Chronography of rail disasters,� socio-economic
effects of railways
Page last modified 11 June 2023
See also Rail Travel worldwide
See also Rail Travel GB
See also Rail Tunnels
The
destructive effects of High Speed Railways,
For milk price
and railways see 1881 below (click here for general farming; click here for general foodstuffs)
For coal price
and railways see 1825 below (click
here for general
coal industry)
(for general price level changes over time click here)
For football
and railways see Sports-Football (23 March 1888)
For effects of low pay and underqualified railway
staff on the accident record see 1878 below.
Rail Accidents & Disasters
12 August 2020, Three
died when a train derailed south of Aberdeen,
heavy rain was blamed, which had caused a landslip onto the track.
3 July 2006, 34 died
and 20 were injured in a train accident on the Valencia Metro, Spain.
17 October 2005, The Rail Accident Investigation Branch came
into existence. The creation of such a body was recommended by Lord Cullen
in the inquiry into the Ladbroke Grove rail disaster of 1999.
19/4/2004, Major train crash in North Korea, 2 fuel trains collided and
exploded, causing 3,000 casualties.
10 May 2002. 7 were
killed and 70 injured in a train crash
at Potters Bar station, Hertfordshire. The crash was due to missing bolts
at a set of points 200 yards north of the station. This caused the last
carriage of a 4 car train to break loose and mount the platform as the train
passed through Potters Bar station at 100 mph.
11 January 2002, Gary Hart, 37, was jailed for 5 years for
falling asleep whilst driving and causing the Selby rail disaster.
28 February 2001, The Selby
rail crash. A land rover came off the M.62 and crashed onto a main railway
line, causing an express train to collide with a coal freight train. Both train
drivers and 8 passengers were killed. The car driver suffered minor injuries.
17 October 2000, Major
rail crash at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.�
A faulty rail derailed a Kings Cross to Leeds train on a curve, killing
4 and injuring 107.� Faulty maintenance
by Railtrack was blamed.
5 October 1999. A serious rail crash at Ladbroke Grove, outside Paddington, London, killed 31 people. Over 100 were injured.
The 8.06 from Paddington to Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, was cut in half by the
express from Cheltenham at 8.11 am. The newly-privatised rail companies were
criticised for not spending enough on signalling.
19 September 1997, An inter-city
express collided with a freight train at Southall, west London, killing 7
people.
18 November 1996. Serious fire on
Channel Tunnel train. The train was 12 miles inside the Tunnel, and the
open latticework of the lorry carriages may have had a blowtorch effect on the
fire which could have started before the train entered the Tunnel. Eight people
suffered smoke inhalation injuries and the Tunnel was closed for months.
13 November 1994, The first passengers travelled through the Channel Tunnel.
4 March 1989, Train crash at Purley station, London, killed 5 and injured 94.
12 December 1988. A
major train crash at Clapham Junction, south London. 38 died and 113 were injured as two morning rush
hour trains collided. An express train ran into the back of a London commuter
train that had stopped on the line to report a faulty signal. A third train was
derailed and a fourth was stopped in time to avoid a further collision.
27 June 1988, Train
crash at Gare de Lyons, Paris, 57 killed.
18 November 1987. The worst
fire in the history of the London Underground killed 31 at King�s
Cross. An accumulation of rubbish and fluff under a wooden escalator
had been ignited by a cigarette end. Sprinklers had not been installed despite
a recommendation in 1984 for them, and administrative errors meant passengers
were still disembarking from Piccadilly Line trains as the fire spread. A �no
smoking� rule came into force across the London Underground on 24 November 1987.
18 January 1977, The worst rail disaster in Australia occurred when a Sydney bound train
derailed, killing 82 people.
28 February 1975. A London Underground train from Drayton
Park crashed through the buffers at Moorgate, killing 42 people. The
driver, Leslie Newton, was bringing
in his 8.37 train when instead of braking he accelerated into a 72 metre blind
tunnel. The front 4.5 metres of the leading carriage were crushed into 60
centimetres.
