At Darlington the procession was rearranged. The six loaded coal-wagons were left behind, and other wagons were taken on with a hundred and fifty more passengers, together with a band of music. The train then started for Stockton--a distance of only twelve miles--which was reached in about three hours. The day was kept throughout the district as a holiday; and horses, gigs, carts, and other vehicles, filled with people, stood along the railway, as well as crowds of persons on foot, waiting to see the train pass. The whole population of Stockton turned out to receive the procession, and, after a walk through the streets, the inevitable dinner in the Town Hall wound up the day's proceedings. All this, however, was but gala work. The serious business of the company began on the following day. Upon the result of the experiment now fairly initiated by the Stockton and Darlington Company the future of railways in a great measure depended. If it failed, like the Wandsworth, Croydon, and Merstham undertaking, then a great check would unquestionably be given to speculation in railways. If it succeeded, the Stockton and Darlington enterprise would mark the beginning of a new era, and issue in neither more nor less than a complete revolution of the means of communication in all civilized countries. The circumstances were on the whole favorable, and boded success rather than failure. Prudent, careful, thoughtful men were at the head of the concern, interested in seeing it managed economically and efficiently; and they had the advantage of the assistance of an engineer possessed of large resources of mother wit, mechanical genius, and strong common sense. There was an almost unlimited quantity of coal to be carried, the principal difficulty being in accommodating it satisfactorily. Yet it was only after the line had been at work for some time that the extensive character of the coal traffic began to be appreciated. At first it was supposed that the chief trade would be in coal for land sale. But the clause inserted in the original act, at the instance of Mr. Lambton, by which the company were limited to 1/2_d._ per ton per mile for coal led to Stockton for shipment, led to the most unexpected consequences. It was estimated that only about 10,000 tons a year would be shipped, and that principally by way of ballast. Instead of which, in the course of a very few years, the coal carried on the line for export constituted the main bulk of the traffic, while that carried for land sale was merely subsidiary.[56] The anticipations of the company as to passenger-traffic were in like manner more than realized. At first passengers were not thought of, and it was only while the works were in progress that the starting of a passenger-coach was seriously contemplated. Some eighty years since there was only one post-chaise in Darlington, which ran on three wheels. There are people still living who remember when a coach ran from Stockton three days in the week,