Railway travel

[Barrister]

Does anyone know the speed of trains in the late Victorian era? If not, do you know where that information can be found? Thanks.

[GUT]

Does anyone know the speed of trains in the late Victorian era? If not, do you know where that information can be found? Thanks.

Like today the speed varied depending on the line.

[GUT]

There are a lot of threads in the Druitt sub forums on train timetables etc.

[DJA]

Does anyone know the speed of trains in the late Victorian era? If not, do you know where that information can be found? Thanks.

30 to 70 mph.

[Robert]

According to Sherlock Holmes, fifty-three and a half miles an hour.

[John Savage]

Hi Barrister,

The answer to your question might well be Bradshaw's Railway Guide which was published in the nineteenth century.

They are, I am afraid, quite rare and difficult to obtain, but if you have a specific route in mind perhaps the National Railway Museum at York could help you.

Rgds.
John

[Mayerling]

According to Sherlock Holmes, fifty-three and a half miles an hour.

Moriarty might have disagreed. Not because he hated Holmes (though that helped) but because he was a Professor of higher mathematics.

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

You can work it out from this December 1888 timetable.



Regards,

Simon

[John Savage]

Thanks Simon.

So just for comparison in 1888 the 2pm train from Euston to Liverpool takes four hours 25 minutes, whilst today an electric train capable of 125mph takes 2hours 34 minutes.

Does this help?

Rgds
John

[Ginger]

Do you mean the time it took a train to travel from one place to another, or the maximum speed that a train could achieve? If (as I suspect), you want the former information, then a railway timetable is your best bet, as others have already pointed out. That will show you how long it would have taken someone to ride the train from one place to another, plus it will show you what times someone could actually have taken a train from point A to point B. Just because Jack's at the station ready to ride a train doesn't mean that a train is available.

Another possibility, though, is that the Ripper may have simply "hopped" a goods train, and ridden away in that fashion. I do know that it's been suggested before that he escaped from the Buck's Row murder scene by jumping down onto a train as it passed through the cutting near the scene of the crime. If that's the case, then stations, timetables, etc. mean little. He's going to have to jump on and off the train when it's either moving slowly or stopped, though, which imposes some constraints. A group for railway enthusiasts would probably be the best place to get that sort of information.

[Graham]

I think that is from The Adventure Of Silver Blaze, and refers to a journey from London to Devon, which even in those days was a backwater. I seem to recall that in The Three Garridebs it is put that a train-journey from London (Euston) to Birmingham - about 112 miles - took slightly less than two hours, which is about the same time as it takes these days.

Someone said that a Bradshaw's Guide is a rare book these days - so glad to hear that, as I've got one dating from about 1865! I'm rich - rich! Do you hear me? Rich! Hah, hah hah!

Graham