Page:Engines and men- the history of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. A survey of organisation of railways and railway locomotive men (IA enginesmenhistor00rayniala).pdf/202

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Engines and Men

candidate's section and district. The Board of Trade prepared, received, and counted the voting papers, and published the names of members of each Board, whose term of office expired November 6th, 1914, but was generally continued owing to war conditions. Each Board had a chairman, who was not a director of any railway company, and selected from a panel constituted by the Board of Trade. For purposes of electing a chairman, the employees invested two of their number with plenary powers to attend a special combined meeting, along with the company representatives, to select the chairman from the panel mentioned. The chairman, thus appointed under the Conciliation Act of 1896, acted for all the Boards on a company's system, and each side appointed a "leading member" to preside alternately in his absence. Each side had a secretary, to take part in discussion and act as advocate, but not to vote unless he were a member of the Board. Meetings were called half-yearly, or oftener as required, and all settlements arrived at, whether by agreement or by decision of the Chairman, were final and binding. For a summary of the 1917 Scheme see Chapter 19. In the early weeks of the year, attention was focussed upon two disastrous accidents attributable to errors by signalmen. One was at Willesden Junction, on the L. & N.W., and the other at Hawes Junction, on the Midland. In the Willesden case a local passenger train, Watford to Euston, was standing at the No. 4 platform, when it was run into by the 8.30 a.m. Watford to Broad Street, on December 5th, 1910. The driver of the colliding train, Geo. Hall, was one of our members, and he and his mate, W. G. Humphrey, stuck to their posts after they saw the inevitable before them on rounding the bend. Five lives were lost and several people injured. The Midland Railway Scotch express disaster happened on December 24th, at 5.46 a.m., between Hawes Junction and Kirkby Stephen, a very lonely part of the system. The express had stopped at Skipton, and while travelling at a high speed with two engines, Nos. 48 and 549, they overtook and ran into two light engines proceeding in the same direction, and on the same line, to Carlisle. The express engines plunged into the side of the cutting,