Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/200

the neighbourhood of every station or signal-post where the circumstances are such as to give rise to the necessity, a number of workmen's cottages sufficient to accommodate the platelayers and others who are required for fog-signalling at that particular station or post. These cottages are specially designed for the convenient occupation of a single family; they are of uniform construction, all the wood-work, iron-work, and other fittings being turned out in quantities at the Company's works at Crewe, where the bricks are also made; and owing to this, and to the buildings being erected by the Company's own workmen, they can be completed at a comparatively moderate outlay, each pair of cottages costing from £350 to £400. There is usually an electric bell communication between the signalman's cabin and the bedroom of one of the men, generally the ganger, whose duty it is, on the alarm being given, to call out the other men, so that within a very few minutes of the first warning, every man is at his appointed post, and ready for duty. Both the Company and the men are the gainers by this arrangement. The Company attain their object of having the men concentrated on the spot, and easily accessible at all times, and the rents paid by the men, which range from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per week, ensure them a certain return, although a small one, for their outlay. The men, on their part, reap the benefit of occupying, at a small rental, a commodious and convenient dwelling, near to their work, constructed under proper sanitary conditions, kept in a good state of repair, and in every way infinitely superior to the best accommodation which their small means would otherwise enable them to obtain.