£3 PORT ECONOMICS

considering how the railway lines of a port may be worked
in conjunction with the quayside services of a port is of the
utmost importance.

At all modern docks and quays, wherever it is a
practicable arrangement, there are laid along the quay
front two or more lines of rail track for the purpose of
receiving goods direct from ship, and usually also at the
rear of the transit sheds, one or more additional lines, to
receive goods which have been passed through the sheds
for sorting purposes.

In England, the wagons on these lines, when loaded,
are taken to a Dock Exchange Sidings, which is a set of
sidings consisting of a number of parallel tracks, commonly
called a gridiron, especially laid out for the reception and
marshalling of wagons and the formation of trains for
dispatch. Wagons arrive at these sidings, either loaded
with material for shipment, or empty for the purpose of
receiving imported goods, the ideal being, of course, to
have the wagons laden in both directions.

The exchange sidings, in the case of British ports,
mark the stage at which transfer takes place between
railway operation and dock operation. To and from
inland stations as far as the sidings, the wagons and their
contents are under the charge and direction of the railway
companies. Between the sidings and the quay, the port
authority assumes control. The practice as to motive
power is slightly varied. Generally, the port authority
provide locomotives to haul over their tracks, but some-
times, the railway companies do the work under arrange-
ment, and, if they are the dock owners, there is obviously
no change of control.

The foregoing represents the practice which is character-
istic of British port methods. The port authority (unless
it happens to be a case of docks under railway ownership)
do not concern themselves with the incoming or outgoing
traffic, except in the immediate vicinity of the quays. The
selection of routes, and the convergence or divergence of

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