1 February 1970, In Buenos Aires,
a passenger train crashed into a parked commuter train, killing 236.
5 November 1967, 49 people were
killed at a rail crash at Hither Green, south London.
4 December 1957, Major train crash
at Lewisham, south east London, with 92 killed and over 200 injured. In
thick fog, the 4.56 steam express from Cannon Street to Ramsgate missed two red
signals and ploughed into the back of the stationary Charing Cross to Hayes
electric train. The rear of the Hayes train telescoped whilst the tender of the
steam train rose up and brought down a bridge carrying another rail line over
the tracks. The 350-ton bridge crashed down onto the already-damaged carriages.
Two minutes later another train was crossing the bridge; its driver saw the
hole in the tracks just in time and stopped his train with the leading carriage
leaning over the gap. Trains then did not have automatic warning systems if a
red signal was passed.
1
September 1957, A train
accident near Kendal, Jamaica, killed 175 and injured 400.
2 December 1955, The Barnes rail crash, SW London After a collision caused by a
signal error, fire broke out, killing 13 and injuring 35
8 October 1952. 112 people were killed in a rail crash in
north London. At 7.31 a.m. a commuter train about to leave Harrow and Wealdstone
station was hit in the rear by a high speed train from Perth doing nearly 60
mph. A signalman changed all the signals to red but it was too late to
stop� a third train travelling north from
Euston to hit the wreckage, demolishing a footbridge. Carriages were strewn
across six tracks; 112 people died and 200 were injured in the worst rail
disaster since 1915 when five trains collided at Quintinshill in Scotland
killing 227 people.
1 September 1947, 31
people were killed in the Dugald rail
accident in Dugald, Manitoba, Canada.
10 December 1937, 35 were
killed and 179 injured when the Glasgow to Edinburgh express ploughed into a
local train at the small station of Castlecary, near Glasgow, during a
snowstorm. Steel-built rolling stock saved many lived on the express train.
25 July 1923, 100 killed in Bulgarian train crash.
26 January 1921, 17
people were killed at Abermule when the Aberystwyth to Whitchurch train
collided with a train going the other way on a single track line. The train
from Whitchurch (Shropshire) had been allowed to leave with the wrong tablet
for this single-line section.
9 July 1918, America
experienced its worst train accident.�
101 were killed in Nashville, Tennessee.
14 August 1915, A rail
crash in Weedon, England killed ten people.
12 December 1917, The world�s worst train accident occurred,
at Modane, France.� 534 were killed.
22 May 1915. The Gretna Green troop train disaster, the
worst on Britain�s railways, took place; 227 died. Three trains had collided at
Quintinshill, and 200 of the casualties were Scots Guards on the way to war.
The shocked and dishevelled survivors were mistaken for German POWs and stoned by
civilians.
1 January 1915, The
Ilford rail crash in Essex, England killed ten people and injured another 500
passengers.
4 September 1912, The first tube train collision in London,
22 were injured.
16 July 1908, Fire at Moorgate tube station.
29 March 1907, A train
derailed near Colton, California; 26 were killed and about 100 injured.
6 March 1906, An
avalanche at Roger�s Pass in the US buried a train. By the time the train was
dug out, 62 people had died.
1 July 1906, A train
crash at Salisbury, UK, caused by excessive speed. Speed limits were now
rigorously enforced and rail speed record attempts now ceased. The underyling
cause was competition between the Great Western and London South Western
railways fof the fastest journey between Plymouth and London. Both companies
offered this link but along different routes, and as with Preston (14 August 1895)
te crash was due to a driver running through Salisbury too fast.
5 December 1905. The roof of Charing Cross Station
collapsed, killing six people.
15 November 1900, The
Madrid to Paris express derailed, killing 17, including the Peruvian
Ambassador.
