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THE LONDON MIDLAND AND SCOTTISH RAILWAY COMPANY

A Record of Large-Scale Organisation and Management,
1923-1946

RESEARCH.

Thirteen years ago the company established a scientific research department to concentrate their scientific resources into a single unit for the needs of all departments. The chemical and paint laboratories, together with textile and metallurgical laboratories which up to then had been under departmental control, formed the nucleus of the new organisation, and to these were added sections dealing with engineering research and physics respectively. In its present form a staff of 150 are employed, of whom 60 are fully-qualified scientific graduates, many with research experience before joining the company's service. Some of the senior members of the department have acquired international reputations for publications of their work in the proceedings of learned societies. A scientific research committee of the board reviews the activities of the department, and an advisory committee consisting of a number of eminent scientists together with the chief technical officers of the company considers its general policy. In addition, the services of Government research establishments and research associations are utilised and extra-mural investigations are conducted in university laboratories. The link with the universities has been strengthened by a scheme for the temporary interchange of members of the company's staff with those engaged in university research and teaching. With this organisation and contacts the department is the scientific consultant of all branches of the railway; it obtains information, gives advice or conducts investigations on probably a wider range of subjects than any research organisation in the country, and a great advantage is its independent position.

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