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The Liverpool and Manchester Railway
Contents Page
Chapter Page
Robert Stephenson and his father 1
Robert Stephenson and the company 4
The First Railways 5
Visit to North America 6 The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway 7 Improved locomotives 8
Early Railway Contracts 11
The trunk routes (The Grand Junction Railway) 13
The London and Birmingham Railway 15
Disappointments and frustrations 20
The tubular bridges, the Chester and Holyhead Railway 24
Contracts abroad 30
Stephenson’s death 31
The main events of Stephenson’s life 33
The first inter-city railway 35
Building the railway 36
Safety on the railway 38
Carrying passengers on the railway 38
Carrying goods on the railway 39
Opening the Railway 40
Leading the way 42
Various photographs of different parts and 43
Aspects of the railway
Bibliography 44
Letters 45
Robert Stephenson and his father
Robert was born on 16th November 1803 in a cottage at Willington Quay near Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was born 12 months after his father George had married Fanny Henderson who was the daughter of a local farmer.
George was man who also sought to better himself. In his spare time he repaired clocks. The local pitmen used George a lot to repair clocks, which they used as a timepiece when doing their shift work. In the autumn of 1804 he moved to Killingworth where he was a brakes man, and then later he was an enginewright at the West Moor Pit of the " Grand Allies ". After this he worked for the best mining company in the Northeast.
In July 1805 Fanny gave birth to their second child, a daughter who was named after her. The child died three weeks after birth; the mother who had been weakened by the birth of the child was ill of consumption and died on 14th May 1806.
George resigned from his job and left the district to cope with his grief. He lest his three- year-old son, Robert with a housekeeper. He travelled northwards, finding work, being in charge of steam engines at a spinning mill in Montrose, Scotland. He spent twelve months in Scotland on his own not communicating with his family and friends during the year. In Killingworth where he now was the housekeeper had married George’s brother Robert and they had looked after George’s son together. George took his son back and he got another housekeeper but things did not work out. Elanor Stephenson who looked after Robert as though he was her son cared for Robert.
George sent his son Robert to be taught by a schoolmaster at Longbenton that was two miles from Killingworth at an early age. After school the boy had to do errands for his father and read newspaper extracts and technical books that were extremely complex. George had agreed with his son before he went to school that he would train to become an engineer and join his father in business.
Robert did not then go to a grammar school; he went to a private academy in Percy Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne that was run by Dr. Bruce. George tried to give the boy everything to make him successful in the engineering trade.
In 1819 his father spoke to Nicolas Wood; the head coal-viewer at Killingworth Colliery, apprenticed Robert. Due to his long hours of underground work his health began to deteriorate. In 1821 he left the pit to go to the University of Edinburgh to attend a course of science lectures. During this time George had been testing collier railways at Killingworth and Hetton and was now recognise for his knowledge of locomotives and the layout of tracks. George had to make surveys for the proposed Stockton and Darlington Railway; he invited Robert to be his partner in the survey. Robert was now well accomplished to his job and surveyed the part of the railway known as "Haggar Leases Branch" on his own. He designed stationary haulage engines on part of the main line.
Later Robert surveyed the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with his father. He found this experience hostile due to the majority of the public not wanting the line to be built due to the pollution, destruction of countryside and pollution that it would cause. The leader of the survey team was William James who was a Warwickshire engineer and land agent. The survey was completed on 4th October 1822. The only part of the proposed area for the line where there were not people protesting against the building of the line was Chat Moss which was a bog that the line would have to cross somehow.
In 1823 George and Robert went on a tour of the British Isles to survey the machinery around and to look at the engineering and architectural works in the isles. When they were in London they went and looked at a high-pressure steam engine that the inventor, Jacob Perkins said was better than any around at that present time. It was supposed to be so powerful that no single man could stop the engine once it was in motion. George Stephenson disproved this by stopping the flywheel with his bare hand. Advertisements said that the machine was to be eight-horse power where Stephenson had proved it to be only four.
Robert Stephenson and the company
Once George Stephenson had returned north he found that it would be a good idea to open engineering works that would provide him with the locomotives and equipment that he could use in his railway projects. Edward Pease, Mr Richardson and Mr Longridge, were persuaded to invest money in the company which was to be managed by
Robert Stephenson. This was to become "Robert Stephenson and Company" of the celebrated Forth Street works and the world’s first superb locomotive construction plant.
His father took a back seat in the business. The first contract that the company got was to supply locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first railway ever, which was forty miles from Newcastle.
This was large task for Robert and his health seemed to suffer from it. Robert had never run a business before and was therefore lacking in experience. The company was run well and efficiently for a short period to Robert’s credit. He was out of his depth and then when the opportunity came to join a mining company in South America he took it. It was considered that the warmer climate might also restore his health.
The First Railways
Robert was in charge at the Santa Ana mines, near Mariquita in the Colombian Andes. Robert had a contract for three years and was on a salary of £500 per year. Robert enjoyed the job very much with the beautiful scenery. He had one main disciplinary matter to deal with, which was some Cornish miners were rowdy and refused to take orders from him.
The Cornish men were cruel to Robert and made threats to him that he ignored. Robert stooped to their level and challenged them to feats of skill and endurance which men usually did when they were not drunk. The company was not doing very well and times were tough. By the end of the three years Robert was happy to go back to Northumbria where all his friends were and his normal surroundings were.
