Threads of Control

Innumerable threads of control meet under the hand of the stationmaster. He has at his disposal a certain number of passenger cars with which to make up his trains, and these have to be so handled as to be used to the best advantage. Each train has its varying passenger requirements, and it is as bad to have too many cars on a train as too few. An unexpected party of footballers filling up the one smoking carriage will at once incense John Citizen, bring the stationmaster page 29 under fire, and often upset all calculations. Eleven cars and one van weigh 310 tons, for instance, and that may be the last ton a steep grade will take without extra engine power. These are some of the factors that a stationmaster has to consider in making up trains.

In all, there are 350 cars available for use in the Wellington railway district,

A Stationmaster's Daily Round On The N.Z.R.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
A corner of the checked and left luggage room at Lambton Station, Wellington.

and these are divided between Thorndon, Lambton, Palmerston North and Napier. It is necessary for these stations to call upon each other for extra cars that may be required, and these are worked through the district as if on a chessboard, meeting passenger requirements as they arise. But what cars go out from whatever station must come back to keep supplies balanced, and to avoid some horrible congestion in a corner of the chessboard and empty yards in another. Ohakune, Auckland and Wanganui railway districts operate independently.

Another of the stationmaster's many charges is the ticket reservation department. What would you say if two ladies asked that they be given seats facing each other and also the engine? Well, whatever they think, the clerks put their finger in the index sheet, and do the best they can. Reservations are obtainable there for any train at a moment's reference—unless the seats are all gone, and then the clerks are sometimes expected by an anxious public to be able to conjure up more from the blue. (Oh, dear! After all this I have resolved to be a much more reasonable member of the travelling public for 1932.)