15 August 1895, A train jumped the rails at Preston, Lancashire,
carrying holidaymakers to Blackpool. It was speeding through the station at
over 70 kph, on a curve that was supposed to be taken at 20kph, although train
drivers regularly went through at 40. The railway compamies began to stop
competing as to who could run the fastest trains, seeing that a rising accident
toll was actually putting people off using the trains. Also such competitiveness
often did not help the passengers, who simply arrived hours early at a station
where they had to change, then faced�
along wait for the next train.
12 June 1889, A train crash in Armagh caused 80
deaths and 250 injured. Again, an excursion train, taking 940 people, including
600 children, on a trip from Armagh to Warrenpoint, was involved. This was just
a 25km journey but involved a 5km gradient of 1:75. The train was overloaded,
could not make the gradient, and the last ten coaches were uncoupled, but these
had just the guard�s van brake to hold them. This was inadequate and the
carriages rolled back down the line, with passengers locked inside, colliding
with an oncoming train whose driver had managed to halt, to reduce the speed of
impact.. As a result of this accident the Regulation
of Railways Act 1889 was passed. This Act made block signalling, continuous
brakes and interlocking points compulaory for rail companies.
28 December 1879. The Tay
railway bridge collapsed whilst the 7.15 Edinburgh to Dundee train
was crossing it. The train plummeted into the icy river below, killing 90
people.� The bridge, between Fife and
Angus, was designed by Thomas Bouch.
Low pay and underqualified staff causing ralway accidents
1878, Railway staff proved to be at greates risk from train
accidents. In the 5 years to 1878, 682 rail workers were killed every year, 20x
the number of passenger deaths. Some signallers routinely worked 14 hours a
day, 6 days a week. Poor pay also meant less able and decicated staff; in a train
accident at Kentish Town, London, the signaller was a 19 year old partially
deaf youth paid just 14 shillings a week for a 15 hour day as relief signaller.
At a train crash at Radstock, Somerset, it was discovered that the telegraph
clerk was an 18 year old, working from 6.30 a,m to 9.30pm, for 17s 6d a week,
and the signalman was a novice who could not read the telegraph
instruments.However., even an experienced train driver on the Great Western in
1867 received
just 42 shillings a week. The London Brighton and South Coast railway
paid (3/1867)
its train drivers 7s 6d a day and its firemen just 4s 6d a day.
Low railway pay was to an extent
moderated by low accommodation costs. A railway cottage could be rented at
Wolverton for just just 1shilling 6d a week, but given the long working hours
one just really needed a bed for the night. The railways could still recruit at
these low pay levels because agricultural workers found the conditions better
than farm work, with its periods of lay offs between harvests.
29 December 1876, 83
passengers were killed at Ashtabula, Ohio, as a 13-year-old bridge gave way
under a train. A junior engineer had been fired in 1863 when he protested that
the bridge, built by the railway�s chief engineer, was not strong enough.
8/1868, The Irish Mail train derailed and caught fire at
Abergele, north Wales. The death toll of 33 was the highest so far in any Uk
rail accident, and notably included an aristocratic couple., Lord and Lady
Farnham. The accident also had a gruesome angle in that the
passenger ytrain had hit trucks containing paraffin, and some of the dead had
to be indentified from their jewellery and watches. This accident also greatly
spurred on efforts to improive rail safdety.
9 June 1865, Charles Dickens
was involved in a train crash at Staplehurst in Kent. He had to return to the
wreckage to salvage the manuscript for a part of the story Our Mutual Friend.
This crash had been caused because track maintenance crews were trying to renew
a timber on a small bridge, in an 85-minute gap between trains. However they
had failed to allow for a boat train whose timing was variable as the cross
Channel ferry could only dock at high tide. The crew were aware of this train
but misread its timing, thinking it was due at 5.20pm rather than 3.15pm. The
bridge crew also failed to either placed warnigndetonators on the line or to
station men far enough back to warn approaching trains. When Dicken�s
train arrived, the bridge timbers had been replaced but not the rails, and the
train ran off the bridge into the stream. Dickens, with his high profile as an author, later
became an ardent campaigner for rail safety.
