a clearing office for legal and tariff issues between the numerous private railway companies that were serving the British railway market at the time.

tasks

The Railway Clearing House cleared the tickets that the individual railway companies issued for the routes of other railway companies. The invention of the Edmondson ticket was an important milestone in this regard .

The Railway Clearing House also established important standards for railway operations, such as the

  • General obligation of Greenwich Mean Time for the railways, the so-called " Railway Time ", on September 22, 1847
  • technical standardization of all kinds, e.g. B. from
    • Wagons - an RCH wagon was a freight wagon that had the appropriate standards and could be used on all connected railways
    • Cables and connections for the electric train lighting
    • Push-pull equipment
    • Signaling
Railway Junction Diagram, route map for Carlisle

The Railway Clearing House published the Railway Junction Diagrams , thematic route maps that show the connection routes and connections to the various companies true to scale and the travel times from switch to switch.

founding

Founding companies were:

By the end of December 1845, the following other companies had joined:

In 1850, 21 companies were already associated. This was equivalent to more than 56 percent of the UK's route network. In 1850 the Railway Clearing House was given a legal basis by law of June 25 ( The Railway Clearing Act ), which facilitated the collection of debts from another railway company.

What was still missing, however, was the Great Western Railway and the companies that operated the routes south of London.

business

The Railway Clearing House began its work on January 2, 1842. It initially consisted of only a few small offices, which the London and Birmingham Railway opposite its London terminus Euston Railway Station in the street later called "Drummond Street" as well as the start-up financing provided. The rapid expansion of their field of activity and members led to a move to Seymour Street (today: Eversholt Street) as early as 1849. The offices stayed there until the Railway Clearing House was closed in 1948.

The Railway Clearing House was simplistic similarly constituted. The members divided the costs of the operation according to the number of stations (excluding head stations) owned by the respective company. The surcharge was initially £ 5 per station - later reduced to £ 2 - plus a flat rate.

With the nationalization of the railways in Great Britain to British Rail in 1948 , an external institution such as the Railway Clearing House was no longer necessary. Their duties have now become internal to British Rail .

Worth knowing

After British Rail was re-privatized into 25 railway companies , the need for a facility similar to the Railway Clearing House revived. The relevant tasks are carried out today by the Rail Delivery Group and, in particular, its subsidiary Rail Settlement Plan .

literature

  • P. Bagwell: The Railway Clearing House in the British Economy, 1842-1922 . London 1968.
  • CF Dendy-Marshall: A history of the Southern Railway . 1968, ISBN 0-7110-0059-X .
  • EC Hamilton: The South Western Railway: Its Mechanical History and Background, 1838-1922 . 1956.
  • OS Nock: The London & South Western Railway . 1971, ISBN 0-7110-0267-3
  • A. Vaughan: Railwaymen, Politics and Money . London 1997.
  • RA Williams: The London & South Western Railway . Volume 1: The Formative Years . Volume 2: Growth and Consolidation . 1968, ISBN 0-7153-4188-X ; ISBN 0-7153-5940-1

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Daylight Saving Time - Standard time began with the railroads . Retrieved September 22, 2005.