Part 1

# Railway Adventures and Anecdotes: Extending over More Than Fifty Years ### By Unknown

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This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.

RAILWAY ADVENTURES AND ANECDOTES: EXTENDING OVER MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS.

EDITED BY RICHARD PIKE.

THIRD EDITION.

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“The only _bona fide_ Railway Anecdote Book published on either side of the Atlantic.”—_Liverpool Mercury_.

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LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. NOTTINGHAM: J. DERRY.

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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. 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.

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 associations, 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 noblemen 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.

CONTENTS.

A.B.C. and D.E.F. 171 Accident, Abergele, The 220 ,, Beneficial Effect of a Railway 186 ,, Extraordinary 128 ,, ,, 265 ,, Remarkable 172 ,, Versailles, The 96

## Action, A Novel 255

Advantages of Railway Tunnels 126 Advertisement, Remarkable 124 Adventure, Remarkable 146 Affrighted Toll Keeper 19 Agent, The Insurance 269 Air-ways, instead of Railways 83 Alarmist Views 28 Almost Dar Now 122 American Patience and Imperturbability 183 A’penny a Mile 170 Army with Banners, An 207 Atmospheric Railroad Anticipated 14 Baby Law 216 Balloonists, Extraordinary Escape of 275 Bavarian Guards and Bavarian Beer 198 Bill, Expensive Parliamentary 102 ,, First Railway 16 Bishop, A Disingenuous 267 ,, An Industrious 248 Blunder, An Extraordinary 254 Bookshops, Growth of Station 130

