houses. The West Brompton branch found it had no further service for the model engine, as the line was electrified, and sold it to the Executive for £18. Many compensation cases were demanding attention, sums up to £450 being secured in addition to £150 previously paid by instalments. Mr. Fox was nominated for the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress, and his subsequent visit to America was mooted. He and Mr. Parfitt were appointed to visit the Dublin and Belfast Engine Drivers' Trade Union, to discuss amalgamation, and in October, just after the Trade Union Congress, there was a return to animosity between the two Societies. Mr. Bell had acted independently over the District Railway question, and when reproached for it under the Federation scheme, he replied that if he needed assistance, and could not conduct the case alone, he would inform his Executive to that effect.
The Salisbury disaster of July 1st, 1906, gave pause to the controversy between secretaries for a time. Driver W. J. Robins and his mate, A. Gadd, both of whom were killed, were members of ours, and the Society had their interests watched by counsel at the inquest, which took place on July 16th. The jury found the accident was due to excessive speed round the compound curve after passing Salisbury Station, for which they blamed Driver Robins, but they found the company was to blame for that fact as well as the driver. Robins had never driven through Salisbury station before, and was never warned before starting of the danger of the curve and the speed limit of thirty miles an hour over it. Salisbury was not a case of derailment by the wheel-flange mounting the rails, but of complete over-turning by a heavy engine losing its true centre of gravity on the curve. It raised the whole question of height and weight of boilers, and their limit by the gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches. Robins drove at a speed exceeding 60 miles an hour, over a curve which has a super-elevation of 3½ inches at the centre. It was just beyond that point that the engine rolled on its side and brought about a tremendous wreck. The funeral of the two members, Robins and Gadd, at Tooting, was a very impressive
