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Welcome to our Victorian Railways page where we hope you will enjoy viewing a little history of the railways, and also a brief piece on the following Railway companies - Liverpool and Manchester - London and North Western - London and Birmingham - Grand Junction Railway - Stockton and Darlington - East Lancashire Railway - Lancashire and Yorkshire and The Manchester and Leeds.
There
were railways of a sort before the 19th century in Britain. Tracks made of
stone and iron carried wagons from mines and quarries under horse power. The
invention of the steam engine changed things dramatically.
Trevithick
and Stephenson. In 1804 Richard Trevithick first harnessed a steam engine to
a wagon. His engine was unsuccessful for transport, but the die was cast.
The Stockton
and Darlington Railroad was opened on 27th September 1825. Large crowds saw
George Stephenson at the controls of the Locomotion as it pulled 36 wagons
filled with sacks of coal and flour. The train also included a purpose built
railway passenger coach, although
in those early years horses still did some of the work.
The railways were to make a huge difference to the leisure activities of the Victorians. Not only were opportunities for holidays and day trips increased, sporting events also grew in popularity. Special trains and trips were run to take people to the races, cricket matches or the FA Cup Final, which was held for the first time in 1872. It was not only spectators that benefited, the football clubs that were being started in many of Britain’s Happy cities could now travel away to play against each other.
The first truly successful steam railway was the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1830). The L&M sparked a feverish boom in railway building that lasted twenty years. By 1854 every town of any size in England was connected by rail, though Wales was less well served.
One of the major problems of these early boom years was the lack of standardization (the same difficulty encountered by canal builders earlier). There were at least 5 different gauges (the distance between the rails) in use in the 1840's. This meant that trains made for one line could not use rails on another line, so goods would have to be unloaded and transferred to a new train of the proper gauge. This problem was not completely solved until the 1890's.
After the opening in 1825 of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, followed by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway five years later. The age of the railway had begun, reducing transport times, lowering transport costs, consuming raw materials and stimulating investment.
After
the great success of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, plans were made
to build other railways. In 1833 the Grand Junction Railway was established.
The Grand Junction Railway was over eighty-two miles long and linked Birmingham with the Liverpool and Manchester line. The line included 100 under bridges, 50 over bridges, 5 viaducts, 2 tunnels and 2 aqueducts. The railway was opened for passengers, parcels and light goods on 4th July 1837.
After
several years of debate, Parliament gave permission for the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway to be built in 1826. The Liverpool and Manchester
railway was opened on 15th September 1830, and it was 31 miles long.
Passenger trains started at the Crown Street Station in Liverpool and
terminated at Water Street in Manchester.
The
London and Birmingham Railway Company
took Stephenson's advice and in 1833 Robert Stephenson was appointed chief
engineer. Many people living on the proposed route were bitterly opposed to
the railway. For example, the landowners of Northampton forced Stephenson to
make the line pass some distance from their town.
The
112 mile long London to Birmingham line took 20,000 men nearly five years to
build.
The
railway was opened in stages and finally completed on 17 September 1838. The
line started at Birmingham's Curzon Street Station and finished at Euston
Station in London.
As the Grand Junction Railway had been finished in July 1837, London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool were now linked together.
The East Lancashire Railway opened in 1846, and linked to the Manchester - Bolton line at Clifton with Radcliffe before reaching Bury, some 6 miles to the north. The line continued along the Rossendale Valley, passing through the villages of Ramsbottom and Summerseat before reaching Rawtenstall. An "extension line" from Stubbins Junction ( just north of Ramsbottom ) to Accrington opened in 1848 whilst the Rossendale branch was extended in stages, to reach Bacup in 1852. The E.L.R. did not exist in it's own right for more than thirteen years, as it had been absorbed by The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. The latter was itself merged with the London and North Western Railway in 1922, before becoming part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway just twelve months later.
The LMS fared better however remaining in existence for twenty - five years, until nationalisation, in 1948, created British Railways. The Bury - Rawtenstall line continued to carry passengers until the service was withdrawn in 1972, complete closure taking effect some eight years later, after the withdrawal of the remaining freight service in December 1980.
In 1840 the Manchester and Leeds Railway was completed. Seven years later the company acquired eight smaller companies and called itself the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. It now stretched across the country from the west coast at Liverpool, Southport, Blackpool and Fleetwood, to the east coast at Goole on the Humber.
It was in 1846 that the following companies, London and Birmingham, Grand Junction Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway companies amalgamated, and formed the London and North Western Railway. The amalgamation created 247 miles of railway that linked London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Preston. By 1871 the London and North Western Railway employed 15,000 people.
The
first-class carriages of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway were similar
to traveling inside a stage coach.
Although not as comfortable, as the early first-class carriages did not have
buffers or springs. One major advantage of first-class carriages over
second-class travel was that they had the ability to carry luggage on the
roofs.
The
second-class carriages of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway had wooden
benches and were open at the sides. Seated four abreast, these passengers
had no protection from the weather or the pollution created by the
locomotive. It was in 1833 that they began to build new enclosed
second-class carriages, these were more like first-class carriages except
they had bare wooden seats.
In
1833 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway began building new enclosed
second-class
carriages. The old carriages then became third-class carriages.
The 1840s saw
'railway mania': by 1851 6,800 miles of track had been laid. Soon it was
possible to travel from London to Bristol in hours rather than days at
speeds of around 60 mph.
But what did this actually mean? Reduced travel times inevitably shrank the country and widened horizons from local to national. The old days of local time (as in Bristol) jarred with railways that crossed the country and ran to a national timetable, and in 1845 the rail companies successfully lobbied Parliament to abolish it. The edges of Britain were joining up with the centers - the cities. The spread of railways stimulated communication, and Rowland Hill's standardization of postal charges in 1839 saw a boom in mail services
Rail was the most popular means of transport for goods and people throughout the Victorian era and well into the 20th century. In a sense, rail set the tone for 19th century "progress" and made possible the entrepreneurial successes and excesses of the Industrial Revolution.
1972 saw the last passengers travel on the Bury to Rawtenstall section, and that would have been the end of an era had the East Lancashire Preservation Society not been committed to restoring the line to its former glory.
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