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Railway Adventures and Anecdotes extending over more than fifty years By: Various |
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RAILWAY ADVENTURES
AND ANECDOTES:
EXTENDING OVER MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS.
EDITED BY RICHARD PIKE. THIRD EDITION. “The only bona fide Railway Anecdote Book published
on either side of the Atlantic.”— Liverpool Mercury . LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.
NOTTINGHAM: J. DERRY. 1888. NOTTINGHAM:
J. DERBY, PRINTER, WHEELER GATE AND HOUNDS GATE.
PREFACE.
Although railways are comparatively of recent date we are so accustomed
to them that it is difficult to realize the condition of the country
before their introduction. How different are the present day ideas as to
speed in travelling to those entertained in the good old times. The
celebrated historian, Niebuhr, who was in England in 1798, thus describes
the rapid travelling of that period:—“Four horses drawing a coach with
six persons inside, four on the roof, a sort of conductor besides the
coachman, and overladen with luggage, have to get over seven English
miles in the hour; and as the coach goes on without ever stopping except
at the principal stages, it is not surprising that you can traverse the
whole extent of the country in so few days. But for any length of time
this rapid motion is quite too unnatural. You can only get a very
piece meal view of the country from the windows, and with the tremendous
speed at which you go can keep no object long in sight; you are unable
also to stop at any place.” Near the same time the late Lord Campbell,
travelling for the first time by coach from Scotland to London, was
seriously advised to stay a day at York, as the rapidity of motion (eight
miles per hour) had caused several through going passengers to die of
apoplexy. It is stated in the year 1825, there was in the whole world, only one
railway carriage, built to convey passengers. It was on the first
railway between Stockton and Darlington, and bore on its panels the
motto—“Periculum privatum, publica utilitas.” At the opening of this
line the people’s ideas of railway speed were scarcely ahead of the canal
boat. For we are told, “Strange to say, a man on horseback carrying a
flag headed the procession. It was not thought so dangerous a place
after all. The locomotive was only supposed to go at the rate of from
four to six miles an hour; an ordinary horse could easily keep ahead of
that. A great concourse of people stood along the line. Many of them
tried to accompany the procession by running, and some gentlemen on
horseback galloped across the fields to keep up with the engine. At a
favourable part of the road Stephenson determined to try the speed of the
engine, and he called upon the horseman with the flag to get out of his
way! The speed was at once raised to twelve miles an hour, and soon
after to fifteen, causing much excitement among the passengers.” George Stephenson was greatly impressed with the vast possibilities
belonging to the future of railway travelling. When battling for the
locomotive he seemed to see with true prescience what it was destined to
accomplish. “I will do something in course of time,” he said, “which
will astonish all England.” Years afterwards when asked to what he
alluded, he replied, “I meant to make the mail run between London and
Edinburgh by the locomotive before I died, and I have done it.” Thus was
a similar prediction fulfilled, which at the time he uttered it was
doubtless considered a very wild prophecy, “Men shall take supper in
London and breakfast in Edinburgh.” From a small beginning railways have spread over the four quarters of the
globe... Continue reading book >>
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