Vires Acquirit Eundo (We gather strength as we go), c.1835 (hand coloured lithograph on paper)

A satire on railways in the form of group portrait featuring A.R. Dottin (MP and first chairman of the London and Greenwich Railway Company); Colonel Landman (engineer and designer of the London and Greenwich Railway Company); George Walter (promoter of the London and Greenwich Railway Company); and A.Y. Akerman (secretary of the London and Greenwich Railway Company). Quotes: `I am no scholar I should say it was a good Freehold Estate'; `TIS through your own land man'; `Adding all the advantages of this railway together, it promises a premium of £100. before 12 months'; `What would the Ancients say to the viaduct'? The London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR) was opened in London between 1836 and 1838. It ran along a four-mile long viaduct from Tooley Street on the south side of London Bridge and was the first steam railway in the capital, the first to be built specifically for passengers, and the first entirely elevated railway.