Okay so this is cool! Forget about a book review, this is a post about something very special I was lucky enough to find. One day when I was visiting a town near Cooperstown, NY I stumbled onto a used bookstore, I love books, but I never expect to find anything of interest. The shop had a whole section on train books that surpassed any of my best expectations. The train books were concentrated on 19th century rail, and I came to understand that all came from the collection of a former superintendent of trains in that part of New York State; he obviously loved trains and was well suited to his job. The books that interested me the most were two copies of Railway Magazine and Commercial Journal from December 7, 1839 and January 11, 1840: “Published Weekly at Half-past Six on Saturday Morning, and Goes Post Free”. These magazines chart interesting details at the start of the railway boom in the 1840’s. Already in 1839 facts and details concerning rail traffic and construction of railroads are coming in. The Greenwich Railway was recording passenger traffic at roughly 3200 per day at the end of November in 1839 with the yearly average per month for 1839 being 3777 1/2, I hate to have been the 1/2 a person! Lists of patents including improvements to steam locomotives by John Bourne of Dublin. The Croydon Railway by 1839 had constructed 10 1/2 miles of track with daily passenger averages of 924. December 7, 1839 a Mr. Labouchere received a payment of 35,000 pounds to cover the inconvenience and annoyance of the Eastern Counties Railway crossing his estate. Further objections to the new rail sytem were those regarding fees. In one such article titled “Sad Effects of High Fares” the author is quoted as saying: “We have ever been advocates for moderate fares. The only advantage of railways is reasonable charges and rapidity of transit, and the only base upon which they can hope for success.” He goes onto complain about rail versus omnibuses: “The railway gives the public trouble of going to and from the stations at London-bridge and at Greenwich, while the omnibuses take them up and set them down at their own doors and almost wherever they please in London at the same price (as the railway).” Timetables are always fun to review thus those provided in the Railway Magazine provide interesting insights as to how long a rail trip took from a London departure to Birmingham arrival, in 1839 passengers departed London at 6 AM and arrived in Birmingham at 11:30 AM. I calculated a rough estimate of 126 miles between the two stations. Calculating stops in Watford, Tring, Leighton, Wolverton, Blisworth, Weedon, Rugby, Coventry, and Hampton with few minutes passed at each station (passenger coaches of this era featured doors directly to cabin sections thus trains stopped only briefly averaging less than a minute, this was not a time of indecision, you were expected to board promptly) I calculate the average rate of speed to be roughly 20-24 miles per hour double the speed of horse and carriage. An improvement yes and probably unnerving to travel at that speed considering most people had not traveled that fast before in carriages that bumped and tossed! How exciting to have experienced this for the first time.