Looking for information on 19th century English rail travel

I would like to find some data on what passenger rail travel in England was like in the later 19th century. How long did it take to get places, names of rail lines, important rail stations, classes of travel, etc, etc, and so forth.

Honestly, I’ve tried googling for this but my skills must be lacking. I’ve tried various combinations of “English, history, rail, travel, transport, passenger” and so on, but most of what comes up is contemporary travel guides, or much more recent histories.

I’m going to keep on working at it, but if someone can give me suggestions, or a nudge in the right direction, I’d sure appreciate it.

You want a copy of Bradshaw, a montly publication from some time in the mid-nineteenth century to some time in the mid-twentieth which gave all the timetables of all the railway companies in Britain and Ireland. It wouldn’t (I think) give you ticket prices, but it would give you pretty well everything else - stations, routes, classes of service, which trains had dining cars and sleeping cars, etc.

This page links to some extracts, but I don’t know if you’ll find a full copy online. Railway enthusiasts being what they are, I wouldn’t be surprised if something lilke a transport museum had a collection of them. Failing that, they’ll be in the British Library and probably other major reference libraries in the UK, but that may not be all that convenient for you…

Have you read the Sherlock Holmes stories? Much of what you want is right there.

God, I love the SDMB, two great suggestions. Those railway timetable are amazing, I’ll look into them further.

And I do have most of Sherlock Holmes, I’d never have thought of using that as such a reference. Just the right time period too!

Thanks to the both of you, UDS and Askance!

Tweak your Google search terms and you’ll get much better results: ‘british railways victorian’, for examples.

Searching Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) for “Railway” finds 14 books available online.

Some titles look like they might be useful to you:

Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway
Rides on Railways
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland
Western Parts of Britain Served by The Great Western Railway

Hang on a minute - why didn’t any of us think the obvious:


Railways + Wikipedia = Geek Heaven

History of rail transport in Great Britain 1830–1922 - Wikipedia, with a good chunk of references to books.

Thanks again to all those who have answered!!!

GorillaMan, it’s odd, but I did look around in Wikipedia, and while I found a number of articles on rail transport I never found the particular link you furnished, and which should prove very helpful.

t-bonham@scc.net, I’ve looked up all four of the books you listed, and #'s 2 & 3 are spot on for some of the “local color” I’ll want to add. Great stuff.