Robert loved animals. In his home in South America he had many pets. He also enjoyed horse riding and was on the saddle in all the free time he had.
Visit to North America
Robert left Columbia and went to North America on a walking tour of eastern United States before returning home to England. When they had stopped in the West Indies they came across survivors of a ship disaster in which the ship had been wrecked by a hurricane. They picked up the survivors. They were only stayed alive by eating the dead bodies of their fellow seamen.
Near New York Robert’s ship was struck by a storm. The ship was forced in between rocks near shore. The ship was ruined and Robert was able to flee the vessel and get to shore. He lost all his possessions and had only the clothes he wore.
Robert and tree of the Englishmen with him went out adventuring. They went alongside the Hudson River towards the Canadian border. They passed through Montreal, seeing the Niagara Falls. Robert did not like New York all that much. He recognised the industry and enterprise that he held in the highest respect.
The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway
Robert now back in charge of the Forth Street works was hoping to regain the trade which the firm lost in his absence. He was also appointed engineer of the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway project. He lived and worked in Newcastle but often went down to Canterbury and London.
Situation: It was situated south of the Thames.
Claim to fame: It had first regular passenger services hauled by steam locomotives.
When was it opened? 30th May 1830 which was nearly 4 months before the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line.
What was the first steam locomotive in service on the line? It was the Invicta that was designed and constructed at the Forth Street works. It had four-coupled wheels of equal size and forward inclined cylinders. It was known as the Invicta, which was the country motto of Kent. It was delivered by sea from Newcastle-on-Tyne to Whitstable harbour.
Improved locomotives
Stephenson now wanted to invent a railway locomotive that was better than anything that had ever been invented before does. He wanted it to be lighter and faster than any other locomotive. The resulting locomotive was an updated version of The Lancashire Witch. He was helped by the ideas of his father, George. It was first ordered for the Liverpool and Manchester Company, but then later sold to the newly completed Bolton and Leigh Railway. It was a four-coupled design with sprung axles and backward inclined cylinders. A rotary plug valve in the steam was geared in the rear axle and controlled steam with a variable cut off. There were many more designs of locomotives built at Forth Street that ran on the same type of design as The Lancashire Witch, including the Rocket that won the Rainhill Trials. The result of the Rocket was that the future of steam locomotive haulage was ensured throughout the world.
Most people regard the design of the Rocket as
George Stephensons' own design. Henry Booth assisted in the making of the locomotive; he designed the multi-tubular boiler. Then he was the treasurer to the Manchester and Liverpool Railway. Later on in his life he became an engineer. Robert Stephenson worked on Booths’ idea and came up with an idea that could not be faulted. The Lancashire Witch and other locomotives of similar type had two large flues with a firebox for each. In the Rocket these were replaced with narrow gauges that drew the heat in from a single and separate firebox, this proved to be a great success and the technique was used for successful steaming. The Rocket had twenty-five narrow copper tubes in it. The same kind of principal is used in the modern locomotive boiler even today. A dome above the boiler barrel was used for drying the steam; meanwhile the exhaust was directed into the chimney through two blast pipes slighter smaller than the end of the exhaust.
The putting together of the multi-tubular boiler of the Rocket was causing problems. It was difficult to fit the tubes within the tube-plates, so that they would be both steam-prove and secure. They tried to hold the pipes together by using large nuts that failed. There were more attempts, which used the idea of riveting. These all failed. Robert had written a letter on 21st August in which he described his second attempt and also how he hoped to give the boiler its first hydraulic tests. When the
tube-plates were put under pressure they bulged outwards thus forcing the sealed ends to split. The tube-plates had been designed to be as light as possible to save weight but this weakened the openings of the pipes. The idea that Robert came up with was this; a number of inner rods or stays were to be fitted between the plates that might therefore withstand a test pressure of 150 pounds.
In a letter to Henry Booth dated 5th September Robert Stephenson described the initial tests and trial run boastfully, "…The fire burns admirably and an abundance of steam is raised when the fire is carefully attended to… we started from Killingworth Pit with five wagons each weighing five tuns [tons. He wrote tuns due to his accent and that is how people said tons so he wrote how he would speak.]. Add to this the tender and 40 men, we proceeded up an ascent of 11 or 12 feet per mile at 8 miles per hour… We went 3 miles on this railway, the rate of ascents and descents my father knows-on a level part laid with malleable iron rails, we attended a speed of 12 miles per hour and, without thinking that I deceived myself – I believe the steam did not sink on this part. On the whole the engine is capable of doing as much if not more than set forth in the stipulations." The engine was 4 tons 5 hundredweights 1 quarter in working order.
On 12th September 1829 the Rocket that had undergone tests on the Killingworth Railway was dismantled and prepared to be taken to Carlisle for transhipment to Liverpool by sea. The Rocket performed at Rainhill on 1st October with five other machines, all of which did not really challenge the Rocket. The Novelty was probably the second best machine on the day, it was designed by Braithwaite and Erickson and the San Pareil of Hackworth probably third. Both of these machines had mechanical faults on the day though.
Many improved locomotives were now leaving the Forth Street works due to the experience gained with the Rocket. Cylinders were enlarged dramatically and the number of boiler tubes increased and smokeboxes replaced the old and awful designs that produced vast amounts of pollution.