7 June 1865, A train
derailed at Rednal, Shropshire, killing 13.
25 August 1861, The
Clayton Tunnel crash occurred on the London to Brighton railway. Am excursion train had
stopped in the 2.5 km tunnel due to defective signalling, and the next train
ran into it.
6/1857, At Lewisham, south London, a train ran into the
back of another. Both trains were full of daytrippers. Special� excursion trains were especially liable to
rail crashes, as rail traffic volumes
grew, and trains became faster,
as signallers could easily forget these trains were inserted in amongst the
ordinary regular traffic.
29 August 1855, An
accident on the Camden and Amboy Railway near Burlington, New Jersey, USA,
killed 21 and injured 75..
24 May 1847, A cast
iron railway bridge over the River Dee at Chester collapsed as a train passed
over it. The bridge�s designer, Robert Stephenson, came close to being
convicted for manslaughter.
1842, Train crash at Versailles, France. 52 were killed in a
fire, many because they had been locked into the rail carriages (this was done
to stop them jumping out between stations).
12/1841, At Sonning, near Reading, a train ran into a
landslip. Many of the passengers were workmen building the new Hoiuse of
Commons returning� to their� families for Christmas. 8 were killed when
they were thrown out of the open rail wagons, which had no roof in Third Class,
3 December 1836. Britain�s first fatal rail crash
occurred at Great Corby, near Carlisle. Three people died.
17 June 1831, The first railway engine boiler explosion
in the USA. A fireman had held the safety valve down.
1650, In County Durham, England, two boys were killed by a
railway wagon; the first recorded rail
casualties.
Rail; socio-economic effects,
Some
socio-economic changes associated with the railways
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28 March 1980. The London Transport Museum opened in
Covent Garden, London.
27 September 1975, The National Rail
Museum in York opened.
27 March 1963, Beeching published his report,
recommending extensive cuts to the UK rail network. He proposed closing a
quarter of the rail network, closing 2,363 stations, scrapping 8,000 rail
coaches, and axing 67,700 jobs. There would be no rail service north of
Inverness, and most branch lines in north and central Wales and the West
Country would close. Eventually, 2,218 stations were axed.
10 March 1961, The last Bradshaw Railway Timetable
was published. The first Bradshaw was published on 10 October 1839.
1948, Britain�s railways
employed 629,000 people, up from 580,000 in 1938. In 1948, therefore, some 2
million people depended for their livelihood on railway work. Most rail
employees were male; women�s work on the railways was (apart from wartime)
restricted to office work, cleaning, catering, station announcements, and
opening the gates at level crossings.
27 June 1935, The US Supreme Court ruled the Railways Pensions
Act (1934) unconstitutional. US ongress then passed the Railway Retirement Act
to achieve the same effect. Rail companies and their employees had to pay 3.5%
of the first $300 earned each month to provide for a pension.
3/1934, The Great Western Railway
began a fast air service between Plymouth, Cardiff and Birmingham. The railway
companys� involvement in air services ceased with the outbreak of World War
Two and was not recommenced afterwards.
1928, The London and North
Eastern Railway opened the Railway Museum at York.
1924, The last steam locomotive
was constructed at Stratford, east London. Most Great Eastern railway
locomotives had been built at Stratford since 1878.
1 January 1923, Britain�s railways were regrouped according
to the Railways Act of 1921. The railways had been nationalised during the War,
but ambitious plans for electrification and redevelopment had been abandoned in
favour foa return to private ownership. However the multiple overlapping
companies of pre-War Britain were now organised into four regional monopolies,
the Great Western, the London and North Western, the London and North eastern,
and the Southern.
19 August 1921, In the UK, the Railways Act 1921 was
passed. This grouped the railways into four main companies, effective 1 January
1923.
1920, The arrival of buses, with
greater flexibility and not having to pay track costs, halted the development
of UK rural branch lines. However some railway companies began running rural
bus routes as feeders to their stations. Rail companies were given the right to
run their own bus services in 1928.
