This little book is a mere 50 pages long and was issued to all the Southern Railway's staff who worked on their electric services. It came into force on the 1st January 1933 and contained sections of both the general company rule book and the Appendix to the working timetable. With the largest electrified network of the 'Big Four' railway companies, it is unsurprising that the SR deemed it necessary to issue a unique rule book for the electric staff. This said, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway also released their separate rule book for the staff working electric services in 1937. What, however, this document shows is that by the Mid-1930s there were swathes of rules and regulations across the railway industry, so much so that many did not apply to some staff. After all, with no goods services being run by electric trains all the rules and regulations that applied to those services did not need to be learnt by the electric staff in detail, if at all. Therefore, it was presumably much more convenient for the staff to have a dedicated rule book for themselves. This would be a more efficient method of distributing the regulations that issuing each member of staff with the full, more bulky, rule book. I imagine it also cut printing costs...My favourite image is the last, which showed how to resuscitate someone who had been electrocuted. Simply put, the image shows a very basic version of CPR under the heading, 'Method of Conducting Artificial Respiration.' The instructions were as follows: 'Kneel at one side of, or across the patient, and, without violence, produce a firm, steady, downward pressure (see Fig.1 on page 50). Next release all pressure by swinging your body backwards without lifting your hands from the patient (see Fig 2 on page 50).' I wonder how many times this was required, and how effective it was?
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