Some ingenious gentleman, who seem to think that capital does not get sunk rapidly enough in Railways, has proposed a floating line, which will of course if carried out, be exposed to more than the ordinary fluctuations to which these things are liable. The schema may for well enough when matters go on smoothly, but when NEPTUNE has a bill – or a bill-ow – to take up, and BOREAS may be raising the wind to help him out, we fear the traffic on the floating line would be entirely swamped, to say nothing of the difficulty the engineers might experience in taking their levels.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, volume XV
See also: Railway Mania