The account started in his mind the idea of a railroad to be used for the general purposes of public transportation. So firm a hold of his mind did the conception take that two years later, in 1808, he wrote as follows to his brother, who was then a member of the legislature of Massachusetts: “I see by the papers the legislature of New York has before it a proposition for a canal from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. If they succeed, perhaps we may extend it through to Boston. But I believe it will be found that railways are better fitted to the climate and business of this country than canals. I wish you would propose a railway from Boston to Albany. Make it a great state road. The counties make roads; why not let the State make one? This will bring up a subject which ought to be investigated, and people had better talk on such a subject than to he always discussing politics to no profit. Please, sir, to think of it; and if you see it in the same light that I do you will propose it. Were I in the legislature, I should not hesitate, but would move it as the first subject of attention.” But his suggestion was not acted upon. The time for railroads had not yet come in this country. The project of Mr. Phelps slumbered in his own bosom until the year 1826, when, being himself a member of the legislature, he presented, on the second day of the session, the first proposition for a railway ever laid before any American legislature. It led to the appointment of a committee, in which he was associated with such men as George W. Adams and Emory Washburn, afterwards governor of the State, who were directed to inquire into the “practicability and expediency of a railway from Boston to the Hudson River at or near Albany.” Their report led to the appointment of the commission for a survey of a route for a railway, which resulted, as we have seen, in the construction of the present Boston and Albany Railroad.

Of course, after the building of the railroad was begun, nothing more was said of the canal, or, for a time, of a tunnel through the Hoosac. The people of Massachusetts counted it a great acquisition to get any direct channel of communication with the fertile and growing West. It is interesting also to also notice just what expectations were entertained at that day in regard to railroads. Their chief value was supposed to be for freight purposes, the diminished friction of wheels running upon smooth rails enabling a greater weight to be drawn with the same power than upon ordinary roads, in consequence of which the cost of transportation would be lessened. The acceleration of speed and the saving of time were not much thought of. There was no intention, either, at first, to use steam-power in drawing the cars. Although the English had successfully introduced the locomotive on the few roads they bad built, coal was then so much dearer and the cost of horse-power so much cheaper with us than in England, that it was deemed a matter of necessary economy to employ horse-power, as on our street cars now. The economy of power went so far, even, that it was proposed to let the horses themselves ride, in going down the grades. In a note to their report the Board of Directors of Internal Improvements say, “The labor of the horse may be still further relieved by providing a platform, placed on small wheels, on the long descents, on which the horse himself may ride. This expedient, singular as it may seem to persons unaccustomed to observe the ease of locomotion on a railroad, is adopted with success on the Darlington and Mauch Chunk railroads, and the horses eat their provender while they are returning to a point where their labor is to be resumed.”

The commissioners estimated that the freight cars could be drawn at the rate of three miles an hour, by which means goods could be transported from Boston Albany in four days.