THE FIRST 'RAILWAY' BOOKS

The Liverpool/Manchester Railway had many viaducts, cuttings and embankments that were new awe-inspiring dominant features of the countryside. There was widespread interest; in order to carry public opinion with them and silence the objections of the critics the railway companies commissioned many artists to produce romantic paintings fitting these large man-made constructions into the landscape.

Rudolf Ackermann, a German immigrant who had settled in London, also commissioned paintings to be made into prints for publication from many eminent artists, such as Rowlandson, Sandby, Rooker, and Pyne. He started publishing his Railway Books as early as the 1830s using the aquatint process but soon went over to lithography, invented by the Bavarian, Senefelder in 1798, which Ackermann later perfected for multiple colour printing to be followed by steel and wood engraving. His scenes along the whole railway had considerable artistic merit, as well as being accurate portrayals of the engineering and construction involved.

An outstanding contributor was T.Talbot Bury (1811-1877) a young architect who later, together with Pugin, designed details for the new Houses of Parliament. Here in his coloured aquatint The Viaduct across the Sankey Valley, Liverpool/Manchester Railway, 1831, (left), there is a pastoral foreground, with cattle grazing on the canalside meadows, and a sailing barge tranquilly sailing past. Towering over the scene is the new brick-built viaduct, architecturally elegant and well detailed. Its height, 50 feet (15m) above the canal, and length, nine arches each 50 feet (15m) span, are emphasised by the smallness of the locomotive and its few carriages, crossing the viaduct. This is just visible over the upper parapet, with the white plume of smoke and steam blowing sideways, clearly seen against the threatening dark clouds.

As well as benefits the railway created severe social problems. The stagecoach companies collapsed causing widespread unemployment (at its peak there were over 10,000 horses pulling coaches on the roads in Britain, with all the infra-structure of breeding horses, growing fodder, staffing and maintaining the services, and providing the inns for the overnight stays).

Not everyone was impressed with the wonder of these new machines. The cartoonists in 1831 ridiculed the lax railway management, (left) showing the engine driver unconcernedly reading his newspaper while the passengers are in a state of complete disarray. Stephenson's locomotive Northumbrian nevertheless is depicted accurately with its horizontal cylinder, piston rod, crosshead, connecting rod and crank on the front driving wheel. Another historic event on this railway was the first cheap group excursion organised by Thomas Cook in 1841 (above right), the precursor of the vast expansion of tourist traffic to come on the great railway networks around the world.