A summer Sunday excursion on the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway in 1840 provoked the Scottish minister W. C. Burns to denunciations by placard and handbill, placed all across Tyneside: A Reward for Sabbath Breaking. People taken safely and swiftly to Hell! Next Lord’s Day, by the Carlisle Railway, for 7s. 6d. It is a Pleasure Trip! Easy to laugh at such things today; the organisers in 1840 were less blasé, putting up bills the following day to reassure people that the excursionists had made a safe return.