Northumbrian: It was a locomotive produced especially for the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line. It had a boiler with 132 tubes of 1 ? inches in diameter that represented 379 square feet of heating surface. The firebox of the machine was complete with the boiler while it drew an iron tender with coal rails rather than a wooden truck with a water barrel and fuel space. After the Northumbrian came the Planet, which is similar to that of the modern steam locomotive except that it did not have the modern reversible gear.
Robert Stephenson started to court his future wife Fanny Sanderson whilst he was working on the Canterbury And Whitstable line. He had been entertained at the house of her fathers before he left for South America. They were married at Bishopgate parish church during the summer of 1829 and moved into a new house at Greenfield Place, Newcastle, later moving to London.
Early Railway Contracts
After the opening of the Canterbury and Whitstable line Robert was in charge of the work on three small railways which were important. He was involved in a five-mile branch of the Bolton and Leigh Railway, a five-mile branch of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway known as the Warrington and Newton Railway, and the Leicester and Swannington Railway.
The Leicester and Swannington line was constructed to serve collieries in west Leicestershire that was in competition with the Nottingham coalfield. The coal owners wanted a line that would go between the pits to the city of Leicester. Robert had previously visited the site in February 1929 was appointed engineer of the line. The main piece of work that needed to be done was to construct a tunnel a mile long at Glenfield, this increased the amount of money needed to be spent on the line dramatically and led to the death of the contractor, Daniel Jowett, who fell into a shaft used in sinking the headings. The first locomotive to run on the line proved to be under-powered and a larger and more powerful version of it was later supplied towards the end of 1833. It was known as the Atlas, which was the first locomotive to travel with steam brakes that had been patented at the Forth Street works. Fixed engines were used on inclined planes at Bagworth and Swannington.
Why is the Leicester and Swannington Railway important?
It is the oldest constituent line of the Midland Railway Company and therefore is a main part of one of the most important systems in the country.
It was in connection with this work that Robert Stephenson surveyed the locality and founded a new mining company, which exploited untapped seams of the Leicestershire coalfield using highly effective Northumbrian methods, greater than any then used in the East Midlands. This proved to be one of the most profitable concerns ever undertaken by either of the Stephensons.
The trunk routes
THE GRAND JUNCTION RAILWAY
By the 1830s many engineers were thinking about a national railway system to link the main cities and ports of England. By 1825 a flying survey had been constructed for routes between London, Liverpool and Birmingham which had been thought might eventually join together. In 1829 the directors of the Warrington and Newton Railway approached Robert Stephenson with an idea of extending their line towards Sandbach in Cheshire and then from there to the Midlands going through land owned by the Marquess of Stafford. The Marquess rejected the first idea of the scheme. The Marquess to avoid upsetting his father through the business of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, they supported the claims of the Marquess. Due to this Robert chose an alternative route around Crewe, which later became one of the largest railway centres in the world. The final survey for the proposed line between Liverpool and Birmingham was taken on by Joseph Lock and to be surveyed as far as Runcorn by Charles Vignoles who was the inventor of the flat-bottomed rail named after him. It was so called " The Grand Junction Railway" because it was the first route in the world to country the main ports and cities of a country. Joseph Lock and George Stephenson took on the engineering; they each had half the contract. Joseph Lock later took on the whole of the contract due to him having arguments about the supposedly inaccurate estimations by George Stephenson. The line was opened in full in 1837 bringing the publics full support. Passengers and mails, in the early days had to get off their train at Birmingham (Curzon Street) and get onto horse-drawn coaches.
The steam railway and horse-drawn coaches were able to work together and provide a good form of transport. Surveys were now being made for a rail link between London and Birmingham. By May 1830 there were two choices, one through Coventry and Rugby and the other through Banbury. The Stephensons were asked to make the decision and they chose the line via Coventry but they changed the Point at the London end. The contract was given to both of the Stephensons " George Stephenson and Son". It was understood between them that Robert would be the chief engineer and George would be responsible for the survey and paternal advice. The project was the most ambitious then planned, there were many people and systems that were oppose to the building of it. The canal companies, stagecoach owners and many wealthy landlords who feared that the trunk route might interfere with their sporting rights all opposed the idea. The stagecoach and canal companies were oppose to it because they would have felt that it might take some of their business away from them. The idea passed through the House of Commons on 19th June 1832 but failed to do so at the House of Lords. The public meetings and committee rooms had already spent £32,000 on legal and parliamentary fees on their own. It looked as though they would not be able to keep up these fees.
Robert had failed. However in the next session of Parliament it passed with limited opposition in either House, the London and Birmingham company having agreed to pay £750,000 for land valued at £250,000. This was passed into law on 6th May 1833 but it was not until 20th September that Robert was invited to put his signature to the contract.
The London and Birmingham Railway
The London and Birmingham Railway project was the biggest of its kind ever. Even today the tunnels and cuttings along the line are still looked upon as a great engineering triumph. Each part of the line was divided into districts under the care of an assistant Engineer as listed:
Camden Town-Aldbury (J.Birkenshaw)
Tring-Castlethorpe (J.Crossley)
Blisworth-Kilsby (F.Foster)
Rugby-Birmingham (T.Gooch)
G.H.Phipps later replaced Foster and moved to number 4 district, Gooch had left to take charge of the engineering on the new Leeds and Manchester Railway. Robert Stephenson was in charge of the extension from Camden to Euston confirmed by an act of Parliament dated 3rd July 1833. Each district was let out to small contractors. This was due to there not being any contracting firms large enough to take on the whole line. Tunnels and viaducts were considered as larger projects and were usually let out as separate or special contracts. Work of the line continued throughout the winter of 1833-34 and Robert Stephenson claimed to have walked the entire length fifteen times, which was a total of about 1,700 miles.
