What remains of the "first" steam powered passenger railway line?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ต.ค. 2023
- The Stockton-Darlington Railway wasn't the first time steam locomotives had been used to pull people, but it was the first time they had been used to pull passengers over any distance worth talking about. In 1825 that day came when a line running all the way from the coal pits in the hills around County Durham to the River Tees at Stockton was opened officially. This was an experiment, a practice, a great endeavour by local businessmen and engineers, such as the famous George Stephenson, who astounded crowds of onlookers with the introduction of 'Locomotion 1' halfway along the line, which began pulling people towards Darlington and then the docks at Stockton.
This was a day that would not only transform human transportation forever, but accelerate the industrial revolution to a blistering pace.
In this video I want to look at what remains of that line - not the bit still in use between the two towns, but the bit out in the coalfields. And I want to see how those early trailblazers tackled the rolling hills, with horses and stationary steam engines to create a true amalgamation of old-world and new-world technologies.
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Closer to completion than HS2 will ever get.
😂
Uh….meow
Yes I worked for the railways for 19 years and have to say we should have copied the Indian Railways idea! The whole reasoning for HS2 was to alleviate the congestion on the West Coast mainline (old LMS Route). So politicians went straight for the build an extra costly passenger railway. What India has done successfully is build not one but two dedicated freight lines less expense and sorting out the overcrowding problems? Ming you in 6 years when the rail network grinds to a halt and the airlines are overbooked and the motorways are packed the BBC and all the other idiots will be the first to complain why didn’t we finish HS2 (imagine poor old Brunel trying to build the GWR these days?)
Well obviously, it's already been built
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤
Just so sad the bridge is not there. Surely it's a national treasure being the first ever Iron Bridge.
It's not. The first iron bridge is in Telford, in a place named, fittingly enough, Ironbridge
@@nicktrains2234- Ironic how UK place names are so common in Pennsylvania. The Reading Railroad had a station in Telford. On the way there on that line, it passed North Wales.
@@OldsVistaCruiserits not ironic, settlers from England named the towns they were founding after towns in England.
The remains of the Gaunless bridge are being reconstructed at Locomotion Shildon. The stone abutments seen in the video are planned to be reused and a new bridge deck put in for the S&DR multi-use path.
@@nicktrains2234 Iron Railway bridge, commentator said. Telford is first Iron bridge. Telford bridge was actually an advert of what could be done with iron.
As a Stockton lass born and bred, I must say whoever had the bright idea of pulling down that work of Victorian art we locals called STOCKTON STATION took away the heart of the town, that station was a working museum itself and to think people would have traveled from afar to visit, I left 40 years back only to call back again 10 years ago to see nothing but a glorified bus stop I was shedding a tear as a spent my transporting days there, spotting the Scotsman in 68 and memories of that victorian carriage that stood on its platform now in york museum great video I know most of the areas you covered
The bridge over the gaunless actually still exists. It's on display in the car park of the National Railway Museum in York.
It can be seen from indoors, through the windows near the Pedestrian Subway that connects the two main buildings of the museum
Its actually now being reconstructed at Locomotion Shildon at the time of writing.
Then Put it back where it came from!
Aah, then I have seen it, in 1987 when I visited the NRM in York.
Yeah he said in the video
Ollie, you get "over excited and over enthusiastic," never -- just kidding, that's one of the best parts of your channel. This was a great piece of Railroad History -- nothing beats vintage steam. The Skerne Bridge just goes to show if you do it right the first time, it will last.
Thanks for your time, work and posting.....
mike
Thanks Mike! Love a bit of vintage steam! Yes the Bridge is even better in real life than on video. It's great that it's still there just doing it's job, no fuss.
I bet if the builders/workers could see that the bridge is still standing and being used, they would be proud and amazed.......@@BeeHereNowuk
@@BeeHereNowuk Actually, almost every picture of the Skerne Bridge on opening day is wrong, because they were painted 50 years after the event. The bridge embankments started to give way under the strain of the heavy trains, and had to be strengthened. The only known picture of it as originally built is this: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skerne_Bridge,_Darlington,_in_1825,_by_Revd._John_Skinner.jpg
Beamish Museum has a working replica of 'Puffing Billy' (c.1814) which travels a short distance at about five miles an hour. I thought it was an excellent way to understand how "speed" must have felt to early rail passengers. To me, it felt steady and not that slow.
*1914
@@ArthurD No. 1814.
Technically it was used to moving alot of heavy coal wagons not so much passengers.
Also back in those days alternative was walking or horse and cart.
It would be the amount it could move at one time that would count. A stagecoach would be much faster.
