Drawing on years of research, and practical experience of working with the replica of Stephenson's Planet, this book shows how the Liverpool & Manchester Railway worked in its day-to-day operations
The Liverpool & Manchester Railway was Britain’s first mainline, intercity railway; opened in 1830 it was at the cutting edge of railway technology. Engineered by George Stephenson and his team – John Dixon, William Allcard, Joseph Locke – the project faced many obstacles both before and after opening, including local opposition and the choice of motive power, resulting in the Rainhill Trials of 1829.Much of the success of the line can be attributed to the excellence of its engineering but also its fleet of pioneering locomotives built by Robert Stephenson & Co. of Newcastle. This is the story of those locomotives, and the men who worked on them, at a time when the locomotive was still in its infancy.Using extensive archival research, coupled with lessons learned from operating early replica locomotives such as Rocket and Planet, Anthony Dawson explores how the locomotive rapidly developed in response to the demands of the first intercity railway, and some of the technological dead ends along the way.
This book outlines the technical design of the Planet and Samson locomotive, and charts the careers of the class members at home and abroad.
First-hand accounts of the British cavalry from Waterloo to the First World War.
The fascinating history of LMR 57 Lion, the real locomotive featured in the cult film 'The Titfield Thunderbolt'.
Rocket is perhaps one of the best-known railway locomotives in history. Entered by George and Robert Stephenson and Henry Booth for the Rainhill Trials of October 1829, Rocket was the outright victor and paved the way for the dominance of the steam railway as the major means of communication for the next hundred years or more. But Rocket was not 'the first' locomotive - that honor goes to the work of Cornishman Richard Trevithick, while the Middleton Railway saw the first commercial use of steam locomotives in 1812.This book sets out to chart the development of the steam locomotive from its birth with Richard Trevithick up to the momentous year of 1829, showing just how far the locomotive had come in a quarter of century, to go on to be the world-changing invention it became.
Marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the railway's independence, this new history celebrates one of the most popular pre-Grouping railways.
Telling the story of the pioneering engineers behind the locomotives that took part in the iconic Rainhill trials.
This was the first occasion in history that a railway was constructed to support an army in war.