The first problem that they came across was that people did not want to sell their land at the London end especially in the suburbs. The extension to a proposed terminus near Euston Square involved the use of a steep incline from the station to Canden locomotive sheds, controlled during the early days by less powerful locomotives by fixed engines. Between Camden Town and Euston the line was guarded by high retaining walls with there being enough room for two double tracks. At the beginning the high retaining walls cracked due to the expansion of the local blue clay when exposed to warmth and air. Rebuilding involved increasing the thickness of the brickwork and the introduction of inverts which are reversed and strengthened arches. Primrose Hill Tunnel especially needed a lot of work doing to repair it. The cost just this section was doubled. Primrose Hill Tunnel was 3,493 feet long. Watford Tunnel was the second longest on the line and was next constructed at 5,374 feet and costing £140,000.
The embankments and cuttings that were mainly at the central and southern parts of the line were constructed by using what were known as "horse runs". The process is as follows; a carthorse at the top of the bank is harnessed to a large barrow of earth by a length of rope over a pulley, guided up a steep plankway by the labourer in charge. An irregular movement of the horse could throw both the man and barrow down the slope at risk of life or limb. There were up to forty horse runs at Tring and very few serious accidents. It was thought that each man must have fallen off the plankway several times a month. After a fatal accident in which a loaded barrow fell on top of a man Robert Stephenson designed a moving platform worked by machinery. Workmen who considered it to be a design made to lessen their labour and wages destroyed it.
The main viaduct on the line was at Wolverton going across a gap in the embankment that ran across the Ouse valley for 1 ½ miles at an average of 48 feet. The viaduct had six major arches of 60 foot span and 46 foot height, from the crown to ground level.
One major difficulty was the construction of Roade Cutting near Blisworth in Northamptonshire which, is sometimes known as Blisworth Cutting. It was made through crumbling oolite and clay loosened by the action of underground springs. Thick retaining walls had to be used to underpin decayed rock while expensive pumping operations greatly added to the expenditure. The final cutting was 1 ½ miles in length with the maximum depth of 65 feet. Over one million cubic yards of soil and clay were removed during construction. The total cost was £220,000, which was nearly double the original estimates.
There was even bigger problem than the others that have already been mentioned, it is Kilsby Tunnel, and the tunnel was the last major work on the line to be completed. The main problem was that there were springs that were eventually overcome by the evacuation of driftways or side drains. After the first problem had been solved the main driftway collapsed due to the quicksand creeping up on it. To solve the quicksand problem Robert Stephenson employed thirteen pumping engines on Kilsby Hill. These worked night and day for over nineteen months, pumping many thousands of gallons before the liquid sand was checked. The original contractor for this part of the line suffered a total breakdown of mental and physical health and died. Robert Stephenson therefore took sole control of the tunnel work. He employed 1,300 men, 200 horses and 12 steam engines. It took two and a half years for the work to be completed at a cost of between £300,000 and £400,000. The total length was 7,326 feet with two main ventilation shafts of 60 foot diameter, one being 130 feet deep. The soil taken away amounted to 177,000 cubic yards. Thirty million engineering bricks were used for the lining of the interior. A connection was made between trains on the northern and southern sections run by the famous coaching firm of Chaplin and Horne during a period of several months before the tunnel and other work was completed. A change was made at a Wayside inn, known as Denbigh Hall, on Watling Street where the railway crossed the road. At this point along the line passengers were allowed five minutes to transfer themselves and their luggage from the railway to road coaches. The time of the road coach departures was done to perfection. Connections were made with trains at Rugby after a coach ride via Towcester, Daventry and Dunchurch, lasting longer than three hours.
Near the completion of the line a celebration dinner was held at the Dun Cow, Dunchurch, on the night of 23rd December 1837. Both Robert and George Stephenson were guests of honour and during the dinner Robert was presented with an engraved silver soup tureen that the members of staff and friends of the railway had bought.
The line was officially opened to through traffic from end to end on 17th September 1838 which, was four years after the first cutting of sods in the region of Chalk Farm in London. The actual cost was £2,400,456 or £50,000 per square mile. It was impossible to calculate the cost in terms of human suffering caused by accident, injury and death, especially completing the works at Kilsby, Tring and Blisworth.
Due to clause in the contract the Stephensons were not allowed to provide the railway with locomotives except for the ones used during the construction of it. The London and Birmingham Company therefore had to go elsewhere for the locomotives. They got them from the Liverpool engineering firm of Bury and Company, the locomotives were inferior to Stephenson’s and they used these for several years. The Forth Street works kept on sending locomotives to France, Russia, Germany, Italy and Belgium.
One of the main triumphs of the line was the skew bridge which, had not been constructed on any line in the country before. Robert Stephenson designed the type. Each course of masonry formed the thread of a screw; its pitch depends on angles formed by the intersection of the road and railway, affecting the radius of the arch. The final measurements were worked out on wooden models to be transferred to the prototype by the means of a flexible straight edge that was specially designed for the purpose.
