INSTRUCTIONS TO RAILWAY TRAVELLERS - 1843

INSTRUCTIONS TO RAILWAY TRAVELLERS
   
APPLICABLE

To nearly all the Railways in Great Britain.

Proceed at once to the booking-office and procure a ticket for the class carriage you intend to travel by, and if near the time of starting, enter the departure shed.

Have your name legibly written on your luggage, and see it stowed away, and then take your seat in a carriage, carrying with you carpet bags or other light luggage, and wait till the starting bell rings.

Take care of your ticket to deliver at your journey's end, or to the attendant at starting, as the case may be.

The weight generally allowed to each passenger for luggage is about 100 lbs. and a charge is made for excess.

No smoking is allowed at the stations, nor in any of the carriages.

No dogs allowed to be taken inside the carriages, but they are conveyed in a proper vehicle at a small charge for each.

Do not leave your seat at any station, except the one at which refreshment is allowed, nor attempt to open the carriage doors yourself.

Females are in attendance at each terminus, and at the central refreshment station, to wait upon ladies and children.

Carriages and horses should be at the stations at least a quarter of an hour before the time of starting.

Post horses can always be obtained at each terminus and most of the stations.

Omnibuses, flys, coaches and cabs are always waiting the arrival of the trains at each terminus.

Children under ten years of age half-price, infants in arms, unable to walk, free of charge.

Every train is provided with guards and a conductor, who is responsible for the order and regularity of the journey.

Every guard, porter or policeman employed by the company has a distinguishing number on the collar of his coat.

The companies' servants are strictly enjoined, on pain of dismissal, to observe the utmost civility and attention towards all the passengers, nor are they to receive any fee or gratuity.

From: Henry Tuck, Every Traveller's Guide to the Railways of England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, France, and Germany, 1843

"When greyhound or other large dogs are booked by a train..."

I found this interesting instruction in a Caledonian Rule book from 1863. If you would like to know a bit more about the transportation of dogs by rail in the Victorian era, I wrote a whole post on the topic last year. However, there seems to have been very little written on the topic, so I am open to expanding my knowledge on it.

When greyhound or other large dogs are booked by a train, and they can neither be placed in the carriage boots, nor chained in the van, they must be locked in the compartment  of a second or third class Caledonian local carriage, with their attendants and not where there are other passengers. If "booked through," they can be changed at the terminal station.