Saxby and Farmer
John Saxby startade sin firma för signalutrustning på 1850-talet.
Farmer blev delägare några år senare. Det är inte känt
om Saxby levererat utrustning till järnvägar i Sverige, men i SJK
arkiv finns en
katalog från 1889. Katalogen har vid okänd tidpunkt
gallrats ut av SJ.
Här återges några avsnitt ur katalogen.
A few excerpts from a Saxby and Farmer's
catalogue from 1889:
SAXBY
& FARMER'S RAILWAY SAFETY
APPLIANCES.
Messrs SAXBY & FARMER, Limited, acknowledge with gratitude the encouragement
and support they have received from Railway Administrators of all classes,
and to whom in return they have the greatest satisfaction in pointing out
the now almost total immunity from that class of accidents preventible by
the use of their Safe Appliances.
The words used by Samuel Laing, Esq., M.P., the Chairman of the London Brighton
and South Coast Railway, at a General Meeting held 24th January, 1883, are
an eloquent testimony in that regard:-
"We have adopted all the modern improvements;
the Block System, the Westinghouse Brake, Interlocking Points and Signals,
&c, and I believe the Official Returns show that we have been among the
first, if not the very first, of great Railway Companies in carrying out
the recommendations of the Board of Trade. The result is that we have reduced
preventible accidents to a minimum, and have for a long time past been singularly
free from serious accidents to our Trains."
Lord Colville of Culross, the noble Chairman of the Great Northern Railway
Company, gave handsome and similar testimony to the merits of these inventions.
Speaking to the Shareholders, he said:—
" Many of you gentlemen, no doubt,
who live in London and the neighbourhood of London, will recollect what a
miserable season we have had, and what an amount of fog of the densest possible
description; but during the whole of that period our train service has been
carried on with perfect immunity from accident. (Hear, hear.) I may say that
that speaks very well for the excellent management by our officers and servants
in the control and in the running of our trains. (Hear, hear.) But their
efforts have been very much aided—and I wish to say publicly that I think
we are very much indebted to those most useful inventions the lock and block
systems and the continuous brake. (Hear, hear.) They cost us an enormous
sum of money between them, but I think it has been money extremely well spent."—
Vide Report of Half-yearly Meeting, King's Cross, 20th February, 1880.
And again, later, (1888j, the Chairman of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Company, George John Armytage, Esq., bore similar testimony. At the Autumn
Half-Yearly Meeting he congratulated the Shareholders that every inch of
their Line was complete with the Block System and Signals interlocked, and
every Carriage was fitted with an Automatic Brake, the result
being a great decrease in compensation paid to Passengers,
and he assured the Shareholders that their money was much more economically
spent in the adoption of Safety Applicances than in compensation.
Finally, as regards the LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN COMPANY--our greatest
supporter and patrons in the past--although we have no particular words to
quote of the Chariman--Sir RICHARD MOON,BART,--or of the GENERAL MANAGER,
Mr. G. FINDLAY, there is the eloquent though silent testimony of the fact
that the L.&N.W. was one of the first of the great railways to adopt
and to thoroughly complete the equipment of their enormous system with Lock
and Block and other Safety Applicances, in which regard the stand to-day
in perfected security, enjoying an immunity from Train Accidents simply marvellours.
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