Chapter 10 - Travelling By Rail

Summary

When once the speed had been accepted and the cheapness realised, train travel became the accepted means of moving about the world, but some people took a little time to trust the new devices. The London Brighton & South Coast Railway had opened their route to Portsmouth in June 1847 but this did not attract Mrs Hester Dawson (née Gery) who wrote to Mrs Hester Wade-Gery of Bushmead on 4th December 1847: ‘Have taken lodgings at Portsmouth; have seen Ada and Freddie. Little Henry was tired. I came in the coach which rattles very much but not nearly so much as those vile cars.’ Another member of the family had the opposite opinion. W. H. Wade-Gery wrote to his parents on 30th November 1847:

‘Will come to see you and Mary Hannah on Saturday next. I shall take a day ticket by the ¼ before 10 o’clock from Bedford and be at Ramsgate in the evening, return on the Monday morning.’

The 9.45 from Bedford (L.N.W.) reached Euston at 12 noon. Mr Wade-Gery would then take a cab to London Bridge for Ramsgate. The South Eastern Railway had built the line in 1844. A train journey in 1847 would seem spartan to us. Mr Wade-Gery would arrive at the (St John’s) station by horse-drawn vehicle and might have to wait while his paper ticket was written out by the booking clerk. Edmondson’s invention of printed cardboard tickets (1839) had not been universally adopted by 1847, and until then the clerk booked you in his book of paper tickets. From the low platform it would be quite a step up into the four-wheeled vehicle, lighted, if first class, by an oil lamp. This was a November day but there would be no heating in the carriage. If he had a good deal of luggage, much of it would be strapped on to the roof. At the head of the train would be a diminutive ‘Bury’ engine which would jerk the train into motion as all the carriages were loose coupled. The short coaches would clatter over the wrought iron rails, which only 20 feet in length would give a bumpy ride.