Abstract
THE vigorous defence of the operation of the railways under war conditions, which Lord Stamp offered in his chairman's address at the annual general meeting on March 7 of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company, contained an interesting reference to the work of the Company's Research Department, the very great value of which in solving war-time problems he emphasized. Such problems as substitute materials, salvage, air raid precautions and black-out could only be solved quickly and effectively by scientific methods. Lord Stamp referred particularly to the work of the Research Department on treatment of the windows of signal boxes without interfering with clear vision, which had proved so effective that in the boxes so treated not a single man had been injured by glass splinters; the importance of this in maintaining confidence and operating efficiency can be imagined. With the lighting section, the Research Department has also contributed to the development of scientific methods, enabling a combination of safety from observation with the best permissible lighting to be used in dealing with the innumerable problems of lighting the black-out in goods sheds, marshalling yards and elsewhere. Lord Stamp's spirited reply to criticism, which has sometimes been somewhat irresponsible and carping, made it clear that the handicaps on the railways and the strain on their reserves could be mitigated by intelligent forethought on the part of the Service Departments. It may be hoped that his indictment of want of foresight or worse will not escape the notice of that invaluable watch-dog over administrative weaknesses—the Select Committee on National Expenditure.
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Railways under War Conditions. Nature 147, 322 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147322b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147322b0