London and Birmingham Railway

“ The accommodation of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, South Wales, and the important districts lying to the west of the present lines of Railway, will evidently, at no distant period, require not only a wide-gauge Railway along the Southern coast, to place them in communication with London, but also a narrow-gauge Railway to place them in direct and unbroken communication, through Birmingham, with the manufacturing districts and the great Railway system of the rest of the kingdom. ”

“ Sir, I should be ashamed to enter on a justification of men so well known to the world, of such high honour, such unsullied integrity as those gentlemen, who are best known among the projectors and supporters of the Liverpool and Manchester railway. ”

“ In this brief survey of the past and present condition of Birmingham, it will be seen how rapidly its greatness and importance have been achieved by the perseverance, spirit, and ingenuity of its inhabitants. We may expect as rapid, and almost as great improvements from the additional consequence and advantages it will receive from the great works now nearly completed. The finished line of railway from London to Liverpool through this place, may, with confidence, be looked to as another great era in its history, from whence to date still increasing wealth, power, and intelligence. ”

“ It must not be forgotten, that the Liverpool and Manchester being the first line of the same magnitude that had ever been constructed, many expenses occurred, which are always attendant upon works of a new kind, and which are much reduced when the same kind of work has to be executed again. It was formerly the opinion of those who are best acquainted with these subjects, that railways might be constructed at as little expense as canals: and when we consider that a canal requires a perfect level; occupies an equal width of land with a railway ”

“ It is unnecessary to establish by reasoning what is borne out by facts; and I refer again to the railroad between Liverpool and Manchester, on which goods and merchandise are now taken in one-tenth of the time and at two-thirds of the former cost, and passengers in half the time and at p. 22half the former charges by coach. May not the same support be looked for between London, and Birmingham, when the same advantages are offered? ”

“ The railways, which we are now considering, resting with one extremity on the metropolis, extending thence by way of Birmingham, through Staffordshire to Liverpool, and by Liverpool connected with all the north of Ireland and west of Scotland, to the north of Birmingham sending off a branch through Manchester to Leeds and the West Riding of Yorkshire,—will connect all the greatest towns, all the greatest manufacturing districts with each other and with the metropolis ”

“ What the prospect of that industrious population which depends upon it? A reduction of one half in the expense of carriage, which the railways appear justly to promise, would convert a bad trade into a good one; would give Staffordshire a superiority over all competitors. At this moment the remission of the duty on sea-borne coals will narrow the market of the Staffordshire coal trade. The railway may not only restore the balance, but incline it in favour of Staffordshire, whose mines lie nearest of any to the metropolis. But the superiority of railways is a question of fact ”

“ The ease, the smoothness, is that of one smooth bar of iron revolving on another; the motion of the best built carriage, on the best constructed road, is comparatively rough and jarring. You move with no more fatigue than from sitting in your chamber. Then for regularity,—here are no interruptions from drought, none from frost, none from snow, none from tedious periodical repairs. In safety,—inquire, and you find in the last six months upwards of 100,000 persons have passed between Liverpool and Manchester without an accident. ”

“ As a railway starting point, Birmingham has become a wonderful place. In addition to those main lines and branches passed and noted on our journey down, it is also the centre at which meet the railroads to Derby and Sheffield; to Worcester, Cheltenham, Gloucester, and Bristol; to London through Oxford, by the Broad Gauge Great Western, to Shrewsbury and Chester through Wolverhampton, beside the little South Staffordshire lines, which form an omnibus route between Birmingham, Walsall, Dudley, and Lichfield, and other iron nets “too tedious to describe.” ”

“ Millions have been spent in order to save an hour and a half between London and Liverpool; yet there are plenty of men not much past thirty who remember when all respectable plain practical common sense men looked upon the project for a railway between London and Birmingham as something very wild if not very wicked ”

“ It may be objected, that railroads would throw out of employment a great number of people, who are now actively engaged, as coachmen, guards, horse-keepers, boatmen, waggoners, &c.: but as all improvements which tend to reduce the price of travelling and quick communication have led to a different result, we may infer that the number of cross coaches and short conveyances of all kinds that would be established to bring up passengers and goods to the railway, would at once give employment to these men. ”

“ It will condense the whole population of the kingdom, as to all purposes of intercourse for business or amusement; while it spreads it over the whole surface for purposes of healthful air and beautiful country scenery; and we know not yet its maximum rapidity; but our gardens, our farms, above all, our mines and manufactories, will be placed as near the great sea-ports and the sea as if Birmingham was only 30 or 40 miles from Liverpool or London. ”

“ A great deal of opposition was encountered in making the surveys for the London and Birmingham Railway, and although, in every case, as little damage was done as possible, simply because it was the interest of those concerned to conciliate all parties along the line, yet, in several instances, the opposition was of a most violent nature ”

“ We may take as a proof the present posting and travelling upon the road from London to Dover, which was greater in 1829 than ever it was known to be before, although in the same year upwards of 1,000 passengers were conveyed weekly from London to Calais by steam. If indeed there are some persons that will be thrown out of employment for a short time, we must set against this the vast increase of labour that will be given to mechanics and others employed in manufacturing the engines and machines used on railways ”