The line had been a progression in engineering. Parallel rails weighed either 75 or 65 pounds whilst the "fish bellies" weighed 50 pounds. Wooden sleepers and stone blocks were used although mainly with the "fish bellies". The stone blocks that were ordered by weight, were 152,460 tons at a cost of £180,000. The rails in total had 35,000 tons of iron that cost in total £460,000. The parallel sections were connected by means of joint chairs that were replaced by fishplates after the company had been absorbed into the LNWR in 1853.
Disappointments and frustrations
Robert Stephenson was not chosen to be an engineer in the construction of a line between London and Brighton. This was due to his father being in a public hearing for the line and the opposing lawyers exploiting his lapses of memory and getting place names mixed up. The contract was eventually given to John Rennie who was a rival to Robert, who had made the unsuccessful survey of the London to Birmingham route via Banbury.
Robert Stephensons’ wife got an incurable cancer and was also unable to give Robert children gave Robert great distress. Fanny Stephenson had a peaceful death in October 1842. She wished Robert to marry again but Robert was so attached to her memory that he was not able to think about a second marriage.
There were many disasters in this time of his life now. He moved to a house near his Westminster office and he was involved in a fire that destroyed a considerable amount of the property. Works of art and treasured personal belongings were lost.
The matter of the Stanhope and Tyne Railway of which Robert Stephenson had agreed to act as an engineer and consultant in 1832 was another mishap involving Stephenson. The railway was a mineral line in the Pennine uplands that connected several lime works and collieries, but did not live up to its earlier promise. The company worked on area that they did not own. But as they were serving the public they were allowed not to own it or pay rent. They only had to keep it in prestige condition and do any maintenance needed even when it would not show a profit. Stephenson had a share in the company rather than get wages, after several years of disappointing results the company was in a dire situation owing money to creditors. To meet the claims of creditors and assist in the forming of a new company on the correct legal basis Robert had to contribute £20,000 of his own money. Robert even had to sell half of his interest in the Robert Stephenson and Company to his father. The Stanhope and Tyne Railway had been changed to the Pontop and South Shields Railway was later absorbed into the rapidly expanding empire of George Hudson. Through Robert’s connection with George Hudson he was given the responsibility of attending to the building of the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway and also to make the final links in the East Coast Route that had been proposed between London and Edinburgh.
The final touches of the East Coast line were completed after Robert’s death, but the engineers closely followed his designs. The main structures were the High Level Bridge across the Tyne at Newcastle and the Royal Border Bridge at Berwick-on-Tweed. The former bridge was constructed on the "bow and spring" girder principle similar to a canal crossing used on the London to Birmingham railway near Weedon in 1835. The Tyne Bridge carried both road and railway between Newcastle and Gateshead, 120 feet above the river. The weight of the ironwork was estimated at 5,000 tons. The Royal Border Bridge was of a more usual design but was a highly impressive piece of work, crossing Tweed at 126 feet above water level. There were twenty-eight round arches of dressed stone with spans of 61 feet 6 inches each.
The Newcastle Bridge was completed with the closing of the final arch on 7th June 1849 and passed by an inspector for the Board of Trade a month later. In September the bridge was formally opened by Queen Victoria, who was so impressed by the magnificent structure that she agreed to open the Royal Border Bridge twelve months later. During this time Robert Stephenson was offered a title but he refused to take one.
Robert spoke at a celebration dinner in Newcastle shortly after the opening of the Tyne Bridge spoke with a modesty and sincerity that underlined his rejection of public honours.
The battle of the gauges
There was another setback that was the great railway duel fought between the Stephensons and Ismbard Kingdom Brunel, each hoping to have their railway gauges accepted as standard throughout the country and maybe even the world. Both of the Stephensons and Northern Country engineers supported the narrow gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches, which was later to become the "standard gauge, because it had been the width of earlier wagon ruts and plateways that represented the distance between the wheels of the vehicles using them. In constructing the Great Western Railway Brunel had designed the seven-foot or "broad gauge", which he felt sure would be ideal for greater loads as faster yet safer speeds. To determine the rights of the case a contest was held between chosen engines and stock of representative railways, working over their own area. The broad-gauge locomotive Ixion was declared the champion of these tests, although it was based on the development on an earlier development of the design introduced by the Stephensons. Robert’s engine was derailed at 40 miles per hour, but noted to be an experimental long-boilered type unsuitable for express workings.
However even with the outcome of the tests the broad gauge was not in practise very often, except on the GWR and a few minor railways under its control. Many railways had already been constructed according to narrow-gauge specifications, while projected narrow-gauge lines were cheaper to plan and easier to construct than the more massive broad-gauge works.
The tubular bridges
The Chester and Holyhead Railway
In June 1845 Robert Stephenson was appointed chief engineer to the Chester and Holyhead Railway that was to provide a vital link in a new crossing to Ireland which was known as the "Imperial Route". The main problems that were known before the constructing of the line started were that the railway had to cross the River Conway and the even more difficult Menai Straits both of which could not be avoided. Telford who was the great road and canal engineer had already crossed both places with suspension bridges but after the failure of a similar bridge designed for railway traffic at Stockton-on-Tees, this idea was abandoned. Low-slung bridges were not even considered due to them having masonry arches for navigational requirements of the Board of Admiralty.
