diversity and activity to one whose life hitherto had been confined to
sedentary work.

It was the rolling stock that demanded the most urgent attention--engines,
carriages and wagons and especially carriages. Of carriages there were
not enough for the traffic of the line, and many were in a very sorry
condition, particularly those which had been taken over with the Holywood
and Bangor Railway, acquired by the company the previous year. One
weekend, soon after I joined the service, I had all passenger carriages
brought into Belfast, except those employed in running Sunday trains, and
early on the Sunday morning (it was in the summer) with the company's
locomotive and mechanical engineer I examined each carriage thoroughly
from top to bottom, inside and out, above and below, and with his
practical help and expert knowledge, noted carefully down the defects of
each. He worked with a will, delighted that someone as enthusiastic and
even younger than himself was now in charge. He little suspected, I am
sure, how ignorant I was of practical matters, as I kept my own counsel
which was my habit when prudence so dictated. I knew the names of things
and was well versed in the theory and statistics of repairs and renewals,
but that was all. A fine worker was and is R. G. Miller. Well over 70
now, healthy and energetic still, he occupies the position he did then.
Age has not withered nor custom staled his juvenility. I met him on
Kingstown promenade the other day walking with an elastic step and with
the brightness of youth in his eye. The ordinary age-retirement limit,
though a good rule generally, was not for him. Daylight failed and night
came on before our task was finished, several carriages remaining
unexamined. These and the Sunday running vehicles we subjected to
scrutiny during the following week. At the next meeting of the Board I
presented a report of what I had done, and urged that a number of new
carriages should be contracted for without delay, enlarging upon the