Stage 1: Railroads are going to be the next big thing. Smart play: Be one of the first with a railroad.
Stage 2: Everyone knows railroads are the next big thing. Tons of people are raising money to build railroads. Smart play: Sell those people the stuff to build railroads.
So now - what is Stage 3; once everyone has a railroad - then what?
Stage 2: make it easy for everyone to have a railroad by leasing them yours. Lease yours multiple times over, each time for less than it would cost the customer to build a new one.
Stage 3: everyone has a railroad which they rent from you. Collect rent on all railroad activity forever.
Welcome, you just reinvented the problem of rent-seeking.
Then it's a long time after the initial Industrial Revolution, and you're in a fantastic world where it's commonplace for ordinary people to own a steel machine which can travel as fast as a train at "high speed."