19 March 1918, US Congress passed the Standard Time Act (see 18
November 1883) making the 4 US time zones official.
1910, Londoners now consumed some 180 pints
of milk a
year, compared to 48 pints in 1850. In 1850 Londoners generally obtained their
milk from some 20,000 cows tethered in the back yard or even kept in a cellar.
Milk brought in by rail was initially regarded with suspicion because it would
be shaken up, copmpared to the fresh undisturbed milk obtainable locally.
However after� an outbreak of cattle
disease in London, and by 1870 half of London�s milk was being brought in by
rail, from as far as pastures in Derbyshire 130 miles away. By 1910 96% of
London�s milk came in by rail, from as far as 300 miles away.
12/1908, The London North Western Railway (LNWR) began a
�city to city� service form Broad Street, a now demolished terminus next to
Liverpool Street, London, through to Birmingham. Although 15 moiniutes slower
than the Great Western service, it had the advantage of not terminating a long
way from the City of London, at Paddington. The LNWR service also featured a travelling typist, so businessmen
could be working whilst travelling.
1906, The UK�s rail companies
now owned 1,138 miles� of canal out
of the total canal network of 3,901 miles.
22 October 1902, The North British Hotel opened at
Edinburgh�s Waverley Railway Station.
1892, The South Western Railway
Company acquired ownership of the docks at Southampton. The railways of Britain
had considerable investments in shipping, for cross Channel traffic. They
pioneered turbine power for ships. From 1914 Southampton became the prime troop
embarkation point tor Europe, also for war materials, because it was served by
five lines from across Britain that all avoided London.
1891, The London and South Western Railway established its
railway works at Eastliegh, Hampshire. Originally only carriages and wagons
were built there; in 1910 the LSWR transferred locomotive building there from
Nine Elms, London.
13 November 1889, Sir Samuel
Morton Peto, railway builder, died (born 4 August 1809 in Woking)
1884, The Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway bought 350 acres of land in Horwich, Lancashire, to establish
a new locomotive works.
1883, The Midland and Great Northern Railway established a small
locomotive repair yard at its head office at Melton Constable. MGNR locomotives
were built there from1896 until 1910; after this, only repairs were carried on,
until the entire MGNR closed in 1959. However Melton Constable was greatly
expanded by the presence of the MGNR yards.
18 November 1883, In the
US, Standard Toime Zones replaced nearly 100 �local times� observed by the
railroad companies. This made rail timetabling much simpler. See 24 November 1858
and 19 March 1918.
18 August 1882, The
Eastern and Midland Railway Company was formed.
Milk price and railways
1881, The railway now enabled Derbyshire farmers to obtain 1s (5p) per gallon
of milk, consumed in the nearby urban centres, whereas before it had fetched just 8d
(3.3p) a gallon sold locally as butter or cheese. However in some
rrural regions e.g. Devon and Cornwall in the 1860s, so much milk was exported
by rail that local dairy shortages developed. Urban cows, kept in backyards and
even cellars, of which London had 20,000 even in 1850, disappeared as milk was
now easily brought oin by train.
1877, Fleetwood Docks (Lancashire) opened in 1877, with capital
provided by the railways. The fish trade was significant from here, and the
railways were credited with reducing the price of fish in Manchester by almost
90%.
1871, Liverpool Lime Street Hotel was built for the London and
North Western Railway. It had over 200 rooms, also 37 bathrooms, which was
considered a lavish provision at the time.
1871, The UK
Govermnent passed the Regulation of the
Forces Act, allowing it to take over the rail network in times of war. They
were to be handed back to the private companies after war ended in the same
state as whenh acquired.
1870, The social revolution in travel wrought by the railways was
evident in the growing importance of third class travel to the railway
companies� revenue. In 1844 they had to be compelled to run �affordable� workmen�s trains�; this was because of
the large-scale demolition of labourer�s housing caused by railway
construction, causing the working class to have to move further out. In 1844
one third of railway journeys, and one eight of revenue,� came from third class; by 1870 third class
accounted for two thirds of journeys and almost half of revenue.
