trumpeter at the end of
the platform; and this continued to be done at the Manchester Station
until a comparatively recent date.

But the number of passengers carried by the Liverpool and Manchester line
was so unexpectedly great, that it was very soon found necessary to
remodel the entire system. Tickets were introduced, by which a great
saving of time was effected. More roomy and commodious carriages were
provided, the original first-class compartments being seated for four
passengers only. Everything was found to have been in the first instance
made too light and too slight. The prize 'Rocket,' which weighed only
4.5 tons when loaded with its coke and water, was found quite unsuited
for drawing the increasingly heavy loads of passengers. There was also
this essential difference between the old stage-coach and the new railway
train, that, whereas the former was "full" with six inside and ten
outside, the latter must be able to accommodate whatever number of
passengers came to be carried. Hence heavier and more powerful engines,
and larger and more substantial carriages were from time to time added to
the carrying stock of the railway.

The speed of the trains was also increased. The first locomotives used
in hauling coal-trains ran at from four to six miles an hour. On the
Stockton and Darlington line the speed was increased to about ten miles
an hour; and on the Liverpool and Manchester line the first
passenger-trains were run at the average speed of seventeen miles an
hour, which at that time was considered very fast. But this was not
enough. When the London and Birmingham line was opened, the mail-trains
were run at twenty-three miles an hour; and gradually the speed went up,
until now the fast trains are run at from fifty to sixty miles an
hour,--the pistons in the cylinders, at sixty miles, travelling at the
inconceivable rapidity of 800 feet per minute!

To bear the load of heavy engines run at high speeds, a much stronger and
heavier road was found necessary; and shortly after the opening of the
Liverpool and Manchester line, it was entirely relaid with stronger
materials. Now that express passenger-engines are from thirty to
thirty-five tons each, the weight of the rails has been increased from 35
lbs. to 75 lbs. or 86 lbs. to the yard. Stone blocks have given place to
wooden sleepers; rails with loose ends resting on the chairs, to rails
with their ends firmly "fished" together; and in many pla