A strenuous worker, Mr. Johnstone, like most men who have no
hobby, did not long survive his retirement from active business life.
Mr. Wainwright, who, like myself, was born in Sheffield, was twenty-three
years my senior. His early railway life was passed in the Manchester,
Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (now the Great Central), of which the
redoubtable Mr. (afterwards Sir) Edward Watkin was then the lively
general manager.
A different man to his predecessor was Mr. Wainwright. Unlike Mr.
Johnstone he was modern and progressive. _He_ never scorned delights or
loved, for their own sake, laborious days; pleasure to him was as welcome
as sunshine; and work he made a pleasure.
As I have said, no general manager's _office_ existed. Of systematic
managerial supervision there was none. What was to be done? Something
certainly, and soon. Mr. Wainwright concurred in a suggestion I made
that I should visit Derby, see the general manager's office of the
Midland there, and learn how it was conducted. This I did. E. W. Wells,
a principal clerk in that office, who was married to my cousin, showed
and told me everything.
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