But this was not the case. Each company's charging powers were
contained in its own private Acts (which were usually very numerous) and
differed for different sections of the railway. It was often impossible
for the public to ascertain the rights of the companies, and well nigh
impossible for the companies themselves to know what they were. These
powers were in the form of tolls for the use of the railway; charges for
the use of carriages, wagons, and locomotive power, and total maximum
charges which were less than the sum of the several charges. In the Acts
no mention was made of terminals, though in some of them power to make a
charge for _services incidental to conveyance_ was authorised, and what
these words really meant was the subject of much legal argument and great
forensic expenditure.
In addition to the tolls and charges, the Acts usually contained a rough
classification of goods to which they applied. These were divided into
from three to five classes, and comprised some 50 to 60 articles. The
railway companies, however, had in existence, for practical everyday use,
a general classification called The Railway Clearing House
Classification, and this contained over 2,700 articles divided into seven
classes.
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