The atmospheric railway was a system that used air pressure to propel trains, with the first practical line opening in 1843 between Kingstown and Dalkey in Ireland. The system used a stationary engine to create a vacuum in a pipe running between the tracks, and a piston on the train would be pulled along by the pressure difference. While the technology worked, it was expensive to build and maintain, and the leather seals used to create the vacuum were vulnerable to damage. The system was abandoned by 1847, and the idea was not revisited on a large scale.

The atmospheric railway is a classic example of a technology that was ahead of its time, and its story has been told in various poetic and literary works as a symbol of Victorian ambition and the hubris of the age. The idea of a train powered by air rather than steam captured the public's imagination, and it appears in the writings of Charles Dickens and other Victorian authors as a symbol of progress and its potential pitfalls. The railway's failure serves as a reminder that technological innovation is often hindered by practical and economic realities, a theme explored by modern poets.