The idea for this work came from the publisher and was due to the popularity of this subject. The style of the drawings were significantly different from his 1838 work on the London and Birmingham Railway. It was more impressionistic and composed in "a far more painterly way." Freeman & Aldcroft (1991) stipulated, that in this volume "the emphasis on engineering feats is reduced (presumably because the line was by then some years old), and the focus shifts more to views from the carriage window and the facilities provided by stations: the wonders of construction have given way to the pleasures and conveniences of railway travel."