The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the moment when railways got out of beta. There had been various kinds of tracked haulage before that, but it was mostly bulk freight, usually coal. The Liverpool and Manchester in 1830 had all the key features of a railroad - steam locomotives, double track, switches, passenger carriages, tickets, and schedules. (Signals came in 1834). For the first time, anyone who could pay for a ticket could make travel plans and go somewhere useful.

Suddenly the world changed. Before that, most people never got further than 50 miles from where they were born. That changed. The world became much smaller. It's the moment when the Industrial Revolution really got going, pulled along behind a steam engine.