Selection: Personal Recollections of English Engineers and of the Introduction of the Railway System into the United Kingdom by 'A Civil Engineer' (William Walton) 1868

Golden Times - Human Documents of the Victorial Age E. Royston Pike 1972

Rural Rides William Cobbett 1830

Industry and Empire from 1750 to the Present Day E.J. Hobshawm 1968

In 1821 an engineer in Morpeth (near Newcastle) worked out an improved way of producing good rails in volume. THis was the real beginning of the development of the railroads, since many people were interested in the idea of using steam to power transport. The main figure in promoting this technology was George Stephenson (1781-1848)

Stephenson was born into a very poor family, and it's said that when he was 18 he still could neither read nor write, but he was very smart and ambitious and about 1800 he got a job as a helper at one of the coal pits where a new steam engine had been installed. He learned his craft, and a few years later, in 1811, he was asked to repair a steam engine at the main coal pit. He suceeded in the repair and became a full time repairman. He learned to read and sent his son Robert to school. Robert would come home and each evening teach his father what he had learned that day. Over the next few years George designed and built over 30 engines around Newcastle, including one of 200 horsepower that pumped 2000 gallons a minute from a 300 foot deep mine. This kind of engine made the mining profitable and improved production by opening up mines that could not be worked without efficient pumping. Many visionary people understood that this was the beginning of a new age when machinery would overthorw the ancient limits of animal power. The Newcastle mine owners were interested in the idea of powering coal wagons with engines and Stephenson was selected to create this new technology. Using their money and political connections, in 1821 the Newcastle mine owners got a bill through Parliament to allow construction of a railroad from Auckland to Stockton on Tees.

Stephenson created his own engine building company from scratch. On Sept 27, 1825 when he took the two engines "Locomotion" and "Experiment" on their first full trial, 40,000 people turned out to see them draw 21 cars carrying 90 tons of coal 8 miles in one hour. It was totally unprecedented. But Stephenson was not satisfied with success, he wanted to push the technology forward, and in 1829 he built an entirely new design, the "Rocket." This engine ran routinely at 14mph. Within 3 years the typical speed for the trainshad been raised to 20 mph between the great industrial cities of Manchester and Liverpool. It's important to remember that in the entire history of the world, the fastest travel over distances had been single riders on picked horses that could not sustain a speed of more than about 10 miles per hour for an hour or two. The vast majority of people had never travelled any faster than they could themselves run.

The railroads captured the imagination of the world and Stephenson became a famous and romantic figure. On August 25, 1830 he took out his newest engine on a trial run - the only passenger, the beautiful and talented actress Fanny Kemble who was then starring in a sensational, blockbuster sold-out production of Romeo and Juliet. Kemble wrote this description of the trip - "It set out at the utmost speed, 35 miles per hour, swifter than a bird flies. You cannot conceive what that sensation of cutting the air was; the motion as smooth as possible too... When I closed my eyes this sensation of flying was quite delightful and strange beyond description... yet I had a perfect sense of secuirty and not the slightest fear." Animation at the BBC of the "Rocket."

one of the earliest engines in the Transport Museum in Britain. This British engine is a twin of one that was sent to America "The Stourbridge Lion." The "Lion" was not a success but it survives on display today in the Smithsonian Institute. The Rocket is on display at the London Science Museum.