[Note 562.1] Hudson was first referred to as the Railway King in 1844 [Dict. Nat. Biog.]

[Note 562.2] This is an exaggeration of the slowness of stage coaches and the speed of railway trains. London to Edinburgh took 3 or 4 days by coach c1850 [i]. In 1845 (just before this song was written) it took 10 hours to get from London to Newcastle, some considerable distance short of Edinburgh [ii]

[i] https://reginajeffers.blog/2017/04/25/stagecoach-travel-during-the-regency/
[ii] Freeman, Michael and Aldercroft, Derek The Atlas of British Railway History (London, Guild Publishing, 1985) p27

[Note 562.3] he started with narrow gauge may a be a reference to his relatively humble origins as the fifth son of a farmer he was apprenticed to a firm of drapers [Dict. Nat. Biog.]

[Note 562.4] In 1841 he persuaded the shareholders in eight railway companies engaged, so far unsuccessfully, in building a line from York to Newcastle, [Dict. Nat. Biog.]

[Note 562.5] 1842 gained control of the midland counties line which would have brought Rugby under his control in addition to the York and Newcastle line which he already had control of. [Dict. Nat. Biog.]

[Note 562.6] Hudson was elected M.P. for Sunderland in 1847 and again in 1852 [Dict. Nat. Biog.]