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Caledonian Railway, 1859

From: Ian Thompson <ithompson~at~ges.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:03:50 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

I am transmitting a brief note on Verne and railways in the hope that, like me, there are some railway enthusiasts in the Forum membership. We seem mainly to discuss sea voyages and Verne's boats but Verne also travelled considerably by train, and in the case of Scotland, on the lines of eight or nine different companies, whose names he always specifies. In "Backwards to Britain", he travelled in 1859 from Liverpool to Edinburgh by the Caledonian Railway Company. This always surprised me because, as the name suggests, this was an exclusively Scottish company whose engines seldom, if ever, travelled south of Carlisle ( a town close to the Scottish-English border).
The explanation is to be found in the Caledonian Railway timetable for summer 1859 which lists a "through connection" between Liverpool and Edinburgh at the time of day Verne travelled. The system was for a number of Caledonian carriages to be attached to those of another company (The Lancashire and Yorkshire probably) for the journey from Liverpool to Carlisle. Then the carriages would be taken on to Edinburgh by an engine of the Caledonian Company. Verne would probably have been unaware of this engine and company change, especially as his ticket would probably have been issued on behalf of the Caledonian at Liverpool.
It is good to have confirmation of his journey, even if he probably unknowingly travelled by two companies rather than just one.
Ian Thompson
Received on Fri 30 Jun 2006 - 12:03:59 IDT

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