Railway Adventures and Anecdotes Part 1

Railway Adventures and Anecdotes.

by Various.

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 princ.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sengers to die of apoplexy.

It is stated in the year 1825, there was in the whole world, only one railway carriage, built to convey pa.s.sengers. 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 ca.n.a.l 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 pa.s.sengers."

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 Bra.s.sey 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 mult.i.tudes of readers. Yet no volume has been published consisting exclusively of Railway Adventures and Anecdotes. Books having the heading of Railway Anecdotes, or similar t.i.tles, containing few of such anecdotes but many of a miscellaneous character, have from time to time appeared. Anecdotes, racy of the Railway calling and circ.u.mstances 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," ill.u.s.trating 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.

The romance of railways is in the past and not in the future. How desirable then it is that a well written history of British Railways should speedily be produced, before their traditions, interesting a.s.sociations, and early workers shall be forgotten. A work of such magnitude would need to be entrusted to a band of expert writers. With an able man like Mr. Williams, the author of _Our Iron Roads_, and the _History of the Midland Railway_, presiding over the enterprise, a history might be produced which would be interesting to the present and to future generations. The history although somewhat voluminous would be a necessity to every public and private library. Many of our railway companies might do worse than contribute 500 or 1000 each to encourage such an important literary undertaking. It would give an impetus to the study of railway matters and it is not at all unlikely in the course of a short time the companies would be recouped for their outlay.

Before concluding, it is only right I should express my grateful acknowledgments to the numerous body of subscribers to this work. Among them are n.o.blemen of the highest rank and distinction, cabinet ministers, members of Parliament, magistrates, ministers of all sections of the Christian church, merchants, farmers, tradesmen, and artisans. Through their helpful kindness my responsibility has been considerably lightened, and I trust they will have no reason to regret that their confidence has been misplaced.

ORIGIN OF RAILWAYS

The immediate parent of the railway was the wooden tram-road, which existed at an early period in colliery districts. Mr. Beaumont, of Newcastle, is said to have been the first to lay down wooden rails as long ago as 1630. More than one hundred and forty years elapsed before the invention was greatly improved. Mr. John Carr, in 1776 (although not the first to use iron rails), was the first to lay down a cast-iron railway, nailed to wooden sleepers, for the Duke of Newcastle's colliery near Sheffield. This innovation was regarded with great disfavour by the workpeople as an interference with the vested rights of labour. Mr.

Carr's life, as a consequence, was in much jeopardy and for four days he had to conceal himself in a wood to avoid the violence of an indignant and vindictive populace.

WAY-LEAVES.

Roger North, referring to a visit paid to Newcastle by his brother, the Lord Keeper Guildford, in 1676, writes:-"Another remarkable thing is their _way-leaves_; for when men have pieces of ground between the colliery and the river, they sell the leave to lead coal over the ground, and so dear that the owner of a rood of ground will expect 20 per annum for this leave. The manner of the carriage is by laying rails of timber from the colliery down to the river exactly straight and parallel, and bulky carts are made with four rowlets fitting these rails, whereby the carriage is so easy that one horse will draw four or five chaldron of coals, and is an immense benefit to the coal merchants."

SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S PREDICTION OF RAILWAY SPEED.

In a tract by the Rev. Mr. Craig, Vicar of Leamington, ent.i.tled "Astral Wonders," is to be found the following remarkable pa.s.sage:-"Let me narrate to you an anecdote concerning Sir Isaac Newton and Voltaire. Sir Isaac wrote a book on the Prophet Daniel, and another on the Revelations; and he said, in order to fulfil certain prophecies before a certain date terminated, namely 1260 years, there would be a certain mode of travelling of which the men in his time had no conception; nay, that the knowledge of mankind would be so increased that they would be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour. Voltaire, who did not believe in the Holy Scriptures, got hold of this, and said, 'Now look at that mighty mind of Newton, who discovered gravity, and told us such marvels for us all to admire, when he became an old man and got into his dotage, he began to study that book called the Bible; and it appears that in order to credit its fabulous nonsense, we must believe that mankind's knowledge will be so much increased that we shall be able to travel fifty miles an hour. The poor 'dotard!' exclaimed the philosophic infidel, Voltaire, in the complaisancy of his pity. But who is the dotard now?"

