Railway Mania: The Delusional Infrastructure Bubble of Victorian Britain

In the 1840s, Great Britain lost its collective mind over the power of steam. The invention of the locomotive promised to compress time and space, sparking an unprecedented investment frenzy known as Railway Mania. Middle-class families, aristocrats, and even the clergy poured their life savings into any company proposing to lay iron tracks across the countryside, regardless of how absurd the rout...