5 May 1865. The world�s
first train robbery took place, at North Bend, Ohio.
7 August 1862, The Great Eastern Railway
was formed by an amalgamation of the east Anglian, Eastern Counties, Newmarket,
Eastern Union and Norfolk Railways.
17 December 1858, The
Geologists Association, London was formed. The newly constructed railway
cuttings and tunnels had stimulated the science.
24 November 1858, A legal
case in Dorset caused the UK Parliament to standardise time to GMT across the
country. A judge in a land case in Dorset ruled against a man who had failed to
turn up for a 10,00 am case, at 10.06. Two minutes later he turned up and
claimed he was on time, by the station clock of his home town, Carlisle in
Cumbria. At that time all towns set their clocks by their own, local, noon,
meaning accurate rail timetables were problematic. By 1850 the rail companies all used London time, adding to confusion as
provincial clocks often had two minute hands, one for local time, one for
London time. The case was re-tried, and in 1880 Parliament ordered the entire
country to keep Greenwich Mean Time. See French railways 1891, also standardised
time.
1854, The North Eastern Railway
opened its headquarters in York. The NER�s main locomotive works were at
Darlington.
1853, The Great Northern Railway
moved its engine works to Doncaster,
from Boston, Lincolnshire. By 1900 the Doncaster works covered 200 acres and
employed 4,500, and had 96 km of sidings.
1852, A rail passenger could
travel from Exeter to Newcastle on Tyne on�
two days, staying overnight at Manchester (see roads, year 1754, for typical UK
journey times by stagecoach, 1700s, 1800s). However this would have involved
using the services of five different rail operators; Great Western to
Gloucester, Midland to Birmingham, London and North Western to Manchester, then
the next day the Lancashire and Yorkshire to Leeds and finally the North
Eastern to Newcastle on Tyne. Bradshaws Railway Guide, first published in 1842
and surviving until 1961, was invaluable in planning the trip. However a big
issue was through ticketing between railway companies. Through tickets might be
impossible to obtain. The Railway Clearing House was established to deal with
this issue, and how the ticket price should be divided between companies. But
the Great Western did not join the Railway Clearing House system until
the1860s.
2 November 1852, The Dean of Exeter Cathedral ordered that
the cathedral clock be advanced 14 minutes to conform wth Greenwich mean time.
This was a result of the railways spreading across Britain, and operating on a
standard time. Nationwide standardisation of time had begun when the horse-drawn
Irish mail coaches began running from London to Ireland via Chester and
Holyhead; the mail coach guard carried a watch set to Greenwich time, and was
required to inform the innkeepers along the way of the correct time. In 1830
the Manchester and Liverpool railway operated on Greenwich time. But there was
resistance to this nationwide time in the West Country and Wales.
1850, The spread of the railways
began to popularise fish and chips,
even in inland towns. Previoously this meal could only be bought in seaside
towns, it would have gone off by the time the fish could be transported inland
by road.
28 October 1850, The Glasgow and South Western Railway was
formed by an amalgamation of the Dumfries and Carlisle Railway and the Ayrshire
Railways.
1 November 1848. W H Smith opened his first bookstall at Euston Station, London, the start
of multiple retailing in Britain.
27 July 1846, The London, Brighton and
South Coast railway was formed by an amalgamation of the London and Brighton
and the London and Croydon Railways.
16 July 1846, The London and North
Western Railway Company was formed from an amalgamation of the London and
Birmingham, the Birmingham and Manchester and Grand Junction railways.
4 August 1845, Thomas Cook organised
the first holiday excursion by rail, to North Wales, leaving Leicester at 5am.
8 May 1845, The UK passed the Railway Clauses
Consolidation Act, bringing various rrailway legislation under one Act.
1844, Milk reached Manchester (UK) by
rail for the first time. Growing urban populations, distant from the
countryside, could now receive fresh milk and other produce that was both fresh and
cheap. Fresh vegetables, meat and fish supplies were now improved in cities.
