Von Oeynhausen and Von Dechen were Prussian mining engineers who came to England around 1826 to examine the railways. Their report was published back home but seemingly it was not known in the UK until J. G. H. Warren happened upon it and used some of the information in his “Century of Locomotive Building by Robert Stephenson & Co., 1823-1923. It was eventually published in full by The Newcomen Society in 1971.

The book mainly covers northern railways; there are chapters on the Wrought-Iron Railway at Darlington, the Cast-Iron Railway from Hetton Colliery to Sunderland, the Great Railway from Liverpool to Manchester and the Railway from Bolton-le-Moors to Leigh. A further chapter gives a “short description of some other railways in England."