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Also check the CTC membership numbers. They fell off a cliff right around 1900. A decline on the order of 100 K to 30 K if memory serves. Sent from my iPhone On Nov 24, 2012, at 8:09 AM, "Oddy, Nicholas" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > You should start looking through the CTC Gazette, and there may be some stuff relating to railways in their archive (Which is now held by the National Cycle Archive at Warwick University). The CTC prided itself in negotiating national rates with the railway companies (there were about 120 of them at this time, many in deadly rivalry with their peers and crammed into a very small island). As ever, the railways saw cycles as an imposition, and treated them accordingly during the period of the ordinary, but rising cycle use no doubt started to look like cyclists could be exploited more successfully for profit. The numbers are not surprising (just think of the M4 on a bank holiday weekend to understand figures like the ones cited) it was commonplace for middle-class tourists to take a train to avoid having to plod out along roads they had travelled regularly saving time (and energy) for more interesting exploration of the larger countryside. Even today, this is a fairly common practice, and would be far more so if the system was as extensive as it was in 1900. > > Nicholas Oddy > > ________________________________ > > From: Cycling and Society Research Group discussion list on behalf of Andrew Wager > Sent: Fri 23/11/2012 19:53 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: Nineteenth Century Bicycle Design[Scanned-Clean] > > > > Thank you for that - it fills in the number of gaps for me. I'm particularly interested in the relationship between the railways and the late nineteenth century cyclist, and would offer the following quote as an indication of the popularity of the bicycle among the non-elite by the end of the nineteenth century. > > G.A. Wade, 'What a bank holiday means to London railways', Railway Magazine, 7 (1900) > > "But this was only one of the marvels performed by the railways on that wonderful Bank Holiday, only one amongst several others. I stood at Waterloo and watched what appeared to be a never-ending stream of cycles being wheeled hither and thither by owners and porters until I was fairly bewildered as to where they were all going. It seemed impossible that they should be all off by train, apart from the extraordinary passenger-crowds there were to be carried. But they were all the same. On asking afterwards I discovered that there were no less than 4,300 cycles sent off that holiday time. And the same number I also learned-or very nearly it, over 4,000-went from Paddington by the Great Western Railway. Good gracious, 8,500 cycles from two London stations! Wherever were they going to? Put in a line these 8,500 cycles would stretch from Waterloo to Paddington and back again, a distance of well on towards eight miles. A grand procession of cyclists that would be, wouldn't it? There was a time, and that not very long ago either, when the railway authorities treated the cyclists very cavalierly and offhandedly; but they have had to alter that system. An army that can muster 8,000 members at two stations on a given day is one not to be trifled with." > > > > > For the latest news, information and events, follow The Glasgow School of Art on line at www.gsa.ac.uk and on Facebook.com/glasgowschoolofart or join the conversation @Twitter.com/gsofa > > > he Glasgow School of Art is a charity registered in Scotland, charity number SC012490. > > > > This message is intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to us, and immediately and permanently delete it. Do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. > > > > Any views, opinions or conclusions expressed by an individual in this e-mail do not necessarily reflect the views of The Glasgow School of Art. Since it has been transmitted over a public network, The Glasgow School of Art makes no representation nor accepts any liability for the e-mail’s accuracy or completeness unless expressly stated to the contrary.