@6:35 There wouldn't be wooden sleepers, the rail chairs were directly bolted to the stones, like @11:34
It is amazing how quickly the transformation caused by steel wheels on steel rails occurred. 1825 the S&D started. 1829 the L&M - common carrier travel, the 'Rocket'. 1869 the Transcontinetal railway in the US and a person or goods could travel between the Atlantic and Pacific on a steam railway. This is the first time the Algorithm has brought me to your channel. I'm going to have to look up those L&M videos.
It rapidly made a big difference to human genetics, too.
Ehh, there were actually railways several centuries before, usually used at mines and with horses pulling carts along small sections of track.
It was the steam engine that made railways really take off
A great hommage to the first railway in Great Britten. Greetings from Bavaria, Germany, where the first railway was build in Germany, due to operation December 1835, ordered by King Maximilian from Bayern. This Stock corporation railway from Nürnberg to Fürth is a tramway today and was never connected with the later states owned railways.
A Muslim Turk Taqqidin invented the steam engine 300 years before. Muslim Turks development and invented a lot of steam technology.
@katishindus691 he never built one. He just described a very rudimentary one in a book. So no he didn't invent the steam engine. The Greek Egyptian mathematician and engineer hero of alexandra described the device in the 1st century AD. So technically he invented it.
By the way, the one in this video isn't just the first in Great Britain, but the first in the world. We invented the steam engine and the industrial revolution.
@@katishindus691 That is absolutely not true. Keep dreaming.
It is remarkable that the very first known conveyance of passengers behind a steam locomotive had occurred 21 years earlier on Trevithick's Pen-y-Darren tramroad in South Wales. Trevithick's invention was completely unreliable but the concepts were sound and some 21 years later we had the first reliable steam hauled train. How exciting it must have been to have been living at that time!
Another first for Merthyr.... Along with Adrian Stephens' steam whistle!
Not if you were a coal miner. It was awful.
@@garryferrington811 Fair comment.
The first passenger Railway Station is at Heighington on the line, dating from 1827....it still survives albeit as an abandoned public house, but there are plans to restore it. 😁......you missed that one Ollie !
He missed the entire Locomotion museum in Shildon too, which is right next to spot of the line where Locomotion first departed with the first train hooked up to it
From a country that invented the railways, and subsequently sold the concept of them to the rest of the world.........to a country that can no longer build new railway lines - is a monumental decline. My, how far we've fallen as a country. Tragic.
I share your enthusiasm unabashedly for railroading history. I live in Colorado, USA, and enjoy the more recent history railroading has to offer here. My goal is to take an extended journey to England for the main purpose of experiencing first hand the great railroading offered there. I’ll be sure to visit the Stockton-Darlington railway, thanks to your absolutely fabulous video.
From UK been to Colorado several times love the Cumbres and Toltec, the Engineer for the Denver & Rio grand got the idea for the narrow gauge system was after he spent his honeymoon at the Ffestiniog railway in Wales, bet his new wife was impressed
Oops engineer was Palmer
Australia's very first railway was located in Newcastle NSW, but it was not steam operated, it was a gravitational railway built in 1831 by the Australian Agricultural Company. - On 12 September 1854 the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company opened Australia's first steam railway line in Melbourne. The 2.5-mile (about four-kilometre) track went from Flinders Street Station to Sandridge, now known as Port Melbourne.
Fabulous piece of work. The effort that went into this production is unbelievable.
Subscribed.
He's a real gem.
What I enjoy most about your excursions is the connections between English history and American: the differences and similarities. in 1825 the Erie Canal was completed, which connected the large east coast ports, especially New York, with the Great Lakes and the raw materials of the Midwest, and even the huge coal deposits of western Pennsylvania. As with that first rail line, when developed to full potential, the effect on world trade would eventually be enormous, not to mention the spread of national culture into the far reaches of the two empires. 1825 is quite a pivotal year.
Thanks Ollie, great video. My wife works up the road from Phoenix Row, and I had no idea of its particular importance. I travel all over the North East with work and have sat out the 'station' building in Stockton so many times waiting for the traffic lights to change! I'll look upon it with renewed interest next time 😊
Aw amazing! Glad you found it useful 🙂
Well done, great research and little. I knew most of this but thanks for putting i together.
In Wales Richard Trevithick was the first to build a steam train on the 21st of February in 1804 to pull horse drawn coal wagons loaded with iron and 70 passengers from Merthyr Tydfil iron works along the Penytorren Tramroad to the Navigation Yard in Abercynon where the iron was loaded on to barges that went down the carnal to Cardiff and it was followed by a a load of coal a few days later which was earlier than the event you are speaking of in England in 1825.
Did you read the title? First PASSENGER railway.
