Efficient Methods in the Home Workshops.

In a recent paper read at the Institute of Transport Congress in Glasgow, Mr. E. H. Lemon, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the L.M. and S. Railway, outlined the effects of grouping on the railway shops, and told of the reorganisation and standardisation effected on his own system. In the past, if a gang of men engaged on repairing carriages was unable to proceed with the work (owing to waiting for component parts), the men would transfer their labour to other vehicles until the required material was forthcoming, and would then return to finish the job. This resulted in carriages taking up valuable space without any work being done to them. With the growth in numbers and the total average length of the modern carriage, it became necessary either to increase the shop area and the staff or devise some quicker means of dealing with the cars passing through the shops. To meet this development, a progressive layout was planned by the L.M. and S. Company for the lifting and repairing of carriages. Definite principles were followed, the chief being the elimination, as far as possible, of manhandling of materials; allocating definite work to a given position; supply of materials to be anticipated; the allocation of men to specific operations; the first operation to balance with the last; and all movements to be regular and at definite intervals.

The system of repairs adopted on the L.M. and S. line enables work on all carriages in the shops to be carried out simultaneously. The carriages are selected according to the class of repairs required, and placed on roads outside the repair shop. Once this is done, a carriage cannot be side-tracked, the first carriage placed on the road being the first to enter the shop and the first to go out as a repaired vehicle.

At the big shops at Manchester, thirteen tracks are used for the progressive system of repairs. Four of the tracks on which repairs to the bogies and underframes are executed are equipped with electric drive for propelling the bogies and underframes from one end of the shop to the other, at the rate of three inches and six inches per minute respectively, without interfering with the men working on the job. A definite number of operations is allocated to each road, each operation having a time limit which is denoted by clocks placed at the end of each track. page 23 Immediately under the track clock is a printed notice detailing the work to be done at each particular stage, and no work is allowed to be carried out at any point other than at the stage allocated to it. Some fifty-nine working days were formerly occupied on the general repair of a bogie passenger carriage. Now, thanks to efficient organisation and scientific working methods, the L.M. and S. shops complete the work in just twenty-five working days. Since the introduction of the new arrangements, the output of the Manchester shops has increased from thirty to fifty-three passenger carriages per week with the same staff. In addition, the cost of repairing on the progressive system now favoured is much less than that by the old method.