Before Robert Stephenson could think about the problems of the design he had to repair the skew bridge that had unfortunately collapsed at Chester, this formed the first part of the Chester and Holyhead contract. Major General Pasley for the Board of Trade opened the bridge to traffic on 20th October 1846, having given it an inspection. It had a 87-foot compound or composite girders that were reinforced by wrought iron truss rods. Even before the Chester and Holyhead system was in place the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway had obtained running rights over the bridge as a short cut to the city centre. One of the passenger trains was crossing the bridge on 24th May 1847, when the two girders of the third span shattered and the train plunged to a disaster in which six people were killed, including the fireman and the guard, with sixteen passengers injured. At the inquiry the blame was taken away from
Robert Stephenson, with the disaster being put down to a breaking wheel which derailed the train and inflicted heavy blows on the supporting girders. There was much surprise at the outcome of the hearing and towards the end of the life of Robert Stephenson, he was fully prepared to admit that the error lay with his design and the use of the composite girders in general. Other bridges of similar construction were modified or examined again and strengthened. The idea of using wrought iron was totally abolished and cast iron was not used very often afterwards for bridging contracts.
Despite earlier disappointments at Chester, Robert Stephenson under a lot of criticism felt that he ought to continue research for the projected Menai crossing. He eventually came up with the idea of tubular wrought iron spans, each constructed to resemble a hollow cylinder, supported on piers on masonry. Experiments were carried out with scale models in the shipyards of William Fairbairn and Company at Millbank in London at a cost of £10,000. The finished tubes that were to be constructed on the shores of the straits and were to carry two lines of railway across the water 1,511 feet from the Caernarvonshire shore to Anglesey which was a central pier resting on the Britannia Rock that gave its name to the finished structure. Each tube was 1,500 feet long, 23 feet deep at either end and 30 foot deep in the centre. Conway was to have a similar bridge, like the earlier Telford road bridge, and having a span of 400 feet. About 900 tons of rivet iron was used just in the Menai Bridge.
After a successful building of the smaller Conway structure, which was opened to single line traffic in May 1848, preparations were made for the tubes at Menai. It was done in exactly the same way to Conway, by using pontoons and hydraulic presses that raised the tubes into position, helped by the raising tide and lifting gear within the tower-like structures of the stone piers. After several accidents when a few men lost their lives; the destruction of valuable machinery and massive repair work the Britannia Bridge was opened to public traffic on 18th March 1850. The total cost was around £500,000, a large amount of which was paid by the London and Birmingham Railway Company due to the new line bringing more trade for the company: all parts of the system were eventually taken on by the London and North Western company.
The sides and tops of the Britannia Bridge tubes were lined with wooden beams that were used as a means of insulation. In the days of steam, drivers were instructed to cut off steam at their approach to the bridge and there were also speed restrictions. On 23rd May 1970, trespassers accidentally set fire to the interior of the bridge that was so badly damaged that the line remained closed for twenty months. During this time steel arches replaced the damaged tubes, although the stone piers have been retained. The new bridge is now for single traffic only. This was no the only accident that had happened as a less serious fire had been started by a painter’s blowlamp in June 1946. This was quickly stopped but the driver of the Irish Mail was unable to stop and had to accelerate to safety through the flames of the fire.
There was another feature of the line that was an artificial terrace cut for the use only of the railway round the sea-girt headland of Penmaenmawr. Nearly midway between Bangor and Conway, this consisted of a mountain with precipitous sides jutting into the Irish Sea and frequently assailed by winter storms. A sea wall had to be built where the terrace was blasted directly from the foot of the rocks. The terrace began on the Conway side of the mountain with a tunnel of 10½ chains through the actual headland, continuing beyond the further tunnel mouth for 1¼ miles, only broken up by three short embankments. In certain places the terrace and embankments were protected from rocks by a covered way or shelter. Whilst the sea-wall was being constructed an unexpected spring tide of 17 feet combined with a south-westerly gale to wreck most of the finished work. Two hundred yards of sea wall were later replaced by a viaduct of cast iron girders, the piers of which faced edgeways to the sea, with ten horizontal girders of 42-foot lengths. Further damage was later sustained on other parts of the wall and terrace, which led to a complete reorganisation of the contract. Massive outworks were constructed including the protective piles to break the force of incoming waves, especially where there had been a threatened breach. The time taken in constructing this part of the line was about three years.
Contracts abroad
Two similar structures to that of the Menai and Conway tubular bridges were constructed in Egypt, one going over the Nile at Benha and the other crossing the Karineen Canal. Both of these bridges had swing sections for through navigation of shipping and were opened to public traffic in the autumn of 1855.
A fifth tubular bridge of Robert Stephenson’s design, now superseded, was built to cross the St.Lawrence at Montral, where the river was nearly two miles across. Stephenson went across to Canada to survey the site for the "Victoria Bridge" and make plans, which were carried out by the British contractors, Thomas Brassey and Messrs Peto and Betts, working in partnership. The main structure consisted of twenty-five sections supported on twenty-four piers. Two central navigation crossings had a high water-level clearance of 30 feet, rising to 60 feet. Most of the ironwork was prepared in England, marked out and drilled under the supervision of Robert Stephenson, and shipped to St.Lawrence from Birkenhead. The first train ran across the bridge six week after the death of its designer.
