The Rocket Men - The Men Who Reshaped The World

Editor: Robin Jones Designers: Tim Pipes & Leanne Lawrence Reprographics: Jonathan Schofield & Simon Duncan Group production editor: Tim Hartley Production manager: Craig Lamb Publishing director: Dan Savage Commercial director: Nigel Hole Managing director: Brian Hill Published by: Mortons Media Group Ltd, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6JR Tel: 01507 529529 All material copyright Mortons Media Limited, 2013. All rights reserved.

Printed by: William Gibbons and Sons, Wolverhampton

THE ROCKET MEN George & Robert Stephenson

STEAM BICENTENARY 1814-2014

200 years since George Stephenson’s first locomotive ran

ISBN 978-1-909128-27-9 All pictures marked * are published under a Creative Commons licence. Full details may be obtained at http://creativecommins.org/licences

COVER IMAGES

MAIN IMAGE: The non-working replica of Stephenson’s Rocket inside the Great Hall of the National Railway Museum in York.

ROBIN JONES

Contents Chapter 1:

A new window on George Stephenson’s world

Chapter 2:

Steaming before the Stephensons

Chapter 3:

George Stephenson’s first steam locomotive

Chapter 4:

Chapter 14:

Stephenson firsts on the continent

Chapter 15:

How Robert Stephenson saved the GWR

Chapter 5:

The Whitby & Pickering Railway: Back to the equine horse

Chapter 6:

The Liverpool & Manchester Railway

Chapter 7:

The Rainhill Trials

Chapter 8:

The world’s first inter-city railway

Chapter 9:

Why Rocket was so revolutionary © 2013 Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Chapter 13:

Linking Britain’s first and second cities

Hetton Colliery and the world’s first steam railway The Stockton & Darlington Railway

A Railway Magazine Publication

Chapter 12:

The Grand Junction Railway: A Locke-out!

Chapter 10:

The first ‘modern’ steam locomotive

Chapter 16:

Chapter 17:

The Stephenson ‘empire’ expands

Chapter 18:

George Stephenson’s second gauge

Chapter 19:

Bridge builder extraordinaire

Chapter 20:

Robert Stephenson & Company

Chapter 21:

Builders of the modern world

Chapter 11:

Invicta’s double firsts 3

CHAPTER XXX

Steaming before the Stephensons G

US steam pioneer John Fitch.

10

eorge Stephenson has been called the ‘father of the railways’. Yet despite the often seeminglywidespread misconception among the lesser informed that he invented the steam locomotive and Rocket was the very first, he was treading a path that had been marked out by others, notably Cornish mining engineer Richard Trevithick.

What Stephenson did, however, was to blaze a trail through a minefield of early locomotive designs, some of which were truly bizarre, hone the best aspects of each to perfection, add innovations of his own, and establish a definitive blueprint for the future of steam traction.

The idea of a steam-powered self-propelled vehicle dated back years before the time of George Stephenson.

In 1771, 10 years before George Stephenson was born, a steam road vehicle ran through the streets of pre-revolutionary Paris.

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot was a trained military engineer from Void-Vacon in Lorraine, who experimented with working models of steamengine-powered vehicles for the French Army. They were intended for transporting cannons, and

resembled a huge road cart with a massive kettle fixed to the front.

His 2.5 tonne three-wheeled steam dray, or ‘fardier à vapeur’ claimed to have a top speed of 4.8mph (which it never achieved, although it was said to have managed 2.25mph) and could carry four passengers.

However, the fire needed to be lit every quarter of a mile, and it proved highly unstable due to its poor weight distribution.

His work began in 1765, and four years later, a model was demonstrated. The following year, he came back with a full-size version.

In 1771, the second vehicle is said to have gone out of control and knocked down part of the Arsenal wall in Paris. Historians state that this was the world’s first automobile accident, although it seems that it was not mentioned in print until 1801.

