Fire and Steam (66 page)

A satirical cartoon from 1850 suggesting possible alternative forms of employment for horses made redundant by the advent of the railway.

The railway greats: Brunel (far right) and Robert Stephenson (seated left) with colleagues at the launch of Brunel's SS Great Eastern in 1857.

In an effort to make the railways more acceptable to the public, the early engineers would often add embellishments to structures such as bridges and tunnels. This surprisingly rural scene from around 1840 is the entrance of the Primrose Hill Tunnel near Camden Town in north London on the London & Birmingham Railway built by Robert Stephenson.

The construction of St Pancras station as published in the
Illustrated London News
on 15 February 1868. The recently-built tunnel roof on which the men are standing in the foreground is the top of the world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan.

The Tay Bridge disaster of 1879 killed seventy-five people and remains to this day the worst railway accident caused by structural failure.

Construction of the iconic Forth Bridge, built between 1883 and 1890, which considerably shortened rail journeys between Edinburgh and Fife, Perth, Aberdeen and the north of Scotland.

This lithograph by Alfred Concanen from 1874 illustrates how the railway companies soon found an extra source of revenue by selling space on their walls for advertising anything from sherry to medical remedies.

Early railway companies also earned income by offering luxury rail tours to wealthy passengers. Here, a seventeen-strong party accompanied by two maidservants, a cook and a steward are setting out from St Pancras in 1876 on a twenty-six day excursion around Britain. The trip took in Scotland, the newly built and very scenic Settle to Carlisle line and the West Country.

The railways were responsible for the advent of mass tourism as they enabled people to reach their destinations cheaply and quickly. They exploited this burgeoning market with posters advertising the delights of the resorts they served. This ‘Summer & Winter Resorts' poster was produced by the London, Chatham & Dover Railway in 1897.

Locomotives of the Highland Railway, which catered largely for tourists in the summer but also played a vital role in the First World War. This picture is from the 1890s.

Midland Railway porters unloading milk at Somers Town dock, just west of St Pancras, in 1890. The churns were transported in ventilated wagons, ensuring fresh milk for Londoners whose diet was greatly improved by the spread of the railways.

Railway servants were expected to work long hours for modest pay, but job security and the uniform ensured a steady supply of labour. Drivers, like this one on the Great Central Railway in 1907, were regarded as a social elite and were extremely proud of their responsible position, as shown by this man's clean oil can and gold watch chain.