In 1845 Robert Stephenson had been invited to plan and supervise the construction of a railway line in Norway between Christiana and Lake Miosen. He began the survey in 1850 and made several visits to the line in 1845, 1850, 1851, 1852 and 1854. During Robert’s’ absence he was represented by G.P.Bidder, acting as resident engineer. This was the first railway in Norway to serve the general public. It proved a highly popular and successful project, for which Robert was decorated with the Order of St.Olaf.
Stephenson’s death
One of Robert Stephenson’s last important works was to repair and strengthen the Cast Iron Bridge over the River Wear at Sunderland. This was the second cast iron bridge I the world of any size or importance; the first spans the Severn at Ironbridge near Coalbrookdale in Shropshire.
Robert Stephenson died young at the age of fifty-six on
12th October 1859. His death came less than ten years after that of his father’s. He had been worn down and tired both physically and in the mind for several years and never really got over the loss of his wife. Some people may say that his health was often far from perfect but he still went and worked in awful conditions and therefore he worked himself to death. He was not in his life only a builder he was involved in many political debates and things of that kind. He actually sat as a Tory MP for Whitby from 1847 but he was that influential but he strongly opposed free trade. His first speech for the Great Exhibition found him in direct conflict with a fellow Tory, Colonel Sibthorp who was an archenemy of the industrial revolution. At a later period he sided with the Liberal-Radical Roebuck, concerning the mismanagement of the Crimean War that led to the defeat of the Government. For two years he was a lively president of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, also being the first civil engineer to become a millionaire.
He was awarded many honours both in Britain and abroad but Robert refused a knighthood and would not allow his foreign titles and decorations to be recognised in England. He enjoyed eating out and entertaining in his home. Towards the end of his life, however, it may have been felt that the need for the company was partly to assuage his feelings of loss and introspection. He did not have lavish pleasures but he did smoke cigars. He was criticised for not being humorous and spontaneous in public. As an engineer and organiser of many projects far and wide he should be judged upon. Although there were faults and he was guilty of several serious errors, many of pieces of work are still in use today.
The whole of the public when they heard of the death of Robert Stephenson mourned. As a mark of respect his body was laid beside the remains of Thomas Telford in the nave of Westminster Abbey. The funeral cortége was given royal permission to pass through Hyde Park which, was a rare privilege along a route lined with silent crowds. All shipping in the Thames lowered its flags to half-mast, while the business and trade in Newcastle were suspended on the day of the funeral. This just goes to prove how he was respected and popular throughout the country.
He never became big headed and he was always glad to acknowledge the debt of gratitude owed to friends, assistants and collaborators. He was of a forgiving nature and on the best of terms with whose with whom he had formerly been in conflict with, including Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He died slightly ass than a month after Brunel and was only three years older than him.
It was the end of an era.
The main events of Stephenson’s life
Robert Stephenson born
Trevithick’s Penydaren locomotive
Attends the Academy of Dr Bruce
Apprenticed to Nicholas Wood at Killingworth Colliery
1821 Worked with his father, George Stephenson, on survey for Stockton and Darlington Railway
Opening of the Forth Street works, Newcastle
Appointed to control of mining operations in Columbia, South America
Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway
Telford’s Menai Bridge opened
Leaves South America to resume control of the Forth Street works
1829 Work on Canterbury and Whitstable and Leicester and Swannington railways. Marries Fanny Stephenson. Rocket wins premier award at Rainhill Trials.
Opening of the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway. Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
Act of Parliament for the London and Birmingham Railway
Opening of the Grand Junction Railway
Opening of the London and Birmingham Railway
Brunel completes the Great Western Railway
Appointed Chief Engineer of the Chester-Holyhead Railway. Invited to build railway in Norway
Commenced work on tubular bridges at Conway and Menai Straits (Britannia Bridge)
Elected MP for Whitby. Collapse of the Dee Bridge at Chester
Opening of the Britannia Tubular Bridge, and the Royal Border Bridge
Completed work on Norwegian Railway between Christiana and Lake Miosen. Decorated with Norwegian Order of St.Olaf.
Work commenced on the Victoria Tubular Bridge, Montreal
Opening of two Nile bridges for the Alexandria and Cairo Railway
1859 Stephenson dies. Brunel dies.
The first inter-city railway
Liverpool Road Station was the terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It opened in 1830, promoted by Manchester manufacturers and Liverpool merchants. They wanted a quick and efficient way of transporting raw materials and finished goods between the port of Liverpool and the expanding city of Manchester.
The use of the railway for passengers grew rapidly. First and second class trains drawn by the Planet class locomotives provided a regular service between the two cities and other towns along the route.
Planet (A revolutionary locomotive)
While George Stephenson was preoccupied in surveying and constructing the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, his son Robert was developing the steam locomotive.
Robert (1803-1859)
He designed the Rocket that won the Rainhill Trials in 1829
. The Planet was the result of three years research and testing of improved components using the Rocket and other experimental locomotives. The Planet class met the requirements for fast, reliable and efficient locomotives for the Liverpool and Manchester , as well as other railways. The class incorporated the essential features of the Stephenson locomotive design that dominated the world’s railway for nearly a century and a half. The Planet class itself was superseded in the middle of the 1830s as the designs were improved further.
