better
accommodation of the public, until at length regular passenger-trains
were run, drawn by the locomotive engine,--though this was not until
after the Liverpool and Manchester Company had established this as a
distinct branch of their traffic.

[Picture: The No. I. Engine at Darlington]

The three Stephenson locomotives were from the first regularly employed
to work the coal trains; and their proved efficiency for this purpose led
to the gradual increase of the locomotive power. The speed of the
engines--slow though it seems now--was in those days regarded as
something marvellous. A race actually came off between No. I. engine,
the "Locomotion," and one of the stage-coaches travelling from Darlington
to Stockton by the ordinary road; and it was regarded as a great triumph
of mechanical skill that the locomotive reached Stockton first, beating
the stage-coach by about a hundred yards! The same engine continued in
good working order in the year 1846, when it headed the railway
procession on the opening of the Middlesborough and Redcar Railway,
travelling at the rate of about fourteen miles an hour. This engine, the
first that travelled upon the first public railway, has recently been
placed upon a pedestal in front of the railway station at Darlington.

For some years, however, the principal haulage of the line was performed
by horses. The inclination of the gradients being towards the sea, this
was perhaps the cheapest mode of traction, so long as the traffic was not
very large. The horse drew the train along the level road, until, on
reaching a descending gradient, down which the train ran by its own
gravity, the animal was unharnessed, and, when loose, he wheeled round to
the other end of the waggons, to which a "dandy-cart" was attached, its
bottom being only a few inches from the rail. Bringing his step into
unison with the speed of the train, the horse learnt to leap nimbly into
his place in this waggon, which was usually fitted with a well-filled
hay-rack.

The details of the working were gradually perfected by experience, the
projectors of the line being scarcely conscious at first of the
importance and significance of the work which they had taken in hand, and
little thinking that they were laying the foundations of a system which
was yet to revolutionise the internal communications of the world, and
confer the greatest blessings on mankind. It is important to note that
the commer