'All Change' Act 1 Scene 8 - Railway Servants and Railway Passengers.

Scene 8 : Railway Servants and Railway Passengers

For a while, the railway line terminated at Denbigh Hall from the south and Rugby from the north. The intermediate gap was covered by a variety of horse-drawn conveyances.

A major thread of this scene derives from two Northampton newspapers of the time. The Mercury, a Whig paper, supported the railway but its rival, the Herald, was virulently opposed to it. The Herald agreed to publish any complaints against the railway.

From a prolific choice, we selected two: the Hat-box incident and the complaint by the local rector (of Willen). Both typify the conflict of attitudes between the new (wealthy) railway traveller and the newly emerged working-class company employee.

It was the Mercury which claimed for the railways the status of great moral teachers, referring to the virtue of punctuality. In the same issue was the news of the train being delayed by the sinking of the luggage van into the newly made road just outside Rugby. It was for us to connect the two and make the joke. The contemporary advice to a traveller on where to sit in a train assumed comic potential when spoken by a know-all who takes advantage of his captive audience, picking sadistically on Philimore’s already nervous lady companion.

(Description adapted from the script notes in ‘All Change’ booklet – 1977)