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

190 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xvii.
ment" was not, however, worked by the company, but was let to
Messrs. Pickersgill and Harland, carriers on the railway, under
an arrangement with them as to the payment of tolls for the use
of the line, rent of booking cabins, &c.
The speculation answered so well, that several coaching com-
panies were shortly got up by innkeepers at Darlington and
Stockton, for the purpose of running other coaches upon the
railroad,—and an active competition for passenger traffic now
sprang up. The " Experiment " being found too heavy for one
horse to draw between Stockton and Darlington, besides being
found an uncomfortable machine, was banished to the coal district,
and ran for a time between Darlington and Shildon. Its place
on the line between Stockton and Darlington was supplied by
other and better vehicles,—though they were no other than old
stage-coach bodies, which were purchased by the company, each
mounted upon an underframe with flange wheels, and let out to
the coaching companies, who horsed and managed them under an
arrangement as to tolls, in like manner as the " Experiment"
had been worked. Now began the distinction of inside and
outside passengers, equivalent to first and second class, paying
different fares. The competition with each other upon the rail-
way, and with the ordinary stage-coaches upon the road, soon
brought up the speed, which was increased to ten miles an hour
—the mail coach rate of travelling in those days, and considered
very fast, The coaches filled almost daily. " In fact," says a
writer of the time, " the passengers do not seem to be at all par-
ticular, for, in cases of urgency, they are seen crowding the
coach on the top, sides, or any part where they can get a footing
and they are frequently so numerous, that when they descend
from the coach and begin to separate, it looks like the dismissal
of a small congregation !
"
Mr. Clephan, a native of the district, thus piquantly describes
some of the more prominent features of the competition between
the rival coach companies :— " There were two separate coach
companies in Stockton ; and amusing collisions sometimes oc-
curred between the drivers—who found on the rail a novel
element for contention. Coaches cannot pass each other on the
rail as on the road ; and at the more westward public-house in
;