Railway Adventures and Anecdotes extending over more than fifty years

Excerpt

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.  Thousands of millions of pounds have been spent upon their construction.  Railway contractors such as Peto and Brassey at one time employed armies of workmen, more numerous than the contending hosts engaged in many a battle celebrated in history.  Considering the mighty revolutions that have been wrought in social affairs and in the commerce of the world by railways, John Bright was not far wrong when he said in the House of Commons “Who are the greatest men of the present age?  Not your warriors, not your statesmen.  They are your engineers.”

The Railway era, although of modern date, has been rich in adventures and incidents.  Numerous works have been written upon Railways, also memoirs of Railway Engineers, relating their struggles and triumphs, which have charmed multitudes of readers.  Yet no volume has been published consisting exclusively of Railway Adventures and Anecdotes.  Books having the heading of Railway Anecdotes, or similar titles, containing few of such anecdotes but many of a miscellaneous character, have from time to time appeared.  Anecdotes, racy of the Railway calling and circumstances connected with it are very numerous: they are to be found scattered in Parliamentary Blue Books, Journals, Biographies, and many out-of-the-way channels.  Many of them are highly instructive, diverting, and mirth-provoking, having reference to persons in all conditions.  The “Railway Adventures and Anecdotes,” illustrating many a quaint and picturesque scene of railway life, have been drawn from a great variety of sources.  I have for a long time been collecting them, and am willing to believe they may prove entertaining and profitable to the railway traveller and the general reader, relieving the tedium of hours when the mind is not disposed to grapple with profounder subjects.