Re-reading WOTW: Lord Hilton's Light Railing?

[steve]

Re-reading WOTW, I couldn't help but wonder about the request that Ogilvy makes to the unnamed hero to go to Lord Hilton in order to have a light railing put up around the cylinder in Book 1, Chapter 3. There's no mention of the light railing in the next chapter. Does Lord Hilton refuse to put up a light railing? Does he not put up a light railing in time? This seems very ambiguous to me and I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge about this? Thank you.

[Scifishocks]

Good question.
The narrator goes to see Lord Hilton at the station and he, I assume, asks for the railing (he doesn't mention what he says to him when, or if for that matter, he finds him). The cylinder opens shortly after he arrives back on the common and that's when it all starts to go pear shaped.
I'm guessing there wasn't the time to set it up.