Not many people would have sympathised with Ruskin’s denunciation of the railways, but even those who disliked them were happy to use the facilities the railways offered. Among the first eager customers were citizens both good and bad, and a petition to Quarter Sessions in 1860 from some leading Luton townsfolk asking for more police constables, shows how the railway there was used. The petitioners stated:

But trains were not just convenient for escaping, but also suitable for some sorts of theft. The modern corridor coach did not become common until the end of the 19 th century, and the ordinary compartments were an ideal medium for the criminal, especially if they contained only one person. Thus the most common form of crime, during this period, was personal assault with robbery as the motive, for there was no communication between carriages.

Public opinion gave H. Sheridan the opportunity to introduce his Railways (Guards’ and Passengers’ Communication) Bill in May 1857, which though good in conception, did not go far enough. Railways could adopt any form of communication they wished, and the result was that many companies fitted unreliable systems to their coaches, which were in effect useless.

A murder by an immigrant called Muller in 1864 caused the greatest outcry, but the railways’ response varied from gradually fitting Harrison’s external cord, to fitting of ‘Muller’s lights’ on the London & South Western Railway.