| 1825 | Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Mainly for coal, but passengers also carried, initially in horse-drawn carriages | |
| 1829 | The Rainhill trials for steam locomotives. The line itself built by George Stephenson (the father of the Liverpool to Manchester railway). Won by Robert Stephenson’s Rocket. | |
| 1830 | The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway. | |
| 1835 | Railway ‘mania’ on a small scale, with large number of proposals for new railways submitted to parliament. Series of major lines begun, particularly major routes from provinces to London. | |
| 1837 | Opening of Grand Junction Railway (joining Birmingham and Liverpool-Manchester railway), the work of Joseph Locke and London and Birmingham railway, the work of Robert Stephenson. | |
| 1841 | Brunel’s Great Western Railway (broad gauge) from London to Bristol opened. Completion railway from London to Southampton, work of Locke. | |
| 1844-7 | Period of peak activity: 442 railway acts passed by parliament and 7,2000 miles of track laid. | |
| 1844 | Parliamentary trains: Parliament required the provision of one stopping train a day at no more than a penny a mile in enclosed vehicles (not the open waggons previously used for cheap traffic. This encouraged the early development of covered sealed passenger transport, with the railways becoming more widely accessible to a wider part of the population. | |
| 1844 | Midland railway formed from amalgamation of three other railways. | |
| 1845 | The Woodhead tunnel on the Sheffield, Ashton and Manchester line, through Pennines. Longest tunnel yet constructed. | |
| 1846 | The height of the railway mania. 272 Acts of Parliament passed, many others failed. London and North Western railway formed. | |
| 1849 | Fall of George Hudson; completion of through route from London to Glasgow. | |
| 1854 | North Eastern railway formed from amalgamation. | |
| 1857 | First use of steel rails. | |
| 1863 | The Metropolitan railway, first underground railway opened in London. | |
| 1876 | The Settle and Carlisle railway is opened, giving Midland Railway its own west route to Scotland, from Leeds. | |
| 1878 | Tay bridge opened in May, collapsed in December, replaced 1887. | |
| 1886 | Severn tunnel opened. | |
| 1890 | The Forth Bridge is opened. | |
| 1892 | Final end of the Great Western Railway (GWR) broad gauge with the conversion to standard gauge of the Bristol to Paddington line. | |
| 1899 | The Great Central Railway (Sheffield to London) is opened. |