RAILWAY TRAVEL

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1930, Page 8

RAILWAY TRAVEL

-«***■- A CENTURY’S CHANGES. LONDON, September 4. Interesting reminders of the changes which" have taken pld'c' in railway travel are provided by the exhibition at the Science Museum, South Kensington, in connection with the centenary next week of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway. Historic locomotives, ■ including the Rocket, the Sans Pared,“and the Novelty, are shown, together \with old ■tickets, time-tables, drawings, and prints. One of the drawings is said to he the work of George Stephenson, and shows his “Killingworth locomotive” of 1815. A frail-looking engine, with small, graceful wheels, it was his first patented design, and had a speed of four miles an hour. •- A time-table for January, 1831, announces four first-class trains between Liverpool and Manchester. The fare was 5s and the trains; ran at “seven o’clock morning and ten o’clock morning,” and at “one afternoon and half-j-cist four afternoon,” and it was noted that “the journey is usually aocoiu.p-15sh.ed by first-class carriages under two hours.” Second-class passengers paid 3s 6d, and had trains at eight o’clock in the morning and halfpast two in the afternoon. It was not stated when they might expect to arrive at their detsination ! A. Bradshaw’s Guide for 1839 shows that five trains were running between Livepool and Manchester on week days and two on Sundays. A railway ticket of 1832 from Liverpool to Warrington is about ten inches long and a. couple of inches wide, and has blank spaces to be filled in with the purchaser’s name, his destination, and the price of the ticket—as was customary with stage coaches. At that time each ticket was made out individually by the “booking clerk,” whose designation, which still survives, arose from his duties.