Railway Clearing House

The Railway Clearing House ( RCH ) was opened on January 2, 1842. It was a clearing office for legal and industrial relations issues between the many private companies which then served the British railway market.

Tasks

The Railway Clearing House billed the ticket, who exhibited the individual railway companies on the routes of other railway companies. The invention of the Edmondsonschen ticket was an important benchmark.

Next important standards for railway operation were determined by the Railway Clearing House, for example, the

  • General liability of the Greenwich Mean Time for the railways, the so-called "railway time ", on September 22, 1847
  • Technical standardization of all kinds, eg Car - so was a RCH wagon a wagon which had the appropriate standards and so on go on all connected paths could
  • Cable and connectors for electric train lighting,
  • Wendezugeinrichtungen,
  • Signaling.

The Railway Clearing House passed it out the Railway Junction Diagrams, technical route cards to the different companies showed the links and connections to scale and the time spent traveling from switch to switch.

Foundation

Founding companies were:

  • Leeds and Selby Railway
  • Hull and Selby Railway
  • York and North Midland Railway
  • Great North of England Railway

Already by the end of December 1845, the following additional companies had joined:

  • Birmingham and Gloucester Railway
  • Chester and Birmingham Railway
  • Grand Junction Railway and their partners: North Union Railway
  • Liverpool and Manchester Railway

1850 21 companies had already been associated. This represented more than 56 percent of Britain's rail network. 1850 was awarded the Railway Clearing House through Act of June 25 ( The Railway Clearing Act ) a legal basis that facilitated the collection of debts by another railway company.

But what is especially missing was the Great Western Railway and the companies that operate the routes to the south of London.

Operation

The Railway Clearing House began its work on January 2, 1842. It consisted at first of only a few small offices, the London and Birmingham Railway towards your London railway terminus Euston Railway Station in the later " Drummond Street," said road as well as the start finance was providing. The rapid expansion of its field of activity and the meeting was held in 1849 at a parade in Seymour Street (now Eversholt Street). There, the offices remained until the dissolution of the Railway Clearing House in 1948.

The Railway Clearing House was constituted club similar. The cost of operating the members divided by number of stations (without terminal stations ) the property of the respective company. The charge was initially £ 5 per station - later reduced to £ 2 - plus a flat rate.

With the nationalization of the railways in Great Britain 1948 British Rail was an external institution the nature of the Railway Clearing House no longer required. Their tasks were now internal tasks of British Rail.

Worth knowing

After the re-privatization of British Rail in 25 railway companies need lived for a means similar to the Railway Clearing House again. The corresponding tasks are perceived plan by the Association of Train Operating Companies, in particular the ATOC subsidiary organization Rail Settlement today.

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