After trials between Paris and Vincennes and at Meudon, the project was abandoned. King Louis XV granted Cugnot a pension of 600 livres a year for his innovative work and the experiment was judged interesting enough for the fardier to be kept at the Arsenal until 1800. It is now preserved in the

NICHOLAS WOOD Nicholas Wood started work in 1811 at Killingworth Colliery as an apprentice colliery viewer, and eventually becoming the viewer or colliery manager. He helped the colliery’s enginewright George Stephenson with contributions to the design of Blücher, his first locomotive, adding the eccentrics to the axle, and also with his safety lamp. Wood made the drawing to which the ‘Geordie’ lamp was made, under the supervision of the inventor. In 1818, Wood carried out a series of experiments on rolling resistance, lubrication and laminated steel springs of locomotives, and remained firm friends with George throughout his life. George sent his son Robert to work as Wood’s apprentice.

The Neville Hall within the North of England Institute of Mining Mechanical Engineers, of which he became the first president in 1850, was renamed the Wood Memorial Hall in honour in 1871.The building contains this monumental statue of Wood presiding over the library. HARRY MITCHELL* 30

George Stephenson’s biographer, Samuel Smiles.

There has been confusion among historians as to whether Blücher was the first Stephenson locomotive.

In later life, George related that his first locomotive was named My Lord after his backer, Sir Thomas Riddell.

However, this statement has been questioned as to its accuracy, because Liddell was not made Baron Rainsworth until 1821, seven years after the locomotive was completed.

The Engineer magazine stated in 1902 that the first locomotive was called My Lord.

Some writers have said that My Lord was renamed Blücher in 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo. Others have said that Blücher was a separate locomotive built several months after My Lord.

In several ways, Blücher was an improvement on what had gone before, but it was far from satisfactory. Its performance on the wooden tramway was slow and unreliable, and the drive arrangement through cranks and gears had inherent problems, especially when they became worn, causing jerkiness and much noise.

Nonetheless, Blücher was state of the art for its day, and greatly enhanced George’s reputation.

He quickly improved on the design and in 1815 turned out another locomotive, named Killingworth.

On February 28 that year, George and colliery

A scale model of Locomotion No. 1 inside Deutsche Bahn’s DB Museum in Nuremberg. ROBIN JONES

A scale model of the first Stockton & Darlington Railway carriage The Experiment is on display in the DB Museum in Nuremberg. ROBIN JONES

There was sizeable opposition from local landed gentry who managed to lobby hard enough to have the Stockton & Darlington Railway Bill thrown out by a majority of 13 in the House of Commons at first reading stage. The Yarm/Darlington and Stockton factions still did not trust each another. The Stockton contingent considered that the line had been drawn via Darlington to promote the interests of that town, and were angry that the proposed tolls on the railway had to be paid for the whole 30 miles, even though the collieries were only 14 miles from Stockton.

After Stevenson raised criticisms of Overton’s plans, the latter offered to carry out yet another survey, incorporating changes to satisfy some of the loudest objectors. Routes were altered and finally it was agreed that there should be a 267⁄8 mile main line from Stockton to Witton Park with branches to Yarm, Darlington, Coundon and Haggerleases Lane.

George Stephenson’s letter to Edward Pease of April 28, 1821, offering his services to the newly-authorised Stockton & Darlington Railway.

38

chapter six

The Liverpool & Manchester Railway W

An engineers’ train runs through Olive Mount Cutting, with navvies still hewing rock from the upper sides.

hile the North East has become regarded as the cradle of the railways, Manchester has been called the cradle of the Industrial Revolution.

It was in 1761 that the canal age began around Merseyside, with the opening of the first section of the Duke of Bridgwater’s canal. That was to inland waterways what the Stockton & Darlington was to railways: it sparked off a period of canal building leading to the creation of a network serving and promoting the commercial interests of the Midlands and the North, making the efficient rapid transit of raw materials and bulk goods possible.

The textile mills of Lancashire were quick off the mark when it came to adopting the new inventions in the fields of spinning and weaving. New machinery turned what had been a cottage industry into mass production.