## Booking-Clerk and Buckland, The 248

Bookstalls, Messrs. Smith’s 131 Brahmin, The Polite 260 Bride’s Lost Luggage, A 142 Brassey’s, Mr., Strict Adherence to his Word 264 Brougham’s, Lord, Speech 60 Box, Shut up in a large 273 Buckland’s, Mr. Frank, First Railway Journey 175 Buckland, Mr. Frank, and his Boots 261 Bridge, Awful Death on a Railroad 273 Bully Rightly Served, The 190 Burning the Road Clear 179 Business, Railway Facilities for 118 Calculation as to Railway Speed 28 Capture, Clever 105 Catastrophe 165 Carlist Chief as a Sub-contractor, A 213 Carriage, The Duke’s 60 Casuality, Curious 193 Chase after a Runaway Engine, A 136 Child’s Idea on Railways, A 179 Child, Remarkable Rescue of a 249 Claim for goodwill for a Cow killed on the Railway 268 Clergy, Appealing to the 83 Clever, Quite too 181 Coach _versus_ Railway Accidents 198 Compensation for Land 106 ,, A Widow’s Claim for 242 Competition, Early Railway 27 ,, For Passengers 167 ,, Goods 135 Conductor, A Wide-awake 184 Coincidences, Remarkable 291 Cook’s Railway Excursions, Origin of 87 Cool Impudence and Dishonesty 248 Coolness, A Little Boy’s 258 Constable, The Electric 92 Contracts, Expensive 263 Contractor, An Accommodating 113 Contractors and the Blotting Pad, Rival 99 Contrast, National 171 Conversion of the Gauge 243 Counsel, The bothered Queen’s 247 Courting on a Railway thirty miles an hour 159 Crimea, The First Railway in the 156 Croydon. It’s 271 Curious Classification, A 294 Custom of the Country, The 234 Cuvier’s Description of the Locomotive 21 Damages easily adjusted 127 Day. The Great Railway Mania 114 Death. Faithful unto 153 Decision. A Quick 95 Decoy Trunk, The 224 Deodand. The 88 Difficulties encountered in making Surveys 31 Difficulty solved, A 181 Discovery, A Great 144 Discussion, An Unfortunate 89 Disguise, Duty in 283 Dissatisfied Passengers 236 Doctor and the Officers, The 246 Dog Ticket 91 Down Brakes, or Force of Habit 192 Drink. That accursed 274 Drinking from the Wrong Bottle 262 Driving a last spike 224 Dropping the letter “L” 267 Dukes and the traveller, The two 114 Dying Engine Driver, The 191 Early American Railway Enterprise 66 Early Morning Ride 187 Early Steam Carriages 15 Elevated Sight-seers Wishing to Descend 59 Engine Driver, A Brave 247 ,, A Mad 278 Engine Driver’s Presence of Mind 232 ,, Driving 230 ,, Fascination 166 Engineer and Scientific Witness 133 ,, Very Nice to be a Railway 113 Entertaining Companion 195 Epigram, Railway 124 Epitaph, An Engine Driver’s 86 ,, on the Victim of a Railway Accident 85 Escape, Providential 128 Escapes from being Lynched, Narrow 153 Everett’s Reply to Wordsworth’s Protest 123 Evidence of General Salesman 78 ,, Picture 111 Evil, A Dreaded 145 Excursionists put to the proof 294 Extracts from Macready’s Diaries 138 Fares, Cheap 188 Fault, At 241 Female Fragility 250 Flutter caused by the murder of Mr. Briggs 253 Fog Signals 121 Forged Tickets 217 Fourth of July Facts 244 Fraud on the Great Northern Company, Immense 161 Frauds, Attempted 140 Freak, Singular 170 Freaks of Concealed Bogs 138 Frightened at a Red Light 223 Girl, A Brave 273 Goat and the Railway, The 155 Good Things of Railway Accidents 186 Gravedigger’s Suggestion, A 257 Gray, Thomas. A Railway Projector 22 Greenlander’s First Railway Ride, A 255 Growing Lad, A 217 Hartington, The Marquis of, on George Stephenson 283 Hair-Dresser, The anxious 79 Heroism of a Driver 270 Highlander and a Railway Engine, The 138 Hoax, Accident 167 Horses _versus_ Railways 262 How to bear losses 214 Impressions, A Mexican Chief’s Railway 278 Incident, An amusing 258 ,, An Electric Tramway 282 Information, Obtaining 154 Insulted Woman, An 235 Insured 202 Judge’s feeling against Railways, A County Court 150 Kangaroo Attacking a Train, A 209 Kemble’s Letter, Fanny 35 Kid-Gloved Samson, A 184 Kiss in the Dark, A 256 Lady and her Lap-dog, The 242 ,, An Exacting 183 Legislation, Railway 100 Liabilities of Railway Engineers for Errors 127 Liability of Companies for Delay of Trains 191 Life upon a Railway, by a Conductor 148 Loan Engineering, or Staking out a Railway 172 Locomotive, A Smuggling 234 ,, Dangerous 292 Luggage, Lost 112 ,, in Railway Carriages 281 ,, What is Passengers’ 243 Madman in a Railway Carriage, A 201 Marriage, A Railway 139 ,, and Railway Dividends 228 Match, A Runaway 93 Merchant and his Clerk, The 160 Mistake, A