Around The World in 80 Days - George Francis Train

 

This is the story of the remarkable and adventurous life of Mr. George Train who was at one time one of the best known Americans on the face of the globe. He organized the clipper ship line that sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco; he organized the Credit Mobilier and the Union Pacific Railroad; he was one of the organizers of the French Commune; he built the first street-railway in England; he has been the business partner of queens, emperors, and grand dukes, and the familiar friend of some of the greatest people in the world.

George Francis Train was born on the 24th of March 1829 in Boston, the son of Oliver Train and his wife Maria Pickering. His parents and three sisters died in a yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans in 1833 when George was only four. He was subsequently raised by strict Methodist grandparents in Boston who hoped George would become a minister. Attending common schools, he acquired knowledge about different countries, got exposed to logical ways of thinking, and honed mechanical engineering skills using toy blocks and sticks. His best friend in school had immigrated from England, and related to George how difficult it was to get around in his hometown, Birkenhead. This is what inspired him to set up a tramway system in the same town. He did not go into the ministry, instead becoming a businessman and adventure seeker.

George Train standing on the top deck at the left pointing the way ahead for the inaugural run

A cousin of his father, Enoch Train ran a shipping business, the White Diamond Line, and George joined it when in 1850, at the age of 21 years, he was sent to Britain to run the second cousin's shipping office in Liverpool. He brought a brash American approach and managed to alienate the authorities by insisting on burning bonfires in the dock so he could get his ships unloaded at night. This was to rebound on him later, but he was successful for his company and he became a partner in the Liverpool shipping house. He went back to America for a holiday in 1850 and showed his brazenness when he was travelling, as he saw a girl and was immediately smitten, changed his journey plans so he could travel on the same train as her and 48 hours after first seeing her they were engaged. He then went back to Liverpool and they spent a year apart, returning to America to marry in 1851. 

Plaque in Lord Street, Liverpool

It was back in Liverpool where he was to found horse tramway companies in Birkenhead and London that he soon met opposition and was also involved in the construction of a short-lived horse tramway in Cork, Ireland. Although his trams were popular with passengers, his designs had rails that stood above the road surface and obstructed other traffic. He opened an office at 23 Lord Street and on the 17th of February 1860 and offered to build the first European tramway at no cost to Liverpool Corporation but the offer was ignored. George Train had the knack of getting to know important people and one such was John Laird, the shipbuilder, who was also then Chairman of the Commissioners of Birkenhead. So when George proposed laying track at his own expense in Birkenhead the Commissioners agreed, not surprising given the support of Laird. Six weeks after getting agreement the track for the 2½ miles long line had been laid and the system was ready to open. In a typical George Train gesture, a grand banquet was held to celebrate the opening of the line to which all the crowned heads of Europe were invited (none actually attended). However, as we know now, with the benefit of hindsight, it was his choice to use the same step rail that was used in Philadelphia that annoyed the other road users, possibly because he was influenced by taking out a British patent in his own name on the design. The failings of the design were not immediately apparent in Birkenhead and the tramway was a success. One important decision of Train at this time was that he brought over an assistant from America. The assistant helped set up the Birkenhead tramway and was involved in the assembly of the tramcars used on the line. George said that the trams came from Robert Main, a Birkenhead coachbuilder, but it is far more likely that they were made by Stephenson in New York and shipped over by the company run by his second cousin and then finished by Main. The assistant was George Starbuck, who later became the most prolific tramcar builder in Britain setting up Starbuck's Tramcar Factory in Birkenhead. 

During the American Civil War, he gave numerous speeches in England in favor of the Union and denounced the Confederacy. In the middle of his campaign for president in 1870, Train decided to make a trip around the globe, which was covered by many newspapers. He claimed to have done it in 80 days (one of three round the world trips he completed in his life) and he asserted that this was the inspiration for Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. However, he actually took longer and deducted from the total the days when he was imprisoned in France. While in Europe after his 1870 trip, Train persuaded the Queen of Spain to back construction of a railway in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. Her support provided funding for the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. On his return to the U.S., his popularity and reputation soared. He began promoting the Union Pacific Railroad, with which he had been involved for several years, despite the advice of Vanderbilt, who told him it would never work. Forming a finance company he made a fortune from real estate when the transcontinental railway opened up for colonization huge swaths of western America. Train was noted for having created the Credit Mobilier in 1864 which started to finance the Union Pacific, although later the subject of a scandal that negatively affected the careers of many politicians and nearly bankrupted Union Pacific. In 1872, Train ran for president of the United States as an independent candidate. He became ill with smallpox while visiting his daughter Susan M. Train Gulager in Conneticut in 1903. On the 5th of January 1904, Train died of heart failure in New York. At the time of his death, he was living in a cheap lodging house named the Mills Hotel. Sadly, fear of the infectious nature of smallpox, led to many of his personal papers being destroyed after his death.