George Hudson Esqre. M.P. for Sunderland, 1845 (tinted lithograph on paper)

Portrait of George Hudson Esqre. (1800-1871) railway financier and M.P. for Sunderland - variously sub-titled 'The man wot knows how to get up the steam' The railway mania of the 1840s was the biggest financial speculation in England since the South Sea Bubble. The amalgamation of scattered lines into composite networks enabled speculators like George Hudson to make immense fortunes and caused Punch to comment in 1845 `Although England will never be in chains, she will pretty soon be in irons, as a glance at the numerous new railway prospectuses will testify'. Because he controlled a significant part of the railway network in the 1840s, Hudson became known as "The Railway King", a title conferred on him by Sydney Smith in 1844. Hudson's empire and the railway bubble broke in 1849. Attributed to Richard Doyle (1824-1883), 'Dick Kitcat'; artist and caricaturist, and published by Thomas McLean (1788-1875), 10 November 1845