THE ATMOSPHERIC RAILROAD ANTIc.i.p.aTED.

_First Voice_.

"But why drives on that ship so fast, Without or wave or wind?"

_Second Voice_.

"The air is cut away before, And closes from behind."

-_The Ancient Mariner_.

This is the exact principle of the atmospheric railroad, and it is, perhaps, worthy of note as a curious fact that such a means of locomotion should have occurred to Coleridge so long ago.

W. Y. Bernhard Smith, in _Notes and Queries_.

EARLY STEAM CARRIAGES.

Stuart, in his "Historical and Descriptive Anecdotes of Steam Engines and of their Inventors and Improvers," gives a description of what was supposed to be the first model of a steam carriage. The constructor was a Frenchman named Cugnot, who exhibited it before the Marshal de Saxe in 1763. He afterwards built an engine on the same model at the cost of the French monarch. But when set in motion it projected itself onward with such force that it knocked down a wall which stood in its way, and-its power being considered too great for ordinary use-it was put aside as being a dangerous machine, and was stowed away in the a.r.s.enal Museum at Paris. It is now to be seen in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers.

Mr. Smiles also remarks that "An American inventor, named Oliver Evans, was also occupied with the same idea, for, in 1772, he invented a steam carriage to travel on common roads; and, in 1787, he obtained from the State of Maryland the exclusive right to make and use steam carriages.

The invention, however, never came into practical use.

"It also appears that, in 1784, William Symington, the inventor of the steamboat, conceived the idea of employing steam power in the propulsion of carriages; and, in 1786, he had a working model of a steam carriage constructed which he submitted to the professors and other scientific gentlemen of Edinburgh. But the state of the Scotch roads was at that time so horrible that he considered it impracticable to proceed further with his scheme, and he shortly gave it up in favour of his project of steam navigation.

"The first English model of a steam carriage was made in 1784 by William Murdoch, the friend and a.s.sistant of Watt. It was on the high-pressure principle and ran on three wheels. The boiler was heated by a spirit lamp, and the whole machine was of very diminutive dimensions, standing little more than a foot high. Yet, on one occasion, the little engine went so fast that it outran the speed of the inventor. Mr. Buckle says that one night after returning from his duties in the mine at Redruth, in Cornwall, Murdoch determined to try the working of his model locomotive.

For this purpose he had recourse to the walk leading to the church, about a mile from the town. The walk was rather narrow and was bounded on either side by high hedges. It was a dark night, and Murdoch set out alone to try his experiment. Having lit his lamp, the water shortly began to boil, and off started the engine with the inventor after it. He soon heard distant shouts of despair. It was too dark to perceive objects, but he shortly found, on following up the machine, that the cries for a.s.sistance proceeded from the worthy pastor of the parish, who, going towards the town on business, was met on this lonely road by the hissing and fiery little monster, which he subsequently declared he had taken to be the Evil One in _propria persona_. No further steps, however, were taken by Murdoch to embody his idea of a locomotive carriage in a more practical form."

FIRST RAILWAY BILL.

The first Railway Bill pa.s.sed by Parliament was for a line from Wandsworth to Croydon, in 1801, but a quarter of a century elapsed before the first line was actually constructed for carrying pa.s.sengers between Stockton and Darlington. People still living can remember the mail coaches that plied once a month between Edinburgh and London, making the journey in twelve or fourteen days. The _Annual Register_ of 1820 boasts that "English mail coaches run 7 miles an hour; French only 4 miles; the former travelling, in the year, forty times the length of miles that the French accomplish." These coaches were a great improvement on the previous method of sending the mails. In 1783 a pet.i.tion to Parliament stated that "the mails are generally entrusted to some idle boy, without character, mounted on a worn-out hack."

"_Progress of the World_" by M. G. Mulhall.

RAILWAY FROM MERSTHAM TO WANDSWORTH.

Charles Knight thus describes this old line:-"The earliest railway for public traffic in England was one pa.s.sing from Merstham to Wandsworth, through Croydon; a small, single line, on which a miserable team of donkeys, some thirty years ago, might be seen crawling at the rate of four miles an hour, with several trucks of stone and lime behind them.