CHAP. XXV.]

NEW LINES PROJECTED.

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of the most gigantic kind, which, in their total mass, their cost, and their eminent public utility, far exceed the most famous national constructions of any age or country.

Mr. Stephenson was of course actively engaged in the construction of the numerous railways now projected by the joint-stock companies. During the formation of the Manchester and Liverpool line, he had been consulted respecting many projects of a similar kind. One of these was a short railway, between Canterbury and Whitstable, about six miles in length. He was too much occupied with the works at Liverpool to give this scheme much of his personal attention. But he sent his assistant, Mr. John Dixon, to survey the line; and afterwards Mr. Locke to superintend the execution of the principal works. The act was obtained in 1826, and the line was opened for traffic in 1830. It was partly worked by fixed-engine power, and partly by Stephenson's locomotives, similar to the engines used upon the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

But the desire for railway extension principally pervaded the manufacturing districts, especially after the successful opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line. The commercial classes of the larger towns soon became eager for a participation in the good which they had so recently derided. Railway projects were set on foot in great numbers, and Manchester became a centre from which main lines and branches were started in all directions. The interest, however, which attaches to these later schemes is of a much less absorbing kind than that which belongs to the earlier history of the English railway, and the steps by which George Stephenson secured its eventual establishment. We naturally sympathise more with the early struggles of a great principle, its trials and its difficulties, than with its after stages of success; and, however gratified and astonished we may be at its permanent results, the secret charm

Y

of the interest is gone, and the excitement has ceased, when its ultimate triumph has become a matter of certainty.

The commercial results of the Liverpool and Manchester line were so satisfactory, and indeed so greatly exceeded the expectations of its projectors, that many of the abandoned projects of the speculative year 1825 were forthwith revived. An abundant crop of engineers sprang up, ready to execute railways of any extent. Now that the Liverpool and Manchester line had been made, and the practicability of working it by locomotive power had been proved, it was as easy for engineers to make railways and to work them, as it was for navigators to find America after Columbus had made the first voyage. George Stephenson had shown the way, and engineers forthwith crowded after him full of great projects. Mr. Francis Giles himself took the field as a locomotive railway engineer, attaching himself to the Newcastle and Carlisle, and London and Southampton projects. Mr. Brunel appeared, in like manner, as the engineer of the line projected between London and Bristol; and Mr. Braithwaite, the builder of the "Novelty" engine, as the engineer of a line from London to Colchester.

The first lines, however, which were actually constructed subsequent to the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, were in connection with it, and principally in the county of Lancaster. Thus a branch was formed from Bolton to Leigh, and another from Leigh to Kenyon, where it formed a junction with the main line between Liverpool and Manchester. Branches to Wigan on the north, and to Runcorn Gap and Warrington on the south of the same line, were also formed. A continuation of the latter, as far south as Birmingham, was shortly after projected under the name of the Grand Junction Railway. The scheme of a line from Birmingham to London was also brought forward anew, and it was thus contemplated to bring the populous districts

CHAP. XXV.]

POPULAR ALARMS.

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of Lancashire and the north-western counties into direct railway communication with the metropolis. At the same time an important cross country railway was projected from Manchester to Leeds, traversing the populous manufacturing districts of East Lancashire and West Yorkshire, and bringing the chief towns of the two great northern counties into direct communication with each other. Of the principal lines projected in these districts, Mr. George Stephenson was appointed engineer; in some cases, in conjunction with his son. He was the engineer of the Grand Junction, of the Manchester and Leeds, and other new lines, so that his hands were full of work.

The number of railway schemes which were thus projected by companies of private individuals, principally resident in the manufacturing districts, created considerable alarm in the minds of the country gentlemen, who were found everywhere up in arms against these "new-fangled roads." The farmers were thrown into a state of consternation at the idea of "fire horses "running through their quiet fields and frightening their sheep and cattle while grazing. In remote country places the most extraordinary stories were propagated and believed respecting railway locomotives. On one occasion, Mr. Stephenson and some directors of the line projected from Chester to Birmingham, on coming into the neighbourhood of Nantwich, to obtain the consent of some landowners, were told that the canal proprietors had been before them, and had told the farmers and landowners that if a bird flew over the district when the locomotive passed, it would drop down dead!

The inhabitants of even some of the large towns were thrown into a state of consternation by the proposal to provide them with the accommodation of a railway. The line from London to Birmingham would naturally have passed close to the handsome town of Northampton, and was so

projected. But the inhabitants of the shire, urged on by the local press, and excited by men of influence and education, opposed the project, and succeeded in forcing the promoters, in their re-survey of the line, to pass the town at a distance. The necessity was thus involved of distorting the line, by which the enormous expense of constructing the Kilsby Tunnel was incurred. Not many years elapsed before the inhabitants of Northampton became clamorous for railway accommodation, and a special branch was constructed for them. The additional cost involved by this forced deviation of the line could not have amounted to less than half a million sterling; a loss falling, not upon the shareholders only, but also upon the public at large, who are the eventual sufferers from all railway waste and extravagance.

But the most formidable opponents of the new roads were the landowners, whose position in the legislature gave them an overwhelming influence in determining their direction, and the terms on which they were to be conceded. And as the history of the progress of the London and Birmingham scheme differs but little, in the main, from that of similar projects of the time, a brief statement of the leading facts in connexion with it may not be out of place here.

Surveys of a line of railway from London to Birmingham had been made as early as the great speculative year 1825, but the commercial crash which occurred stopped its further progress. It was, however, revived in 1830, when two committees were formed at Birmingham. One had for their consulting engineers the Messrs. Rennie, and the other Mr. Francis Giles. The line of the former was projected to pass by Oxford to London; and that of the latter by way of Coventry. There was at that early date less of the fighting spirit amongst rival railway projectors than unhappily prevailed at a subsequent period. The promoters were desirous of obtaining a good railroad to London, rather than of carry

CHAP. XXV.]

APPOINTMENT OF ENGINEERS.

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ing on a costly warfare for the benefit of rival lawyers, surveyors, and engineers. So the two committees wisely determined to unite, and call to their aid the matured experience and judgment of Mr. George Stephenson, in adjudicating upon the merits of the respective lines. After a careful examination of the country, Mr. Stephenson reported in favour of the Coventry route; and the Lancashire gentlemen, having great confidence in his judgment, supported his decision, on which the line recommended by him was adopted.

At the meeting of gentlemen held at Birmingham to determine upon the appointment of the engineer for the railway, there was a strong party in favour of appointing as Mr. Stephenson's associate a gentleman with whom he had been brought into serious collision in the course of the Liverpool and Manchester undertaking. When the offer was made to him that he should be joint engineer with the other, he requested leave to retire and consider the proposal with his son. The two walked into St. Philip's churchyard, which adjoined the place of meeting, and debated the proposal. The father was in favour of accepting it: his struggle heretofore had been so hard, that he could not bear the idea of missing an opportunity of advancing himself. But the son, foreseeing the jealousies and heartburnings which the joint engineership would most probably create, recommended to his father the answer which Mr. Bradshaw gave, when shares were offered to the Duke of Bridgwater's Trustees in the Liverpool and Manchester line," All or none!" "Well, I believe you are right," said Mr. Stephenson; and returning to the Committee, he announced to them his decision. "Then 'all' be it!" replied the Chairman; and he was at once appointed the engineer of the London and Birmingham Railway, in conjunction with his son.