David Cadney with readings by Margaret Cadney from The Gazette and the works of George Borrow
19 Oct 2015
William James (1771 - 1837) was a solicitor and surveyor born in Henley-in-Arden, where a plaque proclaims him as ‘The Father of the Railway System’. In fact little known, his proposed Stratford-on-Avon to London Railway was never built, but his wooden tramway between Stratford and Moreton-in-Marsh was constructed.
Richard Trevithick (1771 – 1838) was the inventor of the locomotive which was used on a railway between the steelworks at Pendarren near Merthyr Tydfil and the Glamorgan Canal, a distance of 9 miles. The steam engine replaced horses pulling the wagons.
George Stephenson (1781 – 1848) was a self-taught engineer from Newcastle-on-Tyne who began by working in mines. His first locomotive was successful on the tramlines of Killingworth Colliery in 1814. He was the Engineer for the Stockton & Darlington Railway – the first to carry passengers and goods by a locomotive – which opened on 27 September 1825. He was then employed on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway which in 1829 held the famous Rainhill Trials. Three locomotives were tested, the winner being Rocket designed by George and his son, Robert (1803 – 1859). Their success was due to the boiler being multi-tubular – the first ever. The Railway opened on 15 September 1830 when William Huskisson MP was killed by an engine when going to greet the Duke of Wellington (who had remained in his carriage due to his unpopularity in Manchester).
The Grand Junction Railway was engineered by George, branching off the Liverpool-Manchester Railway at Newton-le-Willows and finishing initially at Vauxhall in Birmingham. Vauxhall, like Digbeth, was a Pleasure Garden charging one shilling entry (cf £1 p.w. average wage). The line approached Birmingham from the east because the terrain was easier. It avoided major towns along its route (eg Stoke, Wolverhampton) in order to keep costs down – and avoid expensive property compensation – but some local estate owners raised objections, eg James Watt, tenant of Aston Hall. Railway surveyors faced difficulties from hostile landlords and often used subterfuge, eg surveying on Sunday mornings when everyone was at church, or by firing guns to divert gamekeepers away from the land to be examined. Aston Viaduct was built where Aston Station is now. The Railway opened on 4 July 1837 with a train of eight 1st Class (named) coaches leaving Vauxhall at 6.30am after a breakfast, and gradually accelerating to 35mph. A train of 2nd Class coaches left later in the day. William IV had died a few days earlier, so the directors had planned a low key opening, but the public would not be denied a great celebration. Crowds gathered all along the line and bands played, well before 6am.
Robert was the Engineer for the Birmingham-London Railway whose prospectus was published in 1833 following the Act of Parliament, necessary for all railway proposals. The two companies agreed to share a station to be built on the Nova Scotia market gardens owned by Earl Curzon. Curzon Street Station also served as an hotel: it still stands, but is now empty. Robert constructed the line with a maximum gradient of 1 in 300, so cuttings (eg Tring) and tunnels were needed. Kilsby Tunnel was 1.5 miles long and was not through clay as expected but quicksand, whose water took nearly two years to be pumped out. The line opened on 27 August 1838 with a train of four carriages leaving Birmingham at 6.30am and arriving in London at 1.15pm, having stopped to admire the Kilsby Tunnel.
The Stonebridge Railway from Whitacre to Hampton-in-Arden provided a link from the Derby-Birmingham line to London, enabling passengers from Derby to reach the capital. Construction of the northern section started in 1837, but the southern section had to be moved westwards due to the late decision by the Earl of Aylesford that it must avoid Packington Park. The line opened on 5 August 1839, Queen Victoria travelled on it in November 1843, but thereafter it declined as Derby passengers travelled to London via Leicester. It remained open until the early 1940s for goods traffic, and a section near Whitacre was used for the Royal Train to overnight up until the 1970s. The remains of Maxstoke Station, originally called Coleshill, still exist hidden in undergrowth.
The Gloucester-Birmingham Railway, terminating at Camp Hill, opened in 1841. Brunel had planned it to avoid the Lickey Hills, but another engineer was then appointed, and hence the Lickey Incline was built. It had a gradient of 1 in 38 and required banking engines. It is still the steepest gradient in the UK.
Gladstone was President of the Board of Trade when in 1844 he introduced the Railway Regulation Act. This curbed the excessive profits being made by the railway companies – which had engendered railway mania – by limiting dividends to 10%. It also introduced ‘Parliamentary Trains’ whereby each line had to have a daily train stopping at every station at a charge of not more than 1d per mile.
In 1854 New Street Station was opened to serve all the lines converging on Birmingham. It replaced the poorly located Curzon Street which also suffered from being a terminus. It is the most superb centrally located station surpassing all others in the Midlands, as well as Manchester. Today it is the eighth busiest in the UK (1 to 7 are all in London). The Act of Parliament for the Oxford-Birmingham Railway – initially broad gauge like all Great Western lines - stipulated that it should end in New Street and hence the Duddeston Viaduct was constructed. It was never used as a subsequent Act allowed the line to go into Snow Hill Station, opened in 1852. The Great Western Arcade was built above the tunnel from Moor Street. The original Solihull Station also opened in 1852. Several suburbs had their own stations, now abandoned. The Harborne line was a branch off the main railway to Wolverhampton which lasted until the 1930s, and whose track can still be walked today. Kings Heath Station was abandoned in WWII.