The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

186 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xvii.
phenson ventured on the very unusual measure of ordering in a
bottle of wine, to drink success to the railway. John Dixon
remembers and relates with pride the utterance of the master
on the occasion. " Now lads," said he to the two young men,
" I will tell you that I think you will live to see the day, though
I may not live so long, when railways will come to supersede
almost all other methods of conveyance in this country—when
mail coaches will go by railway, and railroads wiU become the
Great Highway for the king and all his subjects. The time is
coming when it will be cheaper for a working man to travel on
a railway than to walk on foot. I know there are great and
almost insurmountable difficulties that will have to be encountered
; but what I have said will come to pass as sure as we
live. I only wish I may live to see the day, though that I can
scarcely hope for, as I know how slow all human progress is,
and with what difficulty I have been able to get the loco-
motive adopted, notwithstanding my more than ten years' suc-
cessful experiment at Killingworth." The result, however, out-
stripped even the most sanguine anticipations of Stephenson
and his son Robert, shortly after his return from America in
1827, saw his father's locomotive generally adopted as the trac-
tive power on railways.
The Stockton and Darlington line was opened for traffic on
the 27th of September, 1825. An immense concourse of people
assembled from all parts to witness the ceremony of opening
this first public railway. The powerful opposition which the
project had encountered, the threats which were still uttered
against the railway by the road trustees and others, who declared
that they would yet prevent its being worked, and perhaps the
general unbelief as to its success which still prevailed, tended
greatly to excite the curiosity of the public as to the result.
Some went to rejoice at the opening, some to see " the bubble
burst ;
" and there were many prophets of evil who would not
miss the blowing up of tlie boasted Travelling Engine. The
opening was, however, auspicious. The proceedings commenced
at Brusselton Incline, about nine miles above Darlington, when
the fixed engine drew a train of loaded wagons up the incline
from the west, and lowered them on the east side. At the foot
;