Once again, Victorian inventiveness makes my brains hurt

August 3, 2005

Ready for this? The Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway”…otherwise known as “The Daddy Longlegs Railway”….

…A railway that needed a sea captain.

Because it was travelling over the sea, the only way the Pioneer could obtain a licence was to have a trained sea captain actually operating it or being available at all times. He knew whether the sea was safe to travel over. The Pioneer had to have a lifeboat on the back and a number of lifebelts round the edges so that if there was a problem people would be able to get away. In effect, it was treated almost as though it was a ship.

Just plain astounding.

Everyone who’s read cyberpunk will have been here before me. (And ever so briefly, I’ve been there myself.) But the thought of that time’s crazed inventiveness, coupled with today’s materials and energy technology…what an alternate universe that would be.

Posted in Fantasy and science fiction, History