Co-operation.

The Home railways are now making strenuous efforts to secure the whole-hearted cooperation of their employees in every branch of activity. At practically every point of importance local councils of officers and men today meet periodically with the object of pooling their knowledge and developing suggestions calculated to prove of mutual value.

These local conferences between employees and the railway authorities are discussing regularly such topics as how best to meet the competition of the road carrier; how reductions can be effected in the large sums paid out for damage to property and loss of goods through pilferage; the avoidance of personal accidents; fuel economies; and so on. Practical results achieved under this plan include the saving of 30,000 cubic feet of gas at one station on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in nine months; and a reduction in the consumption of oil at another point on the same line amounting to one pint per 100 engine miles. Economies in labour costs have resulted from employees’ suggestions for alterations to works programmes and in the utilisation of unproductive time. Improvements in train working have followed the shifting of the centre from which particular trains work, while station working and wagon movement have been bettered in many instances as a result of sane co-operation between the Home railways and their staffs of every grade.