There is no branch of the connection between the railways and the Post Office in which the former has gained more conspicuously than in that of speed;[46] and precisely the same may also be said with respect to the general community.
As has already been stated, the average speed of mail coaches was a little under ten miles an hour in 1837, that of stage coaches under eight, that of waggons two; and that the latter were used in the middle of the last century, at all events, we have pictorial evidence, through the pencil of Hogarth, and written testimony from the writings of his contemporaries, as well as from those of subsequent men of letters.
The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, substituted between its two termini an average speed of 17 miles an hour. Speed has increased steadily year by year, as we shall now endeavour to make manifest.
In 1842 the night mail train left Euston Station at 8·30 p.m., and reached Lancaster (241 miles) at 7·0 a.m. Since the 1st of October, 1860, the Scotch Limited Mail leaves Euston Station every evening at 8·35 p.m., it arrives at Perth at 8·59 a.m. the next day; the distance is 449 miles, and it is performed, including ten stoppages, at the rate of 37½ miles an hour. There were more stoppages for mail trains in 1840 than since 1860, but, apart from this fact, the time that the mail train required to complete 449 miles is the same as that which it required to complete only 15 miles more than half that distance, twenty years previously.
The Irish express mail completes the journey from London to Holyhead (263 miles), with three stoppages only, for passenger accommodation, in 6 hours 40 minutes, or at the rate of 38½ miles an hour.
For a short run, involving only one stoppage for the engine to take water, the most rapid on the narrow gauge[47] in England is between London and Dover, by the South-Eastern Railway, 88 miles in 2 hours and 5 minutes, 42 miles an hour. But on Australian mail nights (the 26th of each month), the Post Office employs, in addition to the ordinary “down” mail, a special one for the conveyance of such bags and boxes as can be got ready by 7 p.m. This train travels between London and Dover in 1 hour and 45 minutes. There is one stop for water. The rate of speed, including the stop, is a little over 50 miles an hour, excluding it, the rate is 54.
There is a train on the Great Western, which although not carrying mails, is the fastest in England. It completes the distance from London to Exeter, 194 miles, with 4 stops, amounting to 20 minutes, in 4½ hours; or at the rate of 43 miles an hour. A little more than a quarter of the time occupied by the “Quicksilver” Mail in the olden days; but the “Quicksilver” only went over 160 miles, the roadway distance between London and Exeter, or 24 miles less than by the Great Western and Bristol and Exeter Railways.
The grandest exceptional run ever made on railways was on the 5th January, 1862, the occasion being, when answers were brought to the despatches sent to Washington, requiring the surrender of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, who had been taken out of the “Trent,” Royal West India Mail Steamer, by orders of Commodore Wilks. The steamer arrived at Queenstown at 10·5 p.m.: at 11·28 p.m., Irish time,[48] the special train started from Cork, and accomplished the journey to Dublin (166 miles) in four hours and three minutes; or at the rate of 41 miles an hour, including stoppages. The mail steamer “Ulster” arrived at Holyhead at 8·15 a.m. The special train started at 8·28, and it is from this point that the most remarkable part of the express journey was accomplished. The run from Holyhead to Stafford, 130½ miles, occupied only 145 minutes, being at the rate of 54 miles an hour, and although so high a rate of speed was not attempted over the more crowded parts of the line approaching London, the whole distance from Holyhead to Euston was performed by the London and North-Western Company in exactly five hours, or at a speed of 52¾ miles an hour—a speed unparalleled for so long a distance on a line crowded with traffic. By means of the invention for supplying the tender with water from a trough in transitu, respecting which details will be given in a subsequent page, the engine was enabled to run from Holyhead to Stafford without pulling-up to take water. This is the longest run ever made by an engine without stopping; but the engines of the Irish Limited Mail Trains, owing to this trough, run twice a day in each direction without stopping, between Holyhead and Chester, 84½ miles. The weight of these trains, exclusive of the engine and tender, is fully 80 tons; but the weight of the American special express, exclusive of engine and tender, did not exceed 20.
A few words with respect to the fastest trains on the Continent. Previous to the 1st of April of this year, the mail trains between Calais and Paris completed 203 miles, with 15 minutes of stoppages for passenger accommodation, in 5 hours and 50 minutes, about 33¼ miles an hour. Since the opening of the railway between Calais and Boulogne, the mail trains go to and come from Paris viâ Boulogne. The distance is shortened to 186 miles, and the journey is performed, 15 minutes of stoppages for passenger accommodation being allowed, in 5½ hours, or at the rate of 34 miles an hour.
The “Rapide,” the night mail train from Paris to Marseilles, completes 537 miles in 15 hours 45 minutes, or at the rate, for this long journey, of 34 miles an hour. The day mail train from Paris to Bordeaux takes 10½ hours, a distance of 366 miles, or at the rate of 34¼ miles an hour. It is the fastest mail or express train in France that goes over a large extent of railway mileage, but its pace is 3¼ miles an hour less than the Scotch Limited Mail as far as Perth, 4¼ less than that of the Irish Express Mail, and 8¾ less than the express train of the Great Western from London to Exeter.