After general education, Bourne became a pupil of the landscape engraver John Pye, who had specialised in illustrations for popular annuals and pocket-books.

[6] At the end of the 1840s Bourne started working for Charles Blacker Vignoles, who was employed to construct the Nicholas Chain Bridge in Kiev over the Dnieper River.

[4] It was accompanied by a text, entitled Topographical and descriptive Accounts of the Origin, Progress, and general Execution of that great national Work, written by John Britton.

"[13] Britton (1849) further stated about the used techniques: "On considering the best mode of multiplying the drawings, that of tinted lithography was adopted, as best calculated to preserve the spirit and character of the originals, without reducing them in size.

On the completion of the work, a general Historical and Descriptive Account of the Railway, occupying twenty-six closely-printed pages, was written by Mr.

Loudon (1838) proceed: "Of the artistic merits of the lithographs, we cannot speak in too high terms; and as portraits, having passed along the whole line from London to Birmingham, they appear to us, as far as we could judge in that rapid transit, sufficiently faithful.

the lover of the picturesque and the man of science: the former, by variety of lines and combinations; and the latter, by different modes of application of machinery, mechanism, and manual labour.

6 (1839) further explains: An 1840 review in The Gentleman's Magazine describes that the volume contains "a series of thirty-seven views of portions of the line of the Birmingham Railway, from the entrance in Euston Grove to its termination.

There is perhaps, no object less picturesque, or to all appearance, more incapable of producing effect, than the dull strait level of a rail-road; but in the hands of Mr. Bourne, the subject seems to have lost much of its untractable character, and by the skilful use of accessories, has turned out to be far more agreeable than at first sight it promised to have been.

A very picturesque plate of the viaduct over the river Blythe, near the termination of the railway, has the singular merit of displaying on opposite sides of the same view, a comparison between the ancient and modern modes of bridge building.

The massive piers, further secured by buttresses and narrow arches of the ancient fort bridge, afford a curious contrast to the great altitude and extensive span with the slender supports of the modern viaduct.

In 1846 Bourne published his second book with a series of drawings of the Great Western Railway, that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales.

"[21] 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.

"[22] The accompanied text was written by the engineer George Thomas Clark,[23] and in those days was discussed in multiple sources[24][25][26] The volume of Bourne's work was reproduced in 1969.

It cannot but be deeply interesting to trace the origin, Uic progress, and effects of this stupendous undertaking, now that it has been for sonic years in successful operation.

The letter-press, besides a description of the route of the railway, of those fine architectural works, its viaducts and bridges, which, though daily crossed by thousands, are actually seen by few, and of the topography and geological features of the line, comprises a brief history of the formation of the company, whilst in an introduction the non-professional reader is made acquainted with the principles of railway construction, and the application and regulation of locomotive steam power.

"[27] Late 1840s Bourne started working for Charles Blacker Vignoles, who was employed to construct the Nicholas Chain Bridge in Kyiv over the Dnieper River.

[38] Burman & Stratton (1997) explained: More in general Russell (2001) summarizes: In his Art and the Industrial Revolution, Klingender (1968) had enthused added: "Bourne's Great Western pictures echo the sweep and swagger of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's great broad-gauge railway..."[41] In his own days, however, Bourne's work had little market value,[42] because "the art patrons of the day wished for anything rather than to be reminded of the social and technological revolution going on all round them.

"[46] In 1855 Bourne, with home address Holmes Terrace, Kentish Town in the County of Middlesex, was granted a patent for a new camera design,[1] described as Improvements in photographic apparatus.