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The opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway is rightly considered a milestone in world history, but in truth the opening day itself was a disaster.
- It started by shooting a man in the face with a cannon
- It was the scene of protests which led the Prime Minister to flee a city (no less a man than the “Iron” Duke of Wellington, at that!)
- It killed one of its greatest supporters with a machine it was trying to convince the public was safe
The final episode in our mini-series on the L&MR explores the formal opening of the world’s first modern railway on the 15th September 1830, and the early locomotives, like Northumbrian and Planet, that ran on it.
Show notes
- 02:00 Last episode’s trivia answer
- 02:42 A crowd gathers at Edge Hill
- 04:00 The locomotives: Arrow, Comet, Dart, Meteor, Northumbrian, North Star, Phoenix and Rocket
- 05:15 The inaugural trains and the great and the good
- 06:25 The Duke of Wellington’s coach
- 08:27 Northumbrian’s tender
- 09:10 The first (official) railway journey
- 12:12 William Huskisson
- 13:52 Parkside Station
- 16:25 The Rocket locomotive hits Huskisson
- 18:00 Navvy killed on the L&MR a year earlier in the same way
- 18:55 Back on the line
- 21:47 Antagonistic crowd come to see Old Nosey (or, Michael gets distracted by a potted history of British revolutions that nearly happened)
- 23:50 Peterloo, Power-loom riots, Voting reform and Charles X
- 25:25 The Iron Duke leaves Manchester… then the railway… then office
- 27:50 Early locos
- 28:15 Braithwaite & Ericsson’s William the Fourth and Queen Adelaide locomotives
- 29:58 Robert Stephensons’ Rocket class locomotives
- 33:15 Introduction of the Planet locomotive class
- 37:00 Conclusion
- 39:03 This episode’s trivia question
Research and Reading List
These are some of the books and websites I used for research for this episode. Many are free resources on the internet, some you can buy for yourself … if you do fancy any of them, then buying them through these links is a great way to support the show at no extra cost to you *.
An Account of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway – Henry Booth, 1830
Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1830-1980 – Frank Ferneyhough, 1980
Liverpool and Manchester Railway : a mile by mile guide to the world’s first “modern” railway – David Singleton, 1975
Proceedings of the Committee of the House of Commons on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad bill: Sessions, 1825 – the full 800 pages of minutes from the committee hearings
An Accurate Description of the Liverpool and Manchester Rail-way The Tunnels, the Bridges, and Other Works Throughout the Line – James Scott Walker, 1830
The Evolution of the Steam Locomotive, 1803 to 1898 – G.A. Sekon (Nokes), 1899
The British steam railway locomotive, 1825-1925 – E.L. Ahrons, 1927
Railway Carriages in the British Isles, 1830-1914 – C. Hamilton Ellis, 1965
And finally, a non-reading related resource, that’s worth a look: The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Trust have put together a great online map that shows the bridges and stations from the original line (and those that have been added since) – check it out here.
Images
George Stephenson (1781 – 1848)
This Episode’s Trivia Question
What is the highest railway bridge in the world?
(Note: “highest” not “tallest”.)
Chenab railway bridge in Kashmir, is currently (June 2023) the highest railway bridge. An arch bridge, standing 359 metres above the river bed.
The railway isn’t up and running yet, but the rails were finished in March this year. The highest operational railway bridge is Najiehe in China, at 305m
* I use affiliate links to help support the podcast. If you buy through these links then you pay exactly the same price, and I earn a (very!) small commission.
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