The Emergence of the Railways

 

Rishi Sunak

HS2 today: sleek, modern, truncated.

I am inspired to write about railways because of my disbelief and anger at Rishi Sunak’s cancellation of the Birmingham to Manchester section of HS2. This could be said to be the most important part, so far, of this ill-fated project and Sunak’s decision provokes contrasting responses. There is mine; anger and disbelief that he is sentencing the North of the country to a continuing impotence for the rest of this century; and heartfelt approval at this apparent saving of millions of pounds, with the saved millions allegedly destined to be spent on ‘levelling up’! It also occurred to me that the Government did not chiefly appreciate the inspiring story of how the railways developed and the significance at the time of their arrival and growth. Over a short period of two or three decades, the whole social and transport map of the entire country totally changed and considerable economic development resulted.

This is the Kentish estate which escaped the coming
of the railways across its land in the early 18th century

I remembered a friend once telling me of how her great great [possibly] great uncle had been hugely exercised in keeping the railway people at bay in the mid-eighteenth century, when part of his estate had been under threat of having the new-fangled railway line run across His Land. The imagined horror of it all!! By mysterious and unseen connections with Someone in Power, this desecration had been avoided and all had been left intact to hunting and landscape contemplation. Clearly, he felt that he had won the battle!

It is difficult now to imagine life before railways but salutary to trace the development of transport as railways grew from primitive beginnings. Pre-industrial economies were burdened with poor 

Transport by water, This illustrated the hell of the urban
pre-industrial landscape

    transport links which were major obstacles to            economic growth. However, late seventeenth and      early eighteenth centuries welcomed major                improvements to transport systems in England an      Wales that facilitated early industrialisation and          regional specialisation; transport by water                  provided speedy and relatively cheap carriage. 

17th century travel. An early version of the
stage coach for hardy souls.

"As by water carriage, a more extensive market is opened up to every sort of industry than what land carriage alone can afford, so it is upon the sea coast, and along the banks of navigable rivers that industry of every kind naturally begins to subdivide and improve itself.” Adam Smith. The Wealth of Nations. 1776. Six or eight men, by water carriage, could transport, in the same time, the same quantity of goods between London and Edinburgh, as fifty broad-wheeled wagons and one hundred horses, attended by a hundred men.

The reddish brown network is a representation of 
4000 miles of canals situated chiefly in the industrial
Midlands.

During this time, the length of navigable rivers was extended and the second half of the eighteenth century saw the construction of a network of canals. Coal, which hitherto had been used only up to a dozen miles from the local coal mine or nearest navigable river, could now be sent nationwide, though coastal transport remained the most popular form until the railway age had become established. Major improvements in road conditions led to the introduction of turnpikes, toll receipts from which were ploughed back into road improvements. By the mid eighteenth century, greatly improved highways meant the dominant mode of travel was by stage coach, for those who could afford it, and horse back [and walking] continued for those who could not.

Wagonway

Simultaneously, wagon-ways deveIoped, almost always in conjunction with coal. These were simply straight and parallel rails of timber on which carts with flanged iron wheels were drawn by horses, enabling several wagons to be moved simultaneously. One of the earliest was the Wollaton Wagon-way in Nottinghamshire to carry coal for Sir Francis Willoughby; it began in 1603/4. But by 1641 railed roads began to be used in Durham, [the Tanfield Wagon-way] and developed nationally thereafter over the following century and a half during which time, modifications and improvements to tracks continued. The early wooden railways were improved on in 1793 when Benjamin Outram constructed a mile long tramway with L-shaped cast iron rails. These were gradually superceded by various design improvements until John Birkenshaw introduced a method of rolling wrought iron rails which were used from then onwards. In 1807, the very first passenger service was introduced by the Swansea and Mumbles Railway at Oystermouth

Hedley's Puffing Billy

using horse-drawn carriages on an existing tramline. In 1813, the famous Puffing Billy made its appearance; its mechanisms were the latest design by William Hedley and Timothy Hackwood; and the more sophisticated movement meant that the wheels were coupled allowing better traction. George Stephenson’s improved version a year later led to his appointment as Engineer for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1821. It was his reappraisal of the route initially, which led to his suggestion to utilise steam haulage instead of the intended horse-drawn carriage. And also his idea to introduce passengers to the train. Opening on September 27^th 1825, Stephenson’s Locomotion 1 became the first locomotive-hauled public railway in the world.

Stephenson's Rocket: the  most advanced locomotive
of its day.

The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
1830

In 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened. This set the pattern for the modern railway. It was the world’s first inner-city passenger railway and the first to have scheduled services and terminal stations as we know them today. Many of the first public railways were built as local rail links, operated by small private railway companies but, as railways expanded and grew in popularity, more lines were built, often with scant regard for their potential for traffic.

The Railway Station. Holt 

From 1840, came the biggest decade for railway growth; from the few ad hoc and scattered railway lines, grew a virtually complete network until the vast majority of towns had a railway connection, usually with attendant railway stations. 

One of my brothers, the ever-genial
Horace, born in November 1918,
a proud engine driver following years
as a fireman. A rail fireman, working as part of
a team with the driver, controlled the steam.
During World War 2, rail drivers and firemen
were exempt from serving in the Forces.