T HE B R I TI SH R AI L WAY SY STE M O U TLI NE S O F I TS EARLY DEVELO P MENT TO TH E Y EAR 1 8 44 H E N R Y G R O TE L E WI N B A N B . ( CA TA ) D I STR I CT SU E R N TE N D E N T Y O R K A N D MI N E R AL TR N P I , ; AI SU E R N TE N D E N T N OR TH-E STE R N R AI L WAY P I , A ; G94 4 0 7 VA N LO NDON \ B L A D SO N S LTD . G . E L N , 1 9 1 4 P R E FACE I T is not a little remarkable that although the English people may claim to be the pioneers of of railways , no adequate history the developments of the British railway system has yet made its appearance . While making no pretence to fill this gap , the author hopes that the information given in this little book may prove useful to those who desire to know the origin of the various little railways which later on developed into the great companies of the present day . The subject of the nationalization of our railways has long been before the public , though hitherto it can hardly be said to have come within the range of practical politics . Recently , however , a Viceregal Commission appointed to consider the Irish rail ways reported in favour of their acquisition by the State , and now a Royal Commission is sitting to review the whole question with regard to British railways . Under these circumstances special interest attaches to the portions of our railways which are not purchasable under the terms of the of 1 8 Act 44 , and are dealt with in the following pages . Whilst great pains have been taken to ensure accuracy , the author is conscious that , amidst the PREFACE many conflicting statements to be found in the various sources of information dealing with t he subject , errors may have crept in he would there fore be much obliged to any reader who would kindly bring them to his notice so that they may be corrected in the event of a further edition being required in the future . 1 , WEST S IDE , MB O OM O S W WI LED N C M N , . un e 1 1 . j , 9 4 L I ST O F MAPS AN D D I AG R AMS 1 R O F U O R N . DIAG AM MILEAGE A TH I$ED A D C ON R U C C R 1 8 2 1 — 1 8 ST TED EA H YEA , 43 F ran tisp a ge F AC E PAGE R AILWAYS I N THE D U R HAM DISTR ICT SCOTTISH R AILWAYS RA ILWAYS I N THE LAN CASHIR E DISTR IC T LON D ON RAILWAYS RAILWAYS AU THOR I$ED I N 1 8 36 THE RAILWAY SYSTEM O F 1 8 36—9 1 839—42 1 842-44 CO MP A R ATIVE TAB L E THE PASSEN GER TR AI N SER VICES O F 1 8 40 46 I N TR O DU C TI O N I N the followin g pages an attem pt has been made to give all those interested in our railway system a m sum ary of its earliest development , from which the reader will gather the order in which the various lines came into actual operation , and from which the railway position as regards means of communica tion (as distinct from financial considerations) will be apparent from year to year down to the end of 1 8 44 . During this period the lines forming the nucleus of all our great systems (except the Great Northern) ~ of were op ened wholly or in part , and by the end it the main outlines of our system as we know it - or to day were settled for better worse . In the year 1 844 Parliament passed a most in ter a lia important Act which , , empowered the State at any time after the lapse of 2 1 years from of the passing any Act for a new railway , reckoning 1 8 from the year 44 inclusive , to purchase such ’ 2 railway , at a price equivalent to 5 years purchase of the annual divisible profits of such railway , reckoning these divisible profits by the average of the last 3 years before the notice t o purchase is given . Four important provisos were , however , attached to the above authority , with a view of safeguarding INTRODUCTION the interests of the enterprising people who had m r of e barked thei capital in this new form transport , viz . i ( . ) The company on whom the State had served notice to purchase had power to demand arbitra tion as regards the terms of purchase if it con sidered these terms inadequate in View of the future of prospects the line . (ii . ) The Act specially exempts from compulsory purchase branches or extensions of less than 5 miles 1 in length to lines authorized prior to 844 . (iii . ) In the event of a railwa y consisting of portions authorized both before a n d a fter the year 1 8 a 44 , the State , in exercising its right of purch se of the latter , must purchase the portions sanctioned 1 8 before 44 as well , if the proprietors so demand . f (iv . ) Before the provisions o this Act can be P a rli t ment enforced , another Act of must be passed to confirm the policy of State purchase , and to raise the necessary money It will thus be seen that all railways sanctioned before the passing of the Act of 1 844 stand in quite a different category from those which were subse quently constructed subject to its provisions and that in the event of State purchase , the terms and arrangements , with regard to the former , would have to be the subject of entirely new legislation . It is therefore to the railways authorized before the passing of this Act that the attention of the reader is directed . E AR LY BR I TI SH R AI LWAY S TO state who was the originator of our railways is a difficult if not impossible task . The fact is that they were evolved from the crude devices which were adopted for assisting the transit of vehicles employed in forwarding freight from the producing to the consuming points . As early as the seventeenth century a Species of tramroad came into common use in certain mining districts of this country , whereon horses drew on wagons of coal , the wheels of which ran rough wooden logs placed parallel to one another from the mine to the shipping point , and by the aid of this device the load formerly conveyed was more than s doubled . At this period also in the Newca tle of district , the principle way leaves came into force , whereby landowners whose property inter vened between pit and river , allowed these tram t o ways be laid down on their land , and drew a considerable income from those who required access by means of these tramroads over their estates . This method of transit obtained for about a . century with no substantial advance be yond im p ro vement s in the quality and layin g of the timber of baulks . Towards the end the eighteenth century , - however, cast iron rails were introduced , and in 1 8 0 4 the first steam locomotive , invented by on a Trevithick , was tried a colliery r ilroad at 4 THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF T dfil f Merthyr y , but with indi ferent success . For many years , however , it was firmly held by men of science that no engine with smooth wheels could draw an appreciable weight , hence the few loco motives , which the more enterprising colliery owners n had i troduced , had toothed wheels with a rack to . 1 8 1 work on It was not until about the year 4 , when William Hedley and George Stephenson made their first locomotives at Wylam and Killingworth Collieries respectively , that the fallacy of this View was satisfactorily demonstrated . u e The few locomotives in s at this period , however , so t were clumsy and liable to failure , and heir speed f out so slow, that their use for passenger tra fic was of the question . 1801—21 Although , as we have seen above , horse tramroads were quite common in colliery districts throughout 1 8 0 1 the eighteenth century , it was not until that the first public Railway Act was obtained— that for the Surrey Iron Railway , from Wandsworth to Croydon , with a branch to Carshalton , a total length of about 9 miles , with a capital of the motive power being , of course , horse traction . During the next twenty years various Acts were passed for the formation of small companies , whose f object was the conveyance of purely local tra fic , usually by horse power . In the maj ority of cases f they are o no more than passing interest , but one or two , such as the Gloucester Cheltenham , Bristol Gloucestershire (or Coalpit Heath Railway) were subsequently taken over and remodelled as THE BRITISH RAILWAY SYSTEM 5 passenger railways by companies formed at a later date , so will be alluded to in a later chapter . 1 8 2 1 The year , however , saw the incorporation 1821 of on Darlin on for n the St ockt gt , maki g and maintaining a railway or tramroad from the River Tees at Stockton to Witton Park Colliery , with of several branches therefrom , all in the county Durham .