Clapham Junction

“ A burly flower-girl, a white-haired youth, and a broken-down, long-haired actor or poet, are the only strangers in London I have seen more than once. Yet the combination is familiar. I am a Londoner, and I am at home. But I am not a Clapham Junction man any more than I am a Trowbridge man. Perhaps the reason of my discontent is that there are no Clapham Junction men, that all are strangers and aware of it, that they never truly make a mob like the factory men at New Swindon, [209] and yet are too numerous to be regarded as villagers like the people of Rudge. ”

“ To reach the fire-trenches is easy enough; the difficulty is to find your way out of them. The main line of fire-trenches has a kind of loop-line behind it with innumerable junctions and small depôts in the shape of dug-outs, and at first sight the subaltern's plan of the estate was as bewildering as a signalman's map of Clapham Junction. ”

“ The Company was established for the erection of improved dwellings near to the great centres of industry to carry out the objects of the Company in London, large estates have been secured near Clapham Junction and the Harrow Road, that near Clapham Junction called Shaftesbury Park. ”

“ There came into Betty's mind the memories of her childhood, like dark shadows gliding by. The high-walled courtyard in Hamburg and the rooms in a narrow street in Copenhagen stood out clearest of all. She shivered a little, and put her arms round her lover's neck.
"Come, William, let us go and tell mother. She will be so happy."
IX
CLAPHAM JUNCTION
Everyone knows the great railway station at Clapham Junction just outside London, where so many lines meet and cross, and where trains start for so many different parts. ”

“ At neither of those places could a man in a fur coat be heard of as having descended from the train; and yet it was manifest that he did not arrive at Grosvenor Road, where tickets were taken. After persistent and wider inquiries, however, at Clapham Junction (which was the most likely point of departure) , a cabman was found who remembered having taken up a fare—a gentleman in a fur coat—about the hour indicated. ”

“ The theory also fails to take into consideration the most important point of all, viz. that every canal runs direct from one definite point to another, perhaps over two thousand miles distant. In very many cases numerous lines connect with one small area, or even with one point. The Lucus Ascræus has no less than seventeen of these canals connecting with it, and appears to be a kind of Martian Clapham Junction. ”

“ Did you get into a carriage that had a lamp, sir?”
“I’ve seen some bungling at railway stations before now,” said Harold, “but bang me if I ever met the equal of this.”
“This isn’t properly speaking a station, sir, it’s a junction,” said the official, mildly, but with the force of a man who has said the last word.
“That simply means that greater bungling may be found at a junction than at a station,” said Harold. “Is it not customary to give some notice of the departure of a train at a junction as well as a station, my good man?” ”

“ Tell me, what would you call a person who should propose in England that there should be kept, say at our own model Mugby Junction, pretty baskets, each holding an assorted cold lunch and dessert for one, each at a certain fixed price, and each within a passenger’s power to take away, to empty in the carriage at perfect leisure, and to return at another station fifty or a hundred miles further on? ”

“ Men who propose and carry through, without regard to evil or to good report, such works as the Grand Junction Railway—who have overcome, not only the opposition which the stupendous operations of nature present, but the more stubborn and unbending resistance of haughty and interested minds—are far more worthy of the laurel crown than the victor of a hundred fights. ”

“ It had been projected, with the expectation that the railroad would bend north here, and ascending the Republican go thence to Denver, which would have made Junction the last station and grand depot for all New Mexico and much of the Rocky Mountain region. But, as it had been decided afterwards to keep on up the Smoky Hill instead, Junction had missed of much of its importance. ”

“ Thus, with a steady step, the traveller went up and down, up and down, up and down, seeking nothing and finding it.
A place replete with shadowy shapes, this Mugby Junction in the black hours of the four-and-twenty. Mysterious goods trains, covered with palls and gliding on like vast weird funerals, conveying themselves guiltily away from the presence of the few lighted lamps, as if their freight had come to a secret and unlawful end. Half-miles of coal pursuing in a Detective manner, following when they lead, stopping when they stop, backing when they back. ”

“ Always, always, no matter from which direction you approach, you must change cars at Hoosick Junction, and wait an hour or so there." Seeing on his face a rather strange expression, she feared that he had lost the point of her little pleasantry, and inquired, "But perhaps it is that you do not know Hoosick Junction." ”

“ He closed with this plan, and we now find him seated in a third-class carriage at 9.45 A.M., on his way to Kingsbourne Junction, and studying the map of the district.
One old man was his only fellow-traveller, a piping old man, who seemed inclined for [37] conversation. So Mr Davidson, after going through the necessary versicles and responses about the weather, inquired whether he was going far.
“No, sir, not far, not this morning, sir,” said the old man. “I ain’t only goin’ so far as what they call Kingsbourne Junction. There isn’t but two stations betwixt here and there. ”

“ We are therefore still much in doubt whether there is any idea of proposing terms of junction. We are all agreed that the most desirable thing would be, that Pitt should be removed at once, and without management. The difficulties of a real bonâ fide junction appear insuperable, and in anything short of that, duplicity and dishonesty might give them advantages which, though we should not certainly envy, yet we might have much cause to lament. ”

“ For an account of Manchester. Liverpool, and Birmingham, see end of book.
We shall now return to the Newton Junction Station, where we left our readers some minutes since; and here we must inform them that the mile-posts (from which we shall direct their attention to various objects) are on their right hand, as they proceed to Birmingham, and that, although the Grand Junction Line in fact commences here, the posts are numbered from Liverpool, or, if they are not yet, they shortly will be: eventually there will also be posts on the other side, numbering from Birmingham. ”