Within a few years, villages had become towns as farm labourers flocked from the rural areas for guaranteed wages

in the new factories and textile mills, and where there had once been green fields, there now stood conurbations.

Liverpool was the port by which finished products were exported, and by the second half of the 18th century, had replaced Bristol as England’s second port. Liverpool became the port through which American cotton for the Lancashire mills was imported in ever-increasing quantities.

Despite their close proximity, land connections between Liverpool and Manchester were poor, and the standard of the main turnpike road was heavily criticised.

The Bridgewater Canal opened from Runcorn to Manchester in 1776, competing with the Mersey & Irwell Navigation. There was sufficient trade for both, but customers became increasingly concerned at the high dues payable, and with the proprietors owning most of the warehouses on the canal sides and river banks, a duopoly arose, with little credible alternative transport.

the real ‘father of the railways’?

In 1797, canal builder William Jessop, who was appointed chief engineer of the Surrey Iron Railway, and his business partner Benjamin Outram, a civil engineer who had also built inland waterways and tramways, proposed rival horse-drawn railway routes between Liverpool and Manchester. Jessop’s railway would have taken a southerly route while Outram would have been built to the north.

With support split between the two schemes, and neither promoter prepared to compromise, both plans failed to get off the ground.

In the autumn of 1802, William James, a Warwickshire solicitor and land agent who had already made a fortune from mines and a canal visited Merseyside.

It is believed that he came up with the first proposal for a railway to link Liverpool and Manchester a few months later.

Born in Henry-in-Arden in 1771, James was educated at Warwick & Winson School, and like his father, trained as a solicitor and in 1804 was appointed as the Earl of Warwick’s land agent.

He bought a colliery in South Staffordshire and was the first to open a mine in the West Bromwich coalfield, paving the way for the exploitation of the mineral reserves of what became the Black Country.

He became chairman of the West Bromwich Coalmasters Association, and was a leading proponent of the development of the local canal system.

James was deputy chairman and the major shareholder of the company which built the 25 mile Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, and was responsible for the great iron aqueducts on the southern section. He also directed the building of the Bearley aqueduct by William Whitmore, the longest canal aqueduct in Britain.

The canal was finally opened throughout to Stratford on June 24, 1816.

It was estimated that by 1815, James’ investments were worth £150,000. James, however, saw the canals

46

CHAPTER EIGHT

The world’s

first

inter-city railway

The magnificent yellow sandstone and red brick nine-arch Grade I Sankey Viaduct, the earliest major railway viaduct in the world was built by George Stephenson between 1828 and 1830 for the railway to cross the line of the Sankey Canal with sufficient clearance for the Mersey sailing flats which used the waterway, the earliest of the Industrial Revolution.

56

T

he Liverpool and Manchester Railway was not only the first in the world to link two major cities, but also the first to offer a scheduled passenger service.

It was the fruits of four years of solid toil and relentless graft including the crossing of Chat Moss, the building of the great Sankey viaduct, the hewing of thousands of tons of rock to create Olive Mount cutting, the boring of Edge Hill tunnel. The line’s post-Rainhill locomotive fleet were there for all to see at the official opening day of September 15, 1830.

Earlier, on June 14, a train of seven wagons carrying 80 stone blocks and two coaches was hauled by Stephenson 0-2-2s No. 2 Arrow and No. 4 Dart from Liverpool to Manchester, at speeds of up to 25mph.

The directors were impressed to say the least. It was recorded that they made known their appreciation “of the great skill and wearied energy displayed by their engineer, Mr George Stephenson”.

William Huskisson, MP for Liverpool.

