. Wonders and curiosities of the railway; or, Stories of the locomotive in every land . the act of the English fireman would have taken theshape of a sacred and solemn rite. But times change, andcustoms with them. It goes without saying that everything connected withthe first railroad was of a rude description. There wereno gates across turnpike roads, no brakes on the cars,and no signal-lamps. One kind of night-signal used byan engineer for stopping a train was a burning tow-linekindled by a shovelful of red-hot cinders. A candle stuckin the station window was the signal to stop, and its abse
. Wonders and curiosities of the railway; or, Stories of the locomotive in every land . the act of the English fireman would have taken theshape of a sacred and solemn rite. But times change, andcustoms with them. It goes without saying that everything connected withthe first railroad was of a rude description. There wereno gates across turnpike roads, no brakes on the cars,and no signal-lamps. One kind of night-signal used byan engineer for stopping a train was a burning tow-linekindled by a shovelful of red-hot cinders. A candle stuckin the station window was the signal to stop, and its absencemeant go on. The cars had no springs and no buffers,and the jolting was something awful. The Stephensonlocomotives at this time had the steam-blast, but not themulti-tubular boiler. On September 27,1875, the semi-centennial of the originof railways was celebrated at Darlington, under the au-spices of the Directors of the North-Eastern EailwayCompany. One hundred thousand visitors were present atthe Jubilee; there were flags and cannon-firings, a banquet BEGIiTNINGS IN EUROPE. 13. 14 WOIS^DEES AiqD CURIOSITIES OF THE RAILWAY. and speeches, and an exhibition of veteran locomotives, andother quaint relics of the early days. Before passing to some account of the more famousLiverpool and Manchester railroad, we must not omit atribute of praise to Thomas Gray, of Nottingham. He wasthe first to agitate the question of passenger railways. Thesubject was his hobby, his craze; he memorialized all prom-inent men, wrote in all the journals, and bored everybodynearly to death. Put him in a strait jacket, said theEdinburgh Review; Such persons are beneath ournotice, said the pompous Quarteil^y. Nevertheless,Grays prophetic work on railways went through fiveeditions during his lifetime, and he lived to see his ideatriumphant. But such was the irony of fate that he wasrefused employment on the very road he had planned andhelped to bring into existence, and he died steeped to thelips in pove
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