History

Wagonways were developed in Germany in the 1550s and the use of these tracks, consisting of wooden (usually edged) rails for horse-drawn wagons, spread across Europe. At first confined to mines, they were in use in Britain for surface transport by the early 1600s. When coal began to be mined in the north of England, there was need of better highways to bear the heavy cart-loads to market or riverside. About 1630 a certain Master Beaumont laid down broad wooden rails near Newcastle upon Tyne, on which a single horse could haul fifty or sixty bushels of coal. The new device spread rapidly through the whole Tyneside coal-field. A century later thin strips of wrought iron started to be nailed to the wooden rails. In the mid century systems developed in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates - these became known as plateways. Around 1767, cast-iron rails were first used. Carr, a Sheffield colliery manager, invented a flanged rail, while William Jessop, another civil engineer, took the other line by using edged rails but flanged cart-wheels to be used on a scheme in Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789. On July 26, 1803, Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway in south London - arguably, the world's first public railway, albeit a horse-drawn one. However, it was not until 1825 that the success of the Stockton and Darlington Railway proved that the railways could be made as useful to the general shipping public as to the colliery owner. At the outset this road was regarded as only a special sort of toll-road upon which any carrier might transport goods or passengers in his own vehicles, but experience showed that it was necessary for the railway company to transport the goods as well.

Steam power introduced

James Watt, a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, was responsible for improvements to the steam engine that caused this device to see wider use and encouraged wider experimentation, though it was not used for locomotive power until Richard Trevithick developed the high pressure steam engine in the 1800s.

Richard Trevithick, an English engineer, built the first steam locomotive in 1804. His locomotive had no name, and was used at the Pennydarren ironworks in Wales. It was not financially successful, because it was too heavy for the track and kept breaking down. Despite his inventive talents, Richard Trevithick died in poverty, with his achievement being largely unrecognised.

In 1812 Oliver Evans, a United States engineer and inventor, published his vision of what steam railways could become, with cities and towns linked by a network of long distance railways plied by speedy locomotives, greatly reducing the time required for personal travel and for transport of goods. Evans specified that there should be separate sets of parallel tracks for trains going in different directions.

In 1813, George Stephenson persuaded the manager of the colliery where he worked to allow him to build a steam-powered machine. He built the Blucher, the first successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotive. The flanges enabled the trains to run on top of the rails instead of in sunken tracks. This greatly simplified construction of switches and rails, and opened the way to the modern railroad.

The Stockton and Darlington Railway Company's first line was opened on September 27, 1825. Stephenson himself drove The Locomotion, which drew large crowds of spectators.

The steam locomotive was invented in the early stages of the industrial revolution, and railroads became essential to the swift movement of goods and labour that was needed for industrialisation. In the beginning, canals were in competition with the railroads, but the railroads quickly gained ground as steam and rail technology improved, and railroads were built in places where canals were not practical.

In the 1850s, many steam-powered railways had reached London, increasing congestion in that city. A Metropolitan Railway was built to connect several of these separate railway terminals, and thus became the first "Metro."

Early public railways

The first railways were built and paid for by the owners themselves. When longer lines were planned, inviting public subscription, as with many canals, an Act of Parliament became necessary to protect investors from unrealistic, or downright fraudulent, schemes. The first passenger-carrying public railway, though horse-drawn, was the Oystermouth Railway, when it was authorised to do so in 1807.

Two of the railway engineers who pioneered the use of steam locomotives were Richard Trevithick and John Blenkinsop. At the time there was intense argument about the relative superiority of smooth wheels on smooth rails and the so-called rack and cog wheel.

