of the flap. This meant that the piston carriage could not simply be turned on a turntable at the end of a trip. Instead it was double ended, but the piston was manually transferred to the new leading end. The piston carriage itself had to be moved manually (or by horse power) to the leading end of the train. At Dartmouth Arms the station platform was an island between the two steam operated lines. Cubitt designed a special system of pointwork that enabled the atmospheric piston carriage to enter the ordinary track. The Board of Trade inspector, General Pasley, visited the line on 1 November 1845 to approve it for opening of the whole line. The Times newspaper reported the event; a special train left London Bridge hauled by a steam locomotive; at Forest Hill the locomotive was detached and: the piston carriage substituted and the train thence became actuated by atmospheric pressure. The train consisted of ten carriages (including that to which the piston is attached) and its weight was upward of fifty tons. At seven and a half minutes past two the train left the point of rest at the Dartmouth Arms, and at eight and three-quarter minutes past, the piston entered the valve, when it immediately occurred to us that one striking advantage of the system was the gentle, the almost imperceptible, motion on starting. On quitting the station on locomotive lines we have frequently experienced a "jerk" amounting at times to an absolute "shock" and sufficient to alarm the nervous and timid passenger. Nothing of the sort, however, was experienced here. Within a minute and a quarter of the piston entering the pipe, the speed attained against a strong headwind was at the rate of twelve miles an hour; in the next minute, viz. at eleven minutes past two, twenty-five miles an hour; at thirteen minutes past two, thirty-four miles an hour; fourteen minutes past two, forty miles an hour; and fifteen minutes past two, fifty-two miles an hour, which was maintained until sixteen minutes past two, when the speed began to diminish, and at seventeen and a half minutes past two, the train reached the Croydon terminus, thus performing the journey from Dartmouth Arms, five miles, in eight minutes and three-quarters. The barometer in the piston carriage indicated a vacuum of 25 inches and that in the engine house a vacuum of 28 inches.The Times