NEW JUNE 2020. The first three pages consist of a report read at a meeting of the British Association held at Swansea in August 1848. Entitled 'Facts bearing on the Progress of the Railway System', it provided an overview of the railways of Britain to that date supported with figures.

The remaining nineteen pages contain a four-part article which appeared in successive issues of The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, Scientific and Railway Gazette during 1848. The overall title of the series was 'Contributions to Railway Statistics in 1846, 1847 and 1848'. The data was taken from the annual returns made by each railway.

Detailed figures are supplied under thirty different headings - examples include passengers and fares; cattle traffic; bulk loads carried (split into categories such as coal, coke, sand and iron); building traffic; fish; provisions; mails; parcels; agricultural traffic; manure traffic; horses and carriages; and dogs. Those railways which recorded the appropriate item in their returns are listed. All our local railways of the time feature, apart from the Blackwall Railway.

The file is word-searchable and has bookmarks to the main sections. It will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.