This is my hometown. I haven’t seen this place in forever.
the original Locomotion No 1 is preserved at Shildon and it has been confirmed that she (or most likely her replica) will be restored back to working order in time of the Bicentennial of the S&D
My granddad joined the North Eastern Railway as an apprentice fireman in 1909 at Newport Shed. In 1928 he became a locomotive driver and moved to Saltburn Shed, where he stayed until retiring in 1961, having made the change from steam to diesel. He must have known the track to Darlington-Stockton like the back of his hand.
You say that the first locomotive on this railway was named LOCOMOTION No 1; and that is the accepted history. But that engine carried no name or number in its early days; and Samuel Smiles, in his biography of George Stephenson published in 1857 - just nine years after George's death and 30 years after the opening of the line - states at least twice that the engine used on the line from day one was locomotive number 1 named "ACTIVE." So is that not curious?
The iron trusses of the Gaunless Bridge were kept and are to displayed at Shildon, also I think a new bridge is to be installed between the historic abutments as part of a cycle way.
I love the way you embrace the subject and have a real passion for the history. Your videos are great and informative about bygone times.
So nice of you. Glad you like them!
Truly great research gone into your program here Ollie. The maps and the photographs plus finding parts of this earliest system have made this very enjoyable, indeed. Many thanks for this production.
The Gaunless bridge appears to be in the car park of the National Railway Museum at York. Perhaps it is time it was returned…
Another excellent video Ollie some interesting facts and shots along the line I have not seen before. Keep these railway history videos coming .
Excellent video.Again coming from County Durham,its was amazing to hear the story and see some of the remains of the railway route!
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
I read the title and you are wrong
Absolutely brilliant, thank you so much for posting. Please be sure to cover the Bicentenary of the line in two years time for those who cannot make it. I haven't been up for a few years, and it is good to see all the rebuilding going on. The area around Skerne bridge look so much better now.
Love the brick engine at 17:42!
What a great video. I was born and grew up in Etherley and, as kids, we used to play on the old track bed next to Pheonix Row. Also walked the track through Greenfields and Brusselton to Shildon many times. Thanks for such a well produced film.
Absolutely superb . Many thanks
Fascinating history that then spanned the whole world, something to be proud of 👍🇬🇧
Great stuff Ollie! I always look forward to your work. Bravo!
Much appreciated Jimmy! Glad you liked it!
Interesting video, although you missed an opportunity to explain why the original trackway used separate stone "sleepers" rather than full width wood as is used today. This was done because the original rail wagons were pulled by a horse, and the separate sleepers gave the horse a smooth surface to walk on. In addition, since standard coal wagons were used, they did not have flanged wheels, so the first trackway incorporated an angle shaped rail. The original rail spacing was 4 feet 8 inches because of using existing coal wagons, which were sized (similar to Roman chariots) to accommodate two horses side by side. Ultimately, the 4 feet 8 inch spacing became 4 feet 8- and one-half inches, the "standard" rail gauge used today.
Now this "standard gauge" information is a real find. My family has been in the U.S. railroad business since its inception and we were always told that the standard gauge was patterned after the chariot ruts in ancient Pompeii.
Please also see footnote on track gauge on p.81 of Tomlinson's North Eastern Railway (1967 reprint)
Superb Ollie, love your stuff. The old carriage shed near Darlington North Road station was where, only a few years ago, 60163 Tornado, the first new build British mainline steam locomotive since 1960 was built.
Fascinating. Thank you.
When steam power married rail, that is when modernity started. Yes, there was steam power elsewhere, wind and water mills, but this is the match that lit the candle that started the Industrial Revolution full tilt. It was the synergy of steel, coal, and steam. TY for posting. This is an important place.
keep up the great historical work.
A cracking video and I much appreciate your enthusiasm and passion for the subject. You're a man after my own heart!
Although the S and D was the frist line to carry passengers, the south hetton line was the first to use only steam power, also designed by Stephenson in 1822
Excellent programme Sir thank you
History like this needs to be preserved.
Thanks for sharing this most interesting tale. Great detail
Another quality production as always mate.
Much appreciated amigo
Brilliant! Thank you
Great video, nice amount of detail too.
As ever, a really well-researched and well-presented video
Great video, thanks! I was raised in Stockton-on-Tees and remember having a project to do at school for the. 150th anniversary in 1975. I just went to the museum (in the original ticket office on the right of the block you filmed) and copied down all the writing in the museum! Probably got a really crap mark. By the way I understand the reason the building wasn't used or developed as some sort of souvenir or continued as a museum was that it is now used as a charitable home for blokes.
Really enjoyed this, good stuff 👍
Great to see you spreading your wings broader than the North West. I have been interested and worked or the railway for 40 years but never understood where and how the Stockton and Darlington worked. I do now. You have a real talent and are better than most if not all of the you tube competition in this field. Please do more like this.
Lovely brass band sounds at start and finish. Superb bookends.
