Railway Adventures and Anecdotes: Extending over More Than Fifty Years
History
Railway Adventures and Anecdotes: Extending over More Than Fifty Years
Railroads
“A few minutes before ten, the discharge of a gun and the cheers of the
assembly announced the arrival of the Duke of Wellington, who entered the
area with the Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury and a number of
friends, the band playing ‘See the conquering hero comes.’ He returned
the congratulations of the company, and in a few moments the grand car,
which he and the nobility and the principal gentry occupied, and the cars
attached to it, were permitted to proceed; we say permitted, because no
applied power, except a slight impulse at first, is requisite to propel
carriages along the tunnel, the slope being just sufficient to call into
effect the principle of gravitation. The tunnel was lighted with gas,
and the motion in passing through it must have been as pleasing as it was
novel to all the party. On arriving at the engine station, the cars were
attached to the _Northumbrian_ locomotive engine, on the southern of the
two lines of rail; and immediately the other trains of carriages started
through the tunnel and were attached to their respective engines on the
northern of the lines.
“We had the good fortune to have a place in the first train after the
grand cars, which train, drawn by the _Phoenix_, consisted of three open
and two close carriages, each carrying twenty-six ladies and gentlemen.
The lofty banks of the engine station were crowded with thousands of
spectators, whose enthusiastic cheering seemed to rend the air. From
this point to Wavertree-lane, while the procession was forming, the grand
cars passed and repassed the other trains of carriages several times,
running as they did in the same direction on the two parallel tracks,
which gave the assembled thousands and tens of thousands the opportunity
of seeing distinctly the illustrious strangers, whose presence gave
extraordinary interest to the scene. Some soldiers of the 4th Regiment
assisted the railway police in keeping the way clear and preserving
order, and they discharged their duty in a very proper manner. A few
minutes before eleven all was ready for the journey, and certainly a
journey upon a railway is one of the most delightful that can be
imagined. Our first thoughts it might be supposed, from the road being
so level, were that it must be monotonous and uninteresting. It is
precisely the contrary; for as the road does not rise and fall like the
ground over which we pass, but proceeds nearly at a level, whether the
land be high or low, we are at one moment drawn through a hill, and find
ourselves seventy feet below the surface, in an Alpine chasm, and at
another we are as many feet above the green fields, traversing a raised
path, from which we look down upon the roofs of farm houses, and see the
distant hills and woods. These variations give an interest to such a
journey which cannot be appreciated until they are witnessed. The signal
gun being fired, we started in beautiful style, amidst the deafening
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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