“ What would be the value of the mines of Staffordshire, in the very centre of the island, and without a navigable river? But the art and industry of man has surmounted every difficulty. Birmingham is not only connected with all the kingdom by a system of excellent roads, but has a water-communication with London, with Liverpool, with Bristol, with Hull; and it is from the opening of these canals that you must date its great prosperity. ”

“ Birmingham being between 3 and 400 feet higher than London, and the intervening ground much broken, the railway could not be laid down without an inclination in its planes; the rise, however, will in no case exceed 1 in 330. The highest point of the line is on the summit of an inclined plane 15 miles long, rising 13-1/3 feet in each mile, and is 315 feet above the level at Maiden Lane, London ”

“ Another important consideration which seems to point to Bristol rather than Birmingham, as a proper point for the interruption of the gauge, and which has been strongly urged upon us by carriers, merchants, and practical men acquainted with the course of traffic, is, that Bristol, like London, is a great emporium and shipping port, through which a comparatively small portion of the goods which enter by Railway require to be forwarded in transit without repacking and assortment. ”

“ But the great point of all is the economy: and here, while we claim the right to assert a great economy, we may readily allow that there may not have been sufficient time to estimate all the expenses with which railways and engines of rapid motion may be attended. But would the low prices have been fixed between Liverpool and Manchester if the managers of this interesting establishment had not found they could with justice to the proprietors take those reduced prices? ”

“ Even the export trade alone in coals and iron could not be conducted with convenience upon the same line of rails as the passenger traffic, and would require a separate line of rails in order to allow the waggons passing and repassing from the different works within the district to reach without interruption some principal station at its extremity, where trains of the proper size could be formed and dispatched to distant points. ”

“ By introducing the mixed gauge on the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway, the line from Birmingham by Fenny Compton to London would probably offer, as a broad-gauge railway, as rapid a communication as the existing direct line; [59] and great as the advantages which the public have received by the rivalry between the gauges, in the rapid improvement in railway travelling, have been, it might even be expected that these would be further increased when the two systems are brought into direct competition, which as yet they have not been (p. 16) . ”

“ In July 1837 he became tired of hearing nothing in London except about the Queen and the coming elections, so he resolved to see the new Birmingham and Liverpool Railway. Reaching Birmingham in 121⁄2 hours by coach, he “got upon the railroad at half-past seven in the morning. Nothing can be more comfortable than the vehicle in which I was put, a sort of chariot with two places, and there is nothing disagreeable about it but the occasional whiffs of stinking air which it is impossible to exclude altogether. ”

“ It is very doubtful how far the addition of a single rail only would be consistent with safety, as in this case the centre of gravity of the carriages of different gauge in the same train would not be in the same straight line. If a complete double set of rails were laid down the expense would be very considerable. ”

“ To be a railway shareholder was at that time, to the majority of people, proof positive of insanity, while engineers and directors were regarded as curious compounds of fools and rogues. Any time between 1833 and 1837, the coachmen on the Great North Road would point out to their box-seat passengers the works of the London and Birmingham in progress beside that highway, and distinctly visible all the way between Potter’s Bar and Hatfield and at various other points. ”

“ In truth, the abolition of differential rates would deprive many places of their natural advantages. That Liverpool is on the sea, and that Birmingham is not, that there is sea communication from the former to London, are circumstances which railways did not create, and to which they must accommodate themselves. Railway Companies are not answerable for the fact that certain kinds of traffic come from a point having the advantage of a sea route; that there is competition at one place and not at another ”

“ The success of the Manchester and Liverpool railway having been established, the next thing was to extend the line to Birmingham, and a company was immediately formed for the purpose, with Mr. George Stephenson as engineer. About the same time another line was projected by his son Robert, from London to Birmingham, pursuing pretty nearly the line of the old Grand Junction or Paddington Canal; this line was longer than mine, led over much more difficult country, and did not pass through the same number of towns and population, although it touched the important city of Coventry. ”

“ The vans each measured 660 cubic feet; if we say 600, we shall have a total cubic contents of 4,000 feet. This is equal to the displacement of a vessel of more than 1,000 tons burden. I said, in my Address, that it would take fourteen or fifteen mail coaches to carry the Friday night’s mail from London to Birmingham: that every coach that ran in 1830 between London and Birmingham would now have been needed for Post Office purposes, if the London and North-Western Railway had not been brought into existence. ”

“ On Sundays. The Trains on Sundays stop at First Class Stations only.
First Class Passengers, Horses, and Carriages will, if required, be booked throughout from Liverpool and Manchester only, to London, (but not to any other place on the London and Birmingham Line for the present,) without change of Carriage at Birmingham. A certain number only can be booked by each train in this manner.
No Horses can be booked further than Birmingham, unless they belong to a Carriage or Passenger accompanying one of the above-mentioned Trains. ”

“ Independently of the injury which this obstinacy has ever since inflicted upon the town, it cost the railway company a loss in money of more than a million sterling, a lengthened and inferior section of railway, a tunnel 2,423 yards long (only 217 less than a mile and a-half) , which, during its construction, ruined four contractors and caused the deaths of upwards of a hundred working men. Finally, the obstinacy of Northampton delayed the opening through of the railway from London to Birmingham for fully two years. No wonder, then, that its present generation of men is ashamed of the deed. ”