We may think that today’s trains fail to run on time, but in the 19th century, stories of train unpunctuality and railway grievances were also common. Public complaints in newspapers reflected concerns about punctuality and safety.
Punch Magazine articles and cartoons often made jokes about the dangers of rail travel. ‘The Railway Nursery Rhymer’, Punch, 9 October, 1852, told children of the horror of a real railway journey. In it, Punch takes four nursery rhymes and gives them a train theme. Ride a Cock-Horse and Little Bo-Peep looks at the danger of slow trains. Hush-a-by Baby explores the 3rd class experience and the potential for an accident when faster trains pass slower ones. Dickory, Dickory, Dock is about a train crash.
Air – Ride a Cock-Horse
Fly by steam-force the country across,
Faster than jockey outside a race-horse:
With time-bills mismanaged, fast trains after slow,
You shall have danger wherever you go.
Air – Little Bo-Peep
Little Bo-peep
Is fast asleep,
In th’Excursion train you’ll find him:
Oh! It’s ten to one
If he ever gets home –
For a “Special” is close behind him!
Air – Hush-a-by Baby
Rock away, passenger, in the third class,
When your train shunts a faster will pass;
When your trains’ late your chances are small –
Crushed will be carriages, engine, and all.
Air – Dickory, Dickory, Dock
Smashery, mashery, crash!
Into the “Goods” we dash:
The “Express,” we find,
Is just behind-
Smashery, mashery, crash!
The railway companies prioritized some types of trains over others. ‘Special’ and ‘Excursion’ trains offered service to a single destination. These trains often interrupted the service of regular trains. Complaints about excursion trains and near-misses between fast trains and regular services were common in Victorian newspapers.
Hallo!
Very nice approach to look way beyond the engines – and to take care for feelings and impressions. Thank you very much indeed! That is why the NRM is not just a museum but an institution, setting marks in the railway world.
By the way: Some 30 years ago, there was an older poem published “somewhere” in the British press (I was on vacation and read that magazine in a pile of magazines stacked up in the mess-room at some museum-line, can neither recall the date nor the name) that dealt with the “Channel packet” and was about a engine-crew that enclosed their engine with a casing and made it “speedier”.
End was “it only goes to show – or does it”? I never found it with Google or when asking around.
Do you have any idea where I may find that poem (originating probably in the 1930s or 40s)? Od do you know it yourself? You seem to be very knowledgeable in that field, so I dare asking …
I am thankful for all help to find it. Thank you very much.
Kind regards from Germany.