Really enjoyed your presentation. So informative. Thank you for all your hard research and production.
I was there in 1975, from Holland, just to see the steam cavalcade.
Excellent presentation thank you
Great video and thoroughly enjoyable.
Nice one - thanks for this
Excellent video presentation. What a journey!
Another excellent industrial heritage video. Stockton-darlington railway was always just a date in my history notes at school ( I was taught by people without any soul ! ) Thanks for bringing it to life !
Aw thanks very much!
I'm a proud Stockton lad . An amazing town with amazing people. And full of history. Great video my friend. Thank you 😊
Thanks Ollie. Fascinating stuff as always.
My pleasure! Thank you for watching it :)
really enjoyed that. those stone sleepers were amazing
Well done. Thanks.
Thanks Ollie for doing this. I thought the original railway was incorporated into the modern network, but in reality it was not. On the the whole a very interesting and informative documentary. Thanks for doing this for us. The research and preparation must have taken a bit of time - Regards - RC
Parts of it was integrated into the modern network.
Lovely film . Very informative and entertaining. Thanks for effort that must have been required. Loved it .
Interesting that the fish bellied rail sections are evident in your video. There were so many parallels occurring outside of Plymouth. The Plymouth Dartmoor Railway that was meant to bring products like granite from Dartmoor and lime up onto the moor to neutalise the acid soils. That was between 1812 to 1820. It was horse drawn and steam trains did not appear some 30 years later on a parallel purpose built modern railway track. Bearing in mind, there were arguments as to whether the standard gauge or the wider GWR guage should be the standard.
Thanks for the detailed video.
Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you for this engaging production. I learned a lot I didn't know. Appreciated as well is the information contained in the comments your video generated.
Great history marvellously presented . Thank you Ollie
Passengers were carried 20 years earlier in Merthyr, Penydarren railway 1804
Great story and great presentation. Thank you.
Smashing video!
Just watched this.
Fantastic! I'm passionate about industrial archeology but especially the railways.
Subbed. 😊
Great vid Ollie - really enjoyed every minute. Now I know where to be in a couple o' years!
Fantastic video - again! You manage to find really interesting topics and present your research in a great way. Keep em coming!
Thank you very much! Very kind of you
Excellent video!
Greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱.
Absolutely fantastic video! 👌🌟😎
Very interesting. Thank you!
I love history and found this video very informative and enjoyable to watch. Thank you for producing this video! Regards, Nic
I love that photo of old 54. The engineer and fireman (shoveling coal) are very dandy in their top hats and tails! And all of those folks in the wagons appear to be amidst absolute chaos. How fun!
That was wonderful, very informative and well presented, I really enjoyed that.
Great video, very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
The first steam service in the world was just outside of Pontypridd in Wales. in real coal country. What is the first train in the world?
1804 - First steam locomotive railway using a locomotive called the Penydarren or Pen-y-Darren was built by Richard Trevithick. It was used to haul iron from Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon, Wales. The first train carried a load of 10 tons of iron. On one occasion it successfully hauled 25 tons.
Both my parents were born in a village that the original Stockton to Darlington railway ran through and I walked the line before it was ripped up and completely turned into a walking track. I've lived in Australia since 1968 but I was there twice, the last time being around 1980 and I saw the Rocket replica on Darlington station, probably no longer there. It's a shame to see what they've done to an iconic moment in history.
Excellent video. Love your passion for industrial history. From that random guy who bumped into you at the railway garden bridge in Manchester a few weeks ago!
Hey thanks very much mate. It was lovely to meet you! I'm glad you like them and I hope you had a good rest of your trip to Manchester!
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing. Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪.
This is fascinating! I live in Forest Hall about a five minute walk from the old pit in Killingworth and about five minutes walk from "The George Stephenson museum" which was his house where he lived and worked on "The rocket"
We still have the old coal train tracks as public spaces and walkways called "Wagon ways" They're a beauty to be in.
This line you're walking looks beautiful to walk. Great to know you can walk it! Thanks!
Continued success!
Thanks so much, that's so nice to hear 😊
Great video!
Thank you, Informative, interesting and well done.
An excellent and informative exploration of this historic railway. Thank you for sharing your adventure. Subscribed🙂👍
Thank you for the documentary.It is very interesting.
Good video explaining parts that I had not known. Subscribed
Thank you from New Zealand this was so interesting
Great video, very interesting. Thank you very much, Ollie ❤
Most interesting; enjoyed that👍
Superb. Many thanks from down under.
Great upload & video mate
Thank you 👍
Awesome, thanks!
Brilliant video. I must have a look at some of those places when I'm up North one time
The Stockton and Darlington wouldn’t have used wooden sleepers. Stone foundations were more common for the first twenty years of steam railways with cast iron rails.