Christian Wolmar

So the static steam engines that had existed to pump out water in mines as being one major thing they did were huge, great big things.

And then you had to build the track.

There was at the time quite a lot of capital which arose from the fact that slavery had been abolished and a lot of the aristocrats who owned slaves were paid compensation.

And again, so they had some money to invest in the railways.

There was also a burgeoning middle class who were beginning to get savings and money that they wanted to invest in something profitable.

Their rate of return looked very attractive in some of these railways.

So that created a real rush to invest in lines, which was the railway mania, some of which was successful and resulted in lines, some of which the investors were fleeced and they never got their money back.

By 1840s, there was maybe eight or ten countries with railways.

By the 1850s, that probably doubled again.

And really, every country with a good economy had begun to start building railways.

The point is,

that it was such a game changer, such an obvious asset to a country that, of course, there were some downsides.

People sometimes objected to the dirt, the noise, the incursion on the countryside and so on.

But those downsides were very small compared to the upside.

quicker travel for people, quicker transfer of freight, a huge boost for technology, so the railways themselves were an important catalyst for the development of technology, and so on.

It was really quite an unstoppable force.

Because somewhere like Exeter in the West, the sun would rise 15 or 20 minutes later than in London.

And therefore, when you got to Exeter by train, you'd find you have to put your watch back by 15 or 20 minutes because that's what the local church clock said.

And that was obviously really inconvenient for railways because what do you put in the timetable?

Whose time are you using?