The National Railway Museum’s replica of Rocket hauling replica first class and open carriages during a visit to the Great Central Railway on March 31, 2010. ROBIN JONES

Edge Hill station portrayed in 1831 by Thomas Talbot Bury in his Coloured Views on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.The station was sited in a deep sandstone cutting, with three tunnels at the west end.The largest bore, in the centre, was the 2250 yard Wapping Tunnel leading to Wapping Dock. Wagons descended by gravity, but were hauled up by a winding engine.The tunnel to the north of the central bore was much shorter and inclined upwards, leading to the passenger terminal at Crown Street. From there, trains descended by gravity to Edge Hill station and were wound up into Crown Street.The southern tunnel was originally a short length leading nowhere and used as a storage shed, with its chief purpose to create a symmetrical appearance.

58

(George Stephenson’s) way of explaining himself is peculiar, but very striking, and I understood, without difficulty, all that he said to me...

“The engine having received its supply of water, the carriage was placed behind it, for it cannot turn, and was set off at its utmost speed, 35mph, swifter than a bird flies (for they tried the experiment with a snipe). You cannot conceive what that sensation of cutting the air was; the motion is as smooth as possible, too. I could either have read or written; and as it was, I stood up, and with my bonnet off drank the air before me.

“The wind, which was strong, or perhaps the force of our own thrusting against it, absolutely weighed my eyelids down.

“When I closed my eyes this sensation of flying was quite delightful, and strange beyond description; yet strange as it was, I had a perfect sense of security, and not the slightest fear...

“Now for a word or two about the master of all these marvels, with whom I am most horribly in love. He is a man from 50 to 55 years of age; his face is fine, though careworn, and bears an expression of deep thoughtfulness; his mode of explaining his ideas is peculiar and very original, striking, and forcible; and although his accents indicates strongly his north country birth, his language has not the slightest touch of vulgarity or coarseness. He has certainly turned my head.

“Four years have sufficed to bring this great undertaking to an end. The railroad will be opened upon the 15th of next month. The Duke of Wellington is coming down to be present on the occasion, and, I suppose, what with the thousands of spectators and the novelty of the spectacle, there will never have been a scene of more striking interest.”

chapter 18

George Stephenson’s second gauge I

The converted smithy from Stephenson’s metre gauge railway now forms an integral part of Crich Tramway Village. CTV

Vintage street trams now run along part of the course of Stephenson’s metre gauge railway at Cliff Quarry in Crich. ROBIN JONES 110

t is universally acknowledged that George Stephenson chose 4ft 81⁄2in for his steam railways. It was often referred to as Stephenson gauge as well as standard gauge.

Yet in his later life it appears that he also ‘invented’ metre gauge. What is believed to be the world’s first metre gauge line was laid by Stephenson at what is now the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire in 1841 to serve a limestone quarry.

While building the North Midland Railway from Derby to Rotherham and Leeds, Stephenson discovered rich coal seams in the Clay Cross area and decided to exploit them himself.

Crich was already renowned for the quality of its limestone and Stephenson saw that he could use the local coal and limestone to produce burnt lime for agricultural purposes, and then use the North Midland Railway to distribute it.

Cliff Quarry, where the tramway village is now located, was acquired by Stephenson’s company. The metre gauge line was built to link the quarry with the lime kilns he had built alongside the new North Midland Railway at Ambergate.

An unsubstantiated story suggests that Stephenson, who spent the last 10 years of his life in nearby Chesterfield, hired a team of Dutch engineers to build ‘a narrow gauge railway’ but did not specify the exact gauge, so they chose the basic continental measurement.

It seems to be the first in the world built to that gauge.

Stephenson often brought visitors to Crich to see the mineral railway and visit one of the village inns.

Metre gauge took off for both primary and secondary rail networks around the globe, although many of the continental systems succumbed to competition from road transport in the 20th century.

However, there are still around 59,000 miles of track cross the world, and in some African, American and Asian countries it is the main gauge.

In Europe, substantial metre gauge networks remain in continuous use in Switzerland, northern Spain and for many urban tramways.

This small yet very substantially built bridge in Coasthill near Crich was built to carry George Stephenson’s metre gauge mineral railway. RICHARD VINCE

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