Trainspotting

Written with great confidence and considerable aplomb, The Coming of the Railway is a must for the train enthusiast. David Gwyn, a major figure in the important Welsh railway-heritage movement, offers a crisp and comprehensive account that focuses on Britain but also ranges more widely, including to America, where in 1833 President Andrew Jackson traveled on the Baltimore & Ohio line. As far as is known, Jackson purchased his ticket like the other passengers and shared a carriage with them.

By then passengers were traveling more frequently, although there were restrictions, for example on Sunday services. Sometimes, there was an interesting fluidity to social mores as they responded to rail travel, with women gaining new freedoms and new dangers. Frederick Law Olmsted was surprised on the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad by...