Building the railway
In May 1826 Parliament approved the building of the railway. Work began with George Stephenson as chief engineer. To lay the 31 mile track, workers had to build 9 miles of embankment, 63 bridges and viaducts, and cut through 13 miles of rock. The biggest engineering problem was the crossing of the waterlogged area of Chat Moss. The solution, to drain Chat Moss failed. Instead the track was "floated" on a wooden raft.
In October 1829, the Liverpool and Manchester Company held trials at Rainhill to find the best type of locomotive for the line. Only the Rocket, a locomotive entered by Robert and George Stephenson and Henry Booth, completed the test task.
By September 1830, challenges had been overcome and the railway was ready to operate.
Safety on the railway
Before the railway opened many people were concerned about the safety of steam locomotives. William Huskisson’s fatal accident on the opening day seemed to confirm these fears. Firemen on locomotives blew a horn as a warning when approaching roads and crossing gates. They later used steam whistles instead of horns. Colour flags were used for signalling in the daytime and coloured lights at night.
Track maintenance was also important for safe travel. Staff kept a constant check on the line for structural faults and hazards such as flooding or blockages. The Company provided 4 workers and 5 cottages on Chat Moss because the floating rail bed had to be shored up regularly.
Carrying passengers on the railway
This was the first railway planned to carry passengers. Earlier railways had carried passengers only as a sideline to their goods services, and provided few facilities.
The railway made it possible to travel between Manchester and Liverpool in less than two hours, faster and cheaper than by road. Most people travelled in the first and second class carriages; some travelled in stage coaches and private coaches chained onto flat rail wagon s in Manchester; the Railway Company provided a free horse-drawn bus service between its booking office on Market Street and Liverpool Road Station.
By 1831, between 2000 and 2500 passengers were using the railway every day. Passenger services were so successful that unexpectedly; they produced more income than goods services.
Carrying goods on the railway
The railway began to carry goods in December 1830. Coal and cotton vital to Manchester’s economy were a major part of the goods traffic. Livestock, particularly pigs were also important. The Railway Company received complaints about the "wanton cruelty" to pigs by drovers. Other materials carried on the railway included timber, burnt lime, scrap iron, slates, manure, grain, wine, spirits, indigo, tea, coffee and silks.
Many goods were packed on flat trucks and secured by ropes. Double tarpaulins covered cotton bales to protect them from rain and hot cinders. The Company provided special wagons for coal, sheep, horses and pigs.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway became the first to carry mail in November 1830. At first the Post Office guard travelled with the mailbags by first class trains. In 1831 the Company converted two passenger coaches for mail only.
Opening the Railway (15 September 1830)
The Prime Minister, Duke of Wellington, led to the opening ceremony. Invited guests were to travel from Liverpool to Manchester, stop for a light meal in the railway warehouse and return to Liverpool for a lavish dinner.
The opening day began well with large crowds lining the route. When the procession of trains stopped at Parkside for water a tragic accident occurred. As William Huskisson stood beside the Duke of Wellington’s carriage, a train on the other track knocked him down and crushed his left leg. Huskisson MP for Liverpool and an early supporter for the Railway was taken for medical treatment but died of his injuries.
The procession continued to Manchester. Here the crowd included noisy protesters hostile to the Duke of Wellington. The Duke refused to leave his carriage. The guests returned to Liverpool as planned but many chose not to attend the dinner.
Despite such a disastrous opening the railway proved to be an instant success.
Leading the way
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was a huge financial gamble that paid off. The railway was profitable from the beginning. Between 1830 and 1845 investors received an average annual dividend of 9.5%.
The railway attracted great public interest. It showed that steam locomotives could be safe, reliable and efficient. Its financial and technical success encouraged other ventures in Britain and abroad. Within 20 years railway travel was an accepted part of everyday life.
By 1844 there were 104 railway companies in Britain. Smaller companies began to join together. In 1845 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway merged with the Grand Junction Railway. In 1846 it became part of the London and North Western Railway.
Bibliography
Robert Stephenson by Donald J. Smith
Lives of the Engineers by Samuel Smiles
The Life of George Stephenson by Samuel Smiles
The Life of Robert Stephenson by J. C. Jeaffreson
British Engineers by Metius Chapell
The Railway Engineers by O.S. Nock
George and Robert Stephenson by L. T. C. Rolt
The Liverpool & Manchester Railway by R. H. G. Thomas
Guinness Rail, The Records by John Marshall
Liverpool to Manchester into the second century by N. Fields, A. C. Gilbert and N. R. Knight
A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain by H. P. White
The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway by John Marshall
The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway by O. S. Nock
Science and Industry Museum
Coalbrook Dale Museum
Haverthwaite Railway Museum
Carnforth Railway Restoration
East Lancashire Railway
English Welsh + Scottish Railway
West Lancashire Railway
National Railway Museum of York
Helmshore Textile Museum
The Archaeology of the Industrial Revolution by Brian Bracegirdle
A Portrait of the Lancashire Textile Industry by L.H.C. Tippett
The Handloom Weavers by Duncan Bythell
The First Industrial Revolution by Phyllis Deane
Letters
I sent out many letters which, are attached but unfortunately I have not received any replies. The companies that I sent letters to are listed below:
GTRM
East Lancashire Railway
Haverthwaite Railway Museum
Carnforth Railway Restoration
National Railway Museum of York
I visited many of the companies listed in the bibliography.
