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The Victorian Railway
by
Elizabeth Stegenga
Copyright 2002-2006
No reprint without Author's permission
“It was only yesterday,” exclaims one of Thackeray’s characters, “but what a gulf between now and then. Then was the old world. Stage-coaches, more or less swift riding horses, packhorses, highwaymen . . . But your railroad starts a new era . . . We who lived before railways and survive out of the ancient world are like Father Noah and his family out of the Ark.” By 1875, nearly five hundred million passengers traveled by rail in Great Britain each year. People were no longer forced to endure lengthy cross-country rides in a teeth-jarring stage or stuff themselves into crowded omni-buses to make the daily trip to work downtown. Travel no longer belonged only to the social elite, for at a penny a mile, even the poorest could afford a Sunday trip to the country. Milk fresh from a Surrey cow could leave the farm at morning and be in a London hotel in time for tea that afternoon. Life in England would never be the same. While skeptical at first, the English quickly caught onto the convenience of train travel. Speed alone urged most to risk the unknown conveyance. Trains in the 1850’s averaged more than twenty miles per hour, the expresses almost forty, and by the end of the century, the fastest train sped by at fifty-five miles per hour. A passenger could travel from Grantham to King’s Cross, a distance of one hundred and five miles, in one hour and fifty-seven minutes, and from Newcastle to Edinburgh in two hours and fifty-three minutes. The English railway system had a language all its own, differing greatly from its American counterpart. When making a journey, a Englishman went by “railway”, never by “railroad”. The engineers were called “drivers”, the conductors, “guards”, the firemen, “stokers”. The railway cars were called “carriages”, and first-class carriages were made up of three “coaches”. Stations were called “depots”, and valises and trunks were “bags and boxes”. Baggage trains were the “luggage van”. A freight train was a “goods train”, the track is the “line,” and the switches the “points”. The station agent is always the station “master”. They didn’t buy their tickets, they “booked” them, and passengers were not urged to “get aboard” but to “please, take your seats”. Tickets were not demanded for in a stand and deliver fashion, but were politely collected with a smile. Toward the end of the 19th century, most every market and coastal town boasted a railway station, and every railway owner knew good business meant good service. No station was so small that it did not have at least one porter, and most depots staffed many. Corduroy uniforms, emblazoned with a badge denoting the company they served, easily identified a porter to even the novice traveler. Porters met each carriage transporting passengers to the depot, and were the first to greet the passengers when they stepped off the train. They took baggage and offered directions, and were more then ready to accept a tip. Considering that these men rarely made over five pounds a week, tips were expected. If a passenger should fail to tip a helpful porter, he was more than likely to show in some practical way that he considered himself defrauded. Fares and traveling classes changed throughout the Victorian era. Originally, there were just two classes of passengers, first and second. Later, third class was added, which consisted of cattle cars with no covering from the elements. Thomas Hardy described what a ride was like for the poor in those days: “The seats for the humbler class of travelers in these early experiments were open trucks, without any protection whatever from the wind and rain . . . the unfortunate occupants were found to be in a pitiable condition from their long journey; blue-faced, stiff-necked, sneezing, rain-beaten, chilled to the marrow.” The first comfortable passenger cars resembled fancy horse-drawn carriages hooked together on a flat-bed wagon. There were no aisles or corridors. Doors to each compartment opened out onto the outside, so passengers could only leave and enter at the station. Some trains had separate ladies’ compartments, making it safer for females to travel alone. Many wealthy passengers brought along their servants, who rode in the second-class cars, and when the train stopped, these servants would rush to the first class cars to check on their employers. By the late Victorian time period, a passenger had their choice of a first, second or third class ticket. The first class compartment carried six passengers, three on each side, and each seat had two soft arm-rests and a reclining, upholstered seat back. Second-class also had a soft seat back, but no arm-rests, and allowed less room per passenger. Third-class packed five to a side on wooden benches, though rarely did passengers have to endure full cars unless it was during the holiday season. Fares ranged as follows: first-class, four cents a mile, second-class, three cents, third-class, two cents. Some railways ceased to issue second-class tickets, due to fact that those who could afford it paid for first-class, and the rest saved their money and traveled third. Another class, established in 1844, rode in what were called “Parliamentary trains”. These trains, ordered by the ’44 Railway Act, required each line to run at least one train a day that had a fare of one penny per mile. They were the cheapest way to travel, but far from the most comfortable. For all its speed, railway travel did have its disadvantages. At first, there was no light on many trains, and people often brought candles and lanterns to read by at night. Except a few long distance trains that had Pullman cars attached, there were no places for sleeping. Before the advent of steam heating in 1874, keeping warm meant a foot warmer filled with hot water, which did little or no good on bitter winter days. Dining cars didn’t exist until 1879, forcing passengers to bring their own food aboard, and there were no bathrooms onboard until 1892. Ladies, however, were known to bring chamber pots concealed in discreet wicker baskets while traveling long distances, and long tubes that could be strapped to the leg under a trouser were sold to gentlemen passengers. The greatest railway inconvenience, however, was the way baggage was handled. A passenger, with rare exceptions, had to keep this baggage on his mind at all times. He had to see that was put on the luggage van at the starting point and taken off when his destination was reached, and if a change of trains had to be made, he would have to jump from the carriage the moment it stops, rush to the luggage van and make sure his baggage was not stolen. There were no baggage tickets, so anyone could claim anyone else’s luggage at any time, especially if he was quick and stealthy. However, railway travel rediscovered Britain for the Victorians. People who’d never stepped outside their village got to experience more of the world, and their world was better for it. Most, if not all, Victorians would have gladly braved the worst inconvenience to make what was once a week-long trial by coach into a hour trip by train. Sources
Hibbert, Christopher. Daily Life in Victorian England. Horizon Books
Mitchell, Sally. Daily Life in Victorian England. Greenwood Press, 1998.
Pool, Daniel. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew. Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Tuckley, Henry. Under the Queen: Life in Present Day England. 1891.
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