Steam Train

The World’s First Public Railway

In 1952, when I was five, my grandparents gave us tickets to take the CPR to Baie d’Urfé near Montreal to spend the summer with them and our eastern cousins. For a little boy, it was a magical trip. It took six days for the crossing. Black porters (and they were all black, an early version of reverse discrimination, I suppose), dressed sharply in all white uniforms, helped us to embark and debark at stations along the way. They were the kindest, most courteous of souls. We had our own stateroom and each late afternoon at precisely the same time, our dedicated porter came by to turn down the berths. The dining car had white linen table cloths, flourished white napkins and silver place settings embossed with the CPR logo.

When we neared the Rockies something unforgettable happened. Our diesel engine was switched out for a steam locomotive. Steam locos have a smell about them that once experienced is never forgotten. At the rear of the steam train was an open car — a regular lounge car with no windows, where one, in theory, could spend an afternoon reading, looking out and breathing in the fresh mountain air. No. That did not happen. I couldn’t read but more to the point, the car was beset with smoke and soot from the loco. It filleds my hair and lungs and covered my face in soot. About seven minutes was all a human being could take. Still, a nice idea.

I then imagined September 27, 1825. It was opening day for the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR), a day for the history books, for it was the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives. It was a business venture. The objective was to make money by moving coal from the collieries of County Durham (North Yorkshire) to ports on the east coast. There, colliers, coal carrying sailing ships, transported the coal to market, notably to London.

The public had been invited to go for a ride. Seating for 300 had been installed in a dozen coal waggons. Six hundred turned up, stuffing the seated wagons, England: Tales of a Time Traveler Part 1 1.43 additional empty wagons and the wagons filled with coal. They were off. A man on horseback waving a flag led the way. Smoke and steam belched from Locomotive No.1 and on the gentle downslope, the remarkable speed of 12 miles per hour was reached.

Men on horseback galloping alongside could not keep up and fell away. Then something else fell away — a wheel on the wagon carrying the surveyors and engineers. The wagon was promptly removed and off they went again. Then repairs on the locomotive were required, a 35 minute stop. In two hours, travelling at an average speed of 8 mph, the train reached the Darlington Junction where ten thousand people were waiting to greet them. That evening, 102 people gathered at the Town Hall to celebrate the extraordinary achievement.

Quaker Edward Pease (1767-1858) was the major promoter of the railway. He issued shares promising a five percent return on investment. Two-thirds of the shares were sold locally and the remaining shares were purchased by Quakers across England.

Getting to opening day had been a challenge, to say the least. Building the railway required the consent of Parliament. A private bill was presented but failed, as the proposed route passed through the Earl of Eldon’s estate and one of the Earl of Darlington’s fox coverts. A new route was proposed which satisfied the earls, but not Viscount Barrington whose estate the alternate route transgressed.

The challenges continued but one by one were surmounted by Pease who drove the project forward. The S&DR received Royal Assent on 19 April 1821. The terms: anyone could use the railway with their own suitably built vehicles on payment of a toll; the line must be closed at night and land owners within five miles of the line could build branches and make junctions. The S&DR became known as “the Quaker line” and Edward Pease, in some circles, was referred to as the ‘father of railways.’ This really was the beginning of the Age of Railways in Britain. More railways built by others followed; new industries were born in iron and steel and locomotive manufacturing, and railway mapping and industries which depended on the efficient transportation of their goods, flourished.

In the National Railway Museum in York is the exquisite steam engine Rocket designed by George Stephenson in 1829. Stephenson was Pease’s engineer partner and the technical genius behind the S&DR project. The Rocket was the second generation of steam train locomotives. It brought together several innovations which made it the most advanced locomotive of its time and served as the template for locomotive manufacturing for the next 150 years.