Stockton and Darlington Railway

The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) came into being because the proprietors of the Wylam Colliery, near Newcastle-on-Tyne wanted to abolish horse-drawn trains in favour of steam. Traffic on the railway was originally intended to be horse-drawn, but Stephenson carried out a fresh survey of the route, and the Act was amended so that steam locomotives could also be used; it was also enabled to carry passengers in addition to coal and general merchandise. The line was 25 miles (40 km) in length: had a hundred loops along its single track, and four branch lines to collieries. The S&DR opened on 27 September 1825. It was initially operated like a public road, and it was a common occurrence for waggoners' trains to meet on the single track when arguments would ensue as to who should back up to a passing loop.

The first railway opened in Scotland was between Kilmarnock and Troon. At first it was operated by horses, but in 1817 locomotive haulage was introduced.

The next successful venture was the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR). It is the one that is now considered to be the first true railway, in that it was specifically laid for use by steam locomotives, with cuttings and embankments, rather than using ropes to overcome gradients. It had been a project proposed several years before the S&DR, but local landowners had so vigorously opposed the plan that it had been abandoned. The undoubted success of the S&DR prompted a revival of the scheme, and Stephenson was asked to survey the route. Eventually (after one attempt was blocked by opponents of the scheme), the Act of Parliament was obtained, and the line built. The Rainhill Trials, the competition to find the best locomotive to work the line, which Stephenson won with his locomotive the Rocket - a revolutionary design in itself using a multi-firetubed boiler with (exhaust) steam assisted, fire side, forced convection - were held in 1829, and the L&MR opened on 15 September 1830.

The L&MR was known as the 'Great Experimental' Railway, and engineers from Europe and America came to see the lessons learnt, which were impossible to predict until they could be tried out on the ground. For example, the entire track had to be replaced in the second year, something unforeseen. The first light locomotives soon needed replacing by more powerful ones to haul the increasingly long and heavy trains, and different designs of locomotive evolved to pull passenger and goods trains.

These early trains were quite slow, and arrival times were never announced, probably because no one knew when the train would actually arrive at the station. When first introduced the trains were used for freight transportation and a few paying passengers only. The only passengers the railways were interested in were first class paying passengers. At first, the railway cars were identical to a horse drawn coach. The first class passengers would sit six to a car, instead of four, and there were elbow rests. The elbow rests were welcomed with surprise by the passengers. There was no heat in the cars, and food was introduced after the railway mania of the 1840s had subsided. The train rides were often very bumpy, and dangerous due to a high incidence of accidents from human error since the signals were conveyed through flag-men. The trains were exorbitantly expensive to ride at first, but workmen's lines for a pence a mile were introduced in the 1870s. The cars for the first class passengers were considered quite uncomfortable, but were far better than the second and third class passenger cars. Initially, the second class (and more commonly third class) cars were open boxes with seats. Eventually the only class of service that was left to the open air was third-class. The second-class cars were covered over, but third class was left open for the poor and working class, and to transport freight. People also travelled on top of the train since they previously travelled on top of coaches, but this practice was discontinued due to so many decapitations.

The financial success of these lines was beyond all expectations and interests in London and Birmingham soon planned to build two lines to link these cities with each other and with the L&M.

Although in theory, the Act of Parliament allowed railway companies compulsory purchase of wayleave, if a powerful landowner objected to a line across his land, he could object to the bill being passed in the first place. Some landowners were also charging excessive amounts, so these early lines did not always follow the optimum paths.

Railway Mania

The Government was in favour of the development of trunk railways both to carry goods (and to allow quick transport of troops in times of civil unrest). Because the early railways made a good profit, by 1845 over 1,000 projected schemes were put forward.

Early successes

The financial success of the early railways was phenomenal, as they had no real competition. The roads were still very slow and in poor condition. Prices of fuel and food fell in cities connected to railways owing to the fall in the cost of transport. The layout of lines with gentle gradients and curves, originating from the need to help the relatively weak engines and brakes, was a boon when speeds increased, avoiding for the most part the need to re-survey the course of a line. Less than 20 years after the Liverpool line opened, it was possible to travel from London to Scotland by train, in a small fraction of the former time by road.

(from Wikipedia and others)