t warns drivers
that "anything moved violently up and down or a man holding both hands up
is a sign of danger."

Some of these early regulations were extremely primitive. For instance,
long before the scientific system of the block telegraph and the tablet
were thought out, it was deemed sufficient to ordain that "On a Train or
Engine stopping at or passing an intermediate station or Junction, a STOP
Signal must be exhibited for FIVE minutes, after which a CAUTION Signal
must be exhibited for FIVE minutes more." After that, apparently, any
train might proceed--and take its risk of the one in front having reached
the next signalling point! At level crossings at any distance from the
signalman, the gate-keeper was advised to "ring a small hand-bell, or use
a whistle to call the attention of the signalman, who must then put up
his 'Danger' signals."

[Picture: An Early Cambrian Passenger Engine. Original Form (top), As
Re-built (bottom)]

The guard of the first passenger train from Oswestry was instructed to
"set his timepiece by the Platform Clock, and give the Clerk at every
station the time, so that he may regulate the clock at his station by
it," and similar arrangements operated up the branch lines. Porters were
told that on the arrival of a train they were to "walk the length of the
platform and call out, in a clear and audible voice, the name of the
station opposite the window of each carriage; and at Junctions the doors
of every carriage must be opened, and the various changes announced to
all passengers"--a regulation which, if still on the rule-book, is, like
that against receiving tips, nowadays more often honoured in the breach
than in the observance. It was even felt obligatory to include a
regulation as to what should be done if a train should arrive before its
advertised time, though it must appear a little superfluous to those who
remember the ways of the Cambrian in those happy days, when a captious
correspondent could write to the local Press to aver that, after seeing
his father off at Welshpool station, he was able to ride on horseback to
Oswestry and meet him on his arrival there! It was certainly a
remarkable feat--though, perhaps, not so remarkable either--for, as "an
official" of the Company was moved to explain in a subsequent issue, the
old gentleman must have travelled by a goods train, to which passenger
coaches were attached "for the convenience of the pub