Introduction

The founding fathers of our national network understood the public well. Yes, travelling from one place to another in a tiny fraction of the time it took by stagecoach or boat was a start, but railways had to do much more.

The railways formed the backbone of post-Industrial Revolution society as we know it, because they facilitated cheap, efficient and fast transport of people and goods like never before. Yet they still had to sell themselves to the public.

When the money was available, many of the early railway companies invested huge amounts of money in their stations, which were the interface between the public at large and