slight 263 Monetary Difficulties in Spain 212 Money. Lost and Found 87 Monkey Signalman, A 294 Navvy’s Reason for not going to Church, A 80 Nervousness 259 New Trick. A 203 Newspaper Wonder, A 211 Newton, Sir Isaac’s Prediction of Railway Speed 14 Notice, Copy of a 237 ,, A curious 154 ,, A remarkable 252 ,, to Defaulting Shareholders, A Novel 95 Not to be caught 246 Novel Attack, A 197 ,, Obstruction 215 Objections, Sanitary 77 Opposition, A Landowner’s 110 ,, English and American 71 ,, Parliamentary 29 ,, to Making Surveys 75 Orders, My 280 Parody upon the Railway Mania 118 Passengers and other Cattle 158 ,, Third-class 143 Peto, Sir Morton, and the Balaclava Railway 156 Peto’s, Sir Morton, Railway Mission 104 Phillippe and the English Navvies, Louis 125 Photographing an Express Train 259 Polite Irishman, The 194 Portmanteau, His 130 Post Office and Railways. The 119 Power of Locomotive Engines, Gigantic 94 Practice, Sharp 80 Prejudice against carrying Coals by Railways 84 ,, Removed 81 Presentiment, Mrs. Blackburne’s 56 Profitable Damages 295 Prognostications of Failure 73 Pullman’s Carriages 295 Race, A Curious 254 Railway, An Early 20 ,, An Early Ride on the Liverpool and Manchester 61 ,, Announcement 17 ,, Enterprise 296 ,, Travelling, Early 63 ,, Destroyers in the Franco-German War 223 ,, from Merstham to Wandsworth 16 ,, Liverpool and Manchester 32 ,, Manners 272 ,, Merthyr Tydvil 17 ,, A Profitable 260 ,, Opening of the Darlington and Stockton 26 ,, Romance 93 ,, Sleeper, A 246 ,, Signals 120 ,, Switch Tender and his Child 199 ,, Train turned into a Man-trap 185 ,, Up Vesuvius 274 Railways, Elevated 214 ,, A Judgment 268 ,, Origin of 13 Railroad Incident 214 ,, Tracklayer 216 Rails, Expansion of 158 Rector and his Pig. The 103 Redstart, The Black 199 Rejoinder, A smart 158 Reproof for Swearing 189 Request, A Polite 136 Ride from Boston to Providence in 1835, A 81 Robinson’s, Crabb, First Railway Journey 65 Ruling Occupation strong on Sunday 186 Safety on the Floor 147 Seat, The Safest 268 Scotch Lady and her Box 272 Scene at a Railway Junction, Extraordinary 134 ,, Before a Sub-Committee on Standing Orders 176 Security for Travelling 229 Sell, A 241 Seizure of a Railway Train for Debt 208 She takes Fits 210 Shrewd Observers 20 Signalman, An Amateur 97 Singular Circumstance 125 Sleeper, A Heavy 276 Sounds, Remarkable Memory for 266 Snag’s Corners 210 Snake’s Heads 81 Snowed up on the Pacific Railway 237 Speed of Railway Engines 30 Steam defined 137 ,, Pulling a Tooth by 276 Steel Rails 193 Stephenson Centenary, The 284 ,, ,, George Robert Stephenson’s Address 286 ,, ,, Rev. T. C. Sarjent’s Address at the 288 ,, ,, Sir William Armstrong’s Address at the 284 Stephenson’s Wedding Present, George 194 Stopping a Runaway Couple 200 Stumped 293 Swindling, Ingenious 292 Taken Aback 152 Taking Him Down a Peg 252 Taste, Loss of 291 Tay Bridge Accident 245 Telegraph, Extraordinary use of the Electric 111 Ticket, A Lost 164 ,, Your 271 Traffic-Taking 86 Train Stopped by Caterpillars, A 204 Travelling, Effects of Constant Railway 281 ,, in Russia 204 ,, Improvement in Third-Class 143 Trent Station 192 Trip, An Unpleasant Trial 72 Tunnel, In a Railway 137 Very Cool 199 Waif, An Extraordinary 245 Ward’s, Artemus, Suggestion 197 Watkin, Sir Edward, on Touting for Business 269 Way, A Quick 138 Way-Leaves 13 Wedding at a Railway Station 166 What are you going to do? 189 Whistle, Steam 98 Wolves on a Railway 197 Wordsworth’s Protest 122 Yankee Compensation Case, A 218

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, entitled “Astral Wonders,” is to be found the following remarkable passage:—“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 ANTICIPATED.

_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 Arsenal Museum at Paris. It is now to be seen in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers.

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 assistant 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 assistance 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 _propriâ personâ_. 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 passed 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 passengers 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 4½ 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 petition 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.