ABSTRACT
The railways were among the greatest industries of the nineteenth century and they were accordingly among the largest employers. A railway is, however, not like a factory – the work-site is by definition dispersed over many miles and communication cannot be on the basis of going out of an office door to give instructions to someone on an adjacent shop floor. The dispersed nature of the organization brought with it a need for good and clear written communications. Furthermore, the railway placed a special emphasis on safe operation, which necessarily brought with it a need for a discipline in its working practices more like that to be found in the military than in most other spheres. Right from the start, there were many areas of railway activity in which written communication for both operational and commercial purposes was essential. With this, of course, came the requirement for literacy across a broad spectrum of staff. The written communication covered both the commercial and the operational sides. Copious records were also required for management purposes, many of them in quantities sufficient to justify printing. A full account of the internal literature of the railway remains to be written.
