Talk:Chester and Holyhead Railway

Latest comment: 5 years ago by Afterbrunel in topic Doubtful citation

Mail coach

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The article states, without references: "a mail coach operated almost daily from London to Holyhead, taking 45 hours to make the journey." I think the distance is something like 250 miles these days but would have been a lot more circuitous in the era of the post coach. At the present day if that distance is still the same as I recall, that pace would have required about 5 mph non-stop. Mail_coach#Travel says that no only was this possible (again without references) but was accomplished at night. This is ridiculously unbelievable.

Weatherlawyer (talk) 12:17, 4 July 2016 (UTC)Reply

A mail coach would have followed Thomas Telford's Holyhead road, nowadays known as the A5, except that there were no bypasses in those days, so the coach would have gone straight through the middle of towns like Shrewsbury instead of going round like the present A5. --Redrose64 (talk) 18:32, 4 July 2016 (UTC)Reply
On Weatherlawyer's numbers it's less than 3 mph average. There were stops, but they did travel through the night. It's in Baughan page 21. Afterbrunel (talk) 17:07, 21 April 2019 (UTC)Reply

Stephenson again

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Yet again we have the old chestnut of Brassey working with Robert Stephenson as contractors, apparently under him. It was John Stephenson, no relation I think. Robert Stephenson was the engineer of this and many other lines, and did not engage in contracting. (In any case as the engineer, he would have been contractor to himself.) Afterbrunel (talk) 17:07, 21 April 2019 (UTC)Reply

Doubtful citation

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The article cites Helps, Arthur (2006) [1872]. The Life and Works of Mr Brassey. Nonsuch. p. 107. ISBN 1-84588-011-0.

I can;t find any such book. Helps wrote The Life and Labours ... but the topic dos not appear on page 107. I can't find any reference to Nonsuch Books. Nonesuch Books (with an "e") is a bookseller, not a publisher. The ISBN quoted does not return a book. (talk) 17:16, 21 April 2019 (UTC)Reply