“ Merrick as they moved away.
"Nora has the breakfast all ready at home, sir," replied Thomas.
"Good for Nora! But we can't fast until we reach home—eight good miles of jolting—so we'll stop at the Junction House for a glass of Mrs. Todd's famous milk."
"Very good, sir."
"Is anyone coming for our trunks and freight? There's half a car of truck to be carted over."
"Ned's on the way, sir; and he'll get the liveryman to help if he can't carry it all."
The Junction House was hidden from the station by the tiny hill, as were the half dozen other buildings tributary to Chazy Junction. ”

“ At Watertown the Cape Vincent train would lay in at the end of the freight-house siding, and, because the Coffeen Street crossover had not then been constructed, would back in and out between the passenger station and the Watertown Junction, a little over a mile distant. Watertown Junction was still a point of considerable passenger importance. Long platforms were placed between the tracks there and passengers destined through to the St. Lawrence never went up into the main passenger station at all, but changed at that point to the Cape train. ”

“ Leaving the Newton Junction, and turning to the left, the E. becomes North, and the W. we must call South. The constant traffic on the Liverpool and Manchester line, and the numerous trains journeying to and fro, render it a much more busy and stirring scene than the Birmingham railroad is at present.
The Grand Junction Company rent the use of this Liverpool and Manchester railway at 20,000 per annum. The exact length of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, from the station, Lime-street, Liverpool, to Water-street, Manchester, is thirty miles and three quarters, and thirty yards. ”

“ He went on fumbling through the papers, “You will sometimes have to work in the West End yourself with a camera as a relief man. Now take this card to that address and see him,” he said, pointing with his pencil to a name he had written on the card.
Clapham was not one of the most salubrious districts of London; the address to which I went, in a mean back street in the slums adjacent to the railway sidings, was an ill-favored place indeed. I knocked at the door of a house which had the paint peeling off, and one window of which had the glass “repaired” with sticky paper. ”

“ This, Adams said, was to reinforce the tunnel at the point where it passed underneath the railway line. We went on again, this time walking on a dirt floor, and then we came to a timbered junction, from which the tunnel branched off again to the right in the north-east direction that was originally intended to bring it into line with the gallery at Shakespeare Cliff, while to the left there was a low-roofed chamber that probably once housed a siding and a maintenance workshop for the Beaumont boring machine. ”

“ The drive to Epsom, when you get well out of London, is sufficiently pretty; but the part of it which most took my fancy was a district preëminently suburban, the classic community of Clapham. The vision of Clapham had been a part of the furniture of one’s milder historic consciousness—the vision of its respectable common, its evangelical society, its rich drab humanity, its goodly brick mansions of the Georgian era. ”

“ The complete change which this abrupt ending of the coal-field causes in the aspect of the country is very singular. On one side all is black and murky; on the other, green and bright.
The tunnel is 180 yards in length, and the effect of a long train of carriages passing rapidly under, is novel and grand, nor less so the appearance of their emerging from the dark archway, to the expectant spectators at the
WOLVERHAMPTON STATION. Distance to Birmingham, 141⁄4—Liverpool and Manchester, 831⁄4 miles. ”

“ Morton told the Select Committee of 1883 that so long a time is spent in correspondence and arranging a suitable rate of toll, that very frequently the traffic passes away before a suitable rate can be arranged for it. There is one worthy exception to this rule; for since 1897, The Grand Junction Canal have entered into arrangement with the other companies forming the route between London and Birmingham under which they can quote Through Tolls. ”

“ It's on Main Street, opposite the station, and from my chair at the switchboard I can see the platform and the trains as they come down from Cherry Junction or up from New York. It's sixty miles from Longwood to the Junction where you get the branch line that goes off to the North, stopping at other stations, mostly for the farm people, and where, when you get to Hazelmere, you can connect with an express for Philadelphia. Also you can keep right on from the Junction and get to Philadelphia that way, which is easier, having no changes and better trains. ”

“ This branch railway will shortly become of vast importance: it will be the grand connecting line between the Grand Junction Line and the North; the works are nearly complete as far as Preston, and we expect that next year the line will be opened to Lancaster. ”

“ Kendal declared we could do it easily and allow for accidents. At Horsham Junction you have nearly half an hour to wait between the arrival of the Midhurst and Selham train and the departure of the London express. And the local trains take more than half an hour to get from Selham to Horsham. At a pinch you could speed the car up to the limit of the local train. ”

“ A slight sketch of the various applications to Parliament for power to complete the Grand Junction portion of the line will, however, not be uninteresting, especially as it exhibits the difficulties which invariably attend the promotion of a public good, when opposed to private interest. It is too often to be regretted, that the chief opposition to the efforts of those public-spirited individuals who originate such works, arises from persons whose real interests are not affected, but whose temper or caprice raise up a host of evils which exist only in their perverted imaginations. ”

“ It is quite unnecessary to describe the Tenway Junction, as everybody knows it. From this spot, some six or seven miles distant from London, lines diverge east, west, and north, north-east, and north-west, round the metropolis in every direction, and with direct communication with every other line in and out of London. It is a marvellous place, quite unintelligible to the uninitiated, and yet daily used by thousands who only know that when they get there, they are to do what some one tells them. The space occupied by the convergent rails seems to be sufficient for a large farm. ”

“ Junction City was then the terminal point of a railway system which extended its track westward across the great American plains, over the virgin prairie, the native haunt of the buffalo and fleet-footed antelope, the iron horse trespassing on the hunting ground of the Arapahoe and Comanche Indian tribes. As a mercantile supply depot for New Mexico and Colorado, Junction City was the port from whence a numerous fleet of prairie schooners sailed, laden with the necessities and luxuries of an advancing civilization. ”