9 August 1844, The British
Government (Gladstone) legislated to force railway companies to run at least
one train a day on all of their routes at a fare of more than 1d per mile, at
at least 12 mph (overall, including stops); the so-called Workmen�s Trains. The
carriages had to be covered and protected from the weather. Chuildren under 3
were to be carried free on these trains, and those between 3 and 12 to be
carried at half-fare. Some companies ran such trains at unpopular hours such as
6am. However see 1870 above.
10 May 1844, George Hudson, the �Railway King�, formed the Midland Railway from an amalgamation of
the North Midland, the Midland Counties, and theBirmingham and Derby Junction
Railways.
1843, The Grand Junction Railway inaugurated the locomotive works
at Crewe. Crewe in 1841 had just 203
inhabitants. By 1851 the population of Crewe was 4,571. In 1840 Nantwich was
the main town of the region, but canal interest predominated here and tried to
prevent local landowners selling to the railways, saying the steam locomotives
emitted dangerous fumes. Crewe, named after the local Crewe Hall, could offer
the railway companies cheap land for their large workshops and marshalling
yards. In 1861 a mill for rolling rails was built at Crewe. In 1901 Crewe had a
population of 42,074.
1843, The London and South Western Railway started locomotive
construction at its Nine Elms depot, London. This was also its London passenger
terminus until 13 July 1848 when a more central terminus at Waterloo began
operations.
2 January 1843, The Great
Western Railway opened its locomotive works at Swindon (see 1841)
1842, The Manchester and Liverpool Railway offered so-called �commutation tickets�; these were
advance payment tickets for travellers who regularly used the line, for work
journeys. The �commutation� was the exchange of payment for long term travel
rights. From this derives the term �commuter�
for anyone who regularly travels to work, even if not by train.
1841, The Great Western Railway
began to develop Swindon as a
railway town (see 2 January 1843). From 2,000 inhabitants in 1841, its
population grew to 40,000 by 1900, with 14,000 employed at the locomotive works
and associated factories. However the usual problems of 19th century
urban industrialisation were soon apparent. There was a lack of piped water and
sanitation, Life expectancy at birth fell from 36 in Old Swindon in 1929 to 30
in Swindon in 1849.
5 July 1841. Thomas Cook, born 22 November 1808 in
Derbyshire, introduced the first Cook�s
Tour when 570 teetotallers took the train from Leicester to Loughborough
to attend a temperance meeting, using cheap tickets, which he negotiated with
the train company. See 1 May 1938.
1839, The first railway hotel was opened, at Euston Station London, by the
London and Birmingham Railway.
10 October 1839, The first Bradshaw Railway timetable was
published. The last Bradshaw Guide appeared on 10 March 1961.
1838, The London and Birmingham Railway (LBR)
opened its workshops at Wolverton. In 1821 Wolverton was a village
of 335 inhabitants. In 1854 the LBR buult more houses at New Bradwell. By 1851
Wolverton had a population of 2,070, rising to 3,600 by 1881. By 1901 Wolverton
and New Bradwell together had 9,200 inhabitants. The railways created a market in mass
personal travel that had never existed before. By 1845 1 million
people were using the London to Birmingham line every year. This year the LBR
used the word �timetable� for the first time, derived from the maritime �tide
tables�.
Coal price
and railways
1825, The opening of the
Stockton and Darlington Railway more than halved the price of coal in Stockton; it fell from 18s
(90p) a ton to 8s 6d (42.5p) a ton. Moreover the coal was of better quality, as
larger lumps could be carried by railway than by pack horse. In London the coal
price fell less dramatically, from 18s (90p) a ton in the 1850s to around 15s
7d (78p) in the 1880s; however the quantity brought in had doubled over that
period, and the old Thames shipping route could never have coped with the 1880s
volumes of coal.
4 August 1809, Sir Samuel Morton Peto, railway builder, was
born in Woking, Surrey (died 13 November 1889)