The London Railway Newspaper was short-lived Saturday paper, begun by Edward Lloyd, who was both printer and publisher, on 11th October 1845. It was one of a number of ‘railway newspapers’ launched during the ‘railway mania’ stock market buddle of the mid-1840s.

The London Railway Newspaper was launched only three years after Lloyd had started his Sunday title, Lloyds Weekly Newspaper in 1842. At this time, Lloyd was well established as a publisher of penny dreadfuls (cheap, sensational crime fiction, produced in weekly parts costing a penny), which he continued to sell to a mass market. He was also in the process of expanding his periodical portfolio, and in the issue for 8th November 1845, Lloyd advertised the forthcoming publication of his 'Lloyds Illustrated Family Portfolio' (which actually appeared ‘Lloyds Family Portfolio’). This publication, filled with stories only slightly less lurid that those in his penny deadfuls, lasted for only three issues.

Apart from advertisements on the first and last page of each issue, Lloyd managed to fill its eight pages entirely with information and facts about railways. Content included a list of Railway Stock Prices that occupied the whole of two pages from issue three onwards. Editorials, which were on page five, related exclusively to matters within the orbit of railway development. They covered subjects such as ‘London and the Suburbs’; ‘Railway Legislation’; whether to invest in the ‘Railway or the Funds?’; and ‘The Futility of Opposition to Railways’.

Railway news alone did not secure the circulation and sales Lloyd desired, something that seems to have been true across the genre, with almost all of the flurry of ‘railway newspapers’ closing by early 1846. This may also reflect the crash in railway investment that began in October 1845. In the editorial of The London Railway Newspaper from the 28th November issue, the intention and promise was expressed that future content would be that of ‘a railway journal and a general newspaper’. This ambition was not realized and the paper ceased.

Ed King, The British Library.