Constructing the railway system

New lines - a global view
Even before the Liverpool and Manchester Railway had opened, more long-distance railways were being planned. How did Britain's major trunk routes develop and how did their development compare to new routes in Europe, India and the United States?
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Kilsby Tunnel on the London and Birmingham Railway was, at 2,400 yards, the longest railway tunnel built up to that time. This is one of the working shafts. Lithograph by J. C. Bourne, July 1837.
Explore the globe Grand Junction
A railway 80 miles long, connecting Liverpool and Birmingham, was surveyed in 1830 by a team headed by civil engineer Joseph Locke. The plans were passed by Parliament in 1833. Locke and George Stephenson were appointed joint engineers for the line in 1834, but their working styles were incompatible. Stephenson withdrew in 1835 and Locke became engineer-in-chief for the whole line, which became known as the Grand Junction Railway. The line opened throughout for traffic in July 1837.
Images with the text:
The Birmingham terminus of the Grand Junction Railway. Steel engraving (uncoloured) by H. Harris, 1841.
Newton Road station, near Birmingham, Grand Junction Railway. Lithograph (uncoloured) by E. Bissell, 1837.
Crewe station opened in 1837 with the Grand Junction Railway, but it was a wayside halt until Crewe Railway Works opened in 1845. Lithograph by A. F. Tait.
The Grand Junction Railway near Warrington, c.1839. Engraving by Thomas Roscoe.
London and Birmingham
In 1831 Robert Stephenson surveyed the route of a proposed railway 112 miles long between Birmingham and London. The bill was passed by Parliament in 1833, but it had faced considerable opposition and about £500,000 was paid out in 'sweeteners' (bribes) to landowners along the route. This was a very large sum of money in the early 1830s.
The contractors faced many challenges while building the line, in particular during construction of the Kilsby tunnel in Northamptonshire.
The London and Birmingham Railway opened in stages between July 1837 and September 1838. Together with the Grand Junction Railway there was now a trunk line nearly 200 miles long joining the nation's capital and financial centre with some of its principal manufacturing regions.
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The entrance to the locomotive engine house, Camden Town, London and Birmingham Railway. Lithograph by J. C. Bourne, May 1839.
Only muscle power, both of men and horses, was available for building the London and Birmingham Railway. This is Tring Cutting. Lithograph by J. C. Bourne, June 1837.
Entrance to Birmingham station, London and Birmingham Railway. Lithograph by J. C. Bourne, October 1838.
Kilsby Tunnel on the London and Birmingham Railway was, at 2,400 yards, the longest railway tunnel built up to that time. This is one of the working shafts. Lithograph by J. C. Bourne, July 1837.
Great Western
In 1832 businessmen in Bristol proposed a line to connect their city, a flourishing port in the west of England, with London. They formed a railway committee and appointed 27-year-old Isambard Kingdom Brunel as engineer. Working very hard, up to 20 hours a day, Brunel surveyed two possible routes. The Great Western Railway Bill was passed in August 1835 and work began on the chosen route.
Construction was on a magnificent scale, and Brunel aimed for high speeds by keeping gradients to a minimum. He also caused problems by deciding on a wider track gauge than the more northerly lines had adopted. This 'broad gauge', by allowing a lower centre of gravity for the locomotives and carriages, helped to give higher speeds. Interworking with other railways, however, was made impossible. The line opened in nine stages between May 1838 and June 1841.
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A locomotive on the Great Western Railway. Coloured lithograph by J. C. Bourne, 1846.
Engine house, Swindon, Great Western Railway. Coloured lithograph by J. C. Bourne, 1846.
Bath station, Great Western Railway. Coloured lithograph by J. C. Bourne, 1846.
Goods shed, Bristol, Great Western Railway. Coloured lithograph by J. C. Bourne, 1846.
London & Southampton
One of Britain's major trunk routes to open in the 1830s was the London & Southampton Railway. It was approved by Parliament in July 1834. Joseph Locke was appointed engineer and he produced a straightforward, well-constructed line. It opened in stages between May 1838 and May 1840.
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The London terminus of the London & Southampton Railway at Nine Elms, 1838.
An overbridge at Trinity Road, Wandsworth, on the London & Southampton Railway, under costruction in 1837. Watercolour by J. Absolon.
The cutting at Walton Common, London & Southampton Railway, in 1837. Watercolour by J. Absolon.
The London & Southampton Railway, looking west, near Whit Street (between Woking and Brookwood) in 1837. Watercolour by J. Absolon.
Europe
In the rest of Europe the development of railway networks started later than in Britain and, at least initially, spread more slowly. Unlike Britain, where promoters and speculators competed for territory, many of the railway systems of Europe were planned as coherent networks, such as in Belgium and France. By 1840 there over 1,800 route miles of railways in Britain, but only 341 in the German states.
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Opening of the Nuremberg - Furth line, Germany's first railway, on 7 December 1835.
USA
It was in the United States that the biggest expansion occurred. Before the 1820s there were few railways in the US and, as in Britain, these were short and powered by horses.
The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company opened a line in 1829 in the Lackawanna Valley in north-east Pennsylvania. The railway was built to connect coal mines in a mountainous area with the canal, which was about 16 miles away.
The intention was to use steam locomotives, but unfortunately they were too heavy for the rails.
Soon locomotives were successfully operating in the USA and development of railways, unhindered by legislation, was swift. Already by 1833 the South Carolina Railroad's main line stretched 135 miles from Charleston to Hamburg.
By 1840 there were over 2,800 miles of railway in the USA; ten years later, there were over 9,000 miles.
The meeting of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads at Promontory, Utah Territory, in 1869 formed the world's first transcontinental railway. America 'East' joined America 'West' and symbolised the gathering of the continent into a single United States.
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The Stourbridge Lion, built by Foster and Rastrick of Stourbridge, Worcestershire, was in 1829 the first steam locomotive to run in the USA. Engraving by James Renwick.
The meeting of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads at Promontory, Utah, USA, on 10 May 1869.
A model of a typical American steam locomotive of about 1875.
India
The need for railways for transporting goods in India was recognised in the early 1840s, but a decade was to pass before India's first railway opened. This was in 1853, when the first section of 20 miles of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway began operation. The first part of the East Indian Railway opened the following year, and from then on the railway spread steadily over the sub-continent. By 1880 there were 9,000 miles of line open, and by 1935 an astonishing 43,000 miles.
In the early years the lines were designed by British engineers but built by Indian manual labour. The work was hard and took its toll. For example, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway lost nearly a third of its workforce through disease or accident during the eight years spent constructing the line from Bombay to Poona. Among these was the line's contractor Solomon Tredwell, who died from illness little more than a fortnight after arriving in India in 1855, soon after work had started. However, his widow Alice Tredwell took over responsibility, appointed new engineers and oversaw construction through to the railway's completion in 1863.
For many years India's locomotives were imported from Britain, but plentiful supplies of local timber meant that passenger carriages could be built locally. First-class passengers travelled in reasonable comfort, but others had only very basic facilities. Many were crammed into bare wooden coaches, sometimes double-deck, with a wooden bench to sit on - if you were lucky.
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A steam crane loads coal into an Indian-built steam locomotive at Bandel shed, near Calcutta, in December 1979.
Model of locomotive built by E. B. Wilson & Co., Leeds, for the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway, 1856.
Model of third-class carriage for the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway, earlier design.
Model of third-class carriage for the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway, later design with external staircases.