Martin Loader - Böcker

Incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835 and completed just six years later, the Great Western Railway was a stupendous technical achievement. Extending for 118 miles from London to Bristol, this magnificently engineered line spanned Southern England from the Thames to the Bristol Channel, and was regarded as the first link in a chain of railways that would ultimately reach Cornwall, Wales and (via steamship) the south of Ireland. The railway, which is virtually flat and has no appreciable curves, has remained in use to the present day, carrying trains that travel from London to Bristol in just 13/4 hours. This present study examines the line from London to Bristol Temple Meads. Around fifty different locations have been included - some of these are busy traffic centres such as Paddington, Southall and Reading, while others are wayside stations such as Pangbourne, Tilehurst and Wantage Road.

As authorised in 1835, the Great Western Railway extended from London to Bristol, but from the very earliest days, ambitious promoters were planning a whole series of extensions to destinations such as Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Cornwall and South Wales. These extensions were, in most cases, built by allied or subsidiary companies such as the Bristol & Exeter Railway, which, as its name suggested, ran from Bristol to Exeter, and the South Devon Railway, which continued the West of England main line from Exeter to Plymouth.Both of these companies were subsequently absorbed into the parent GWR company, becoming, as far as ordinary travellers were concerned, an integral part of the Great Western system. Although the B&ER is an unspectacular line, the South Devon Railway runs beside estuaries and along the seashore for several miles, the waterside section between Exeter and Teignmouth being one of the most iconic parts of the British railway system.

The Cornwall Railway was authorised on 3 August 1846 with the aim of constructing a broad gauge rail link between Plymouth, Truro and Falmouth. After many vicissitudes, the railway was ceremonially opened between Plymouth and Truro on 2 May 1859. Meanwhile, further to the west, an entirely separate undertaking known as the West Cornwall Railway had been sanctioned with powers for the construction of a standard gauge railway between Truro and Penzance, which would incorporate parts of the earlier Hayle Railway.The WCR was completed in 1852, although there was no connection with the Cornwall Railway until 1859. Despite the ‘break-of-gauge’ at Truro, these two railways formed part of a through route between Paddington and Penzance and, as such, they were subsequently absorbed into the GWR system as part of the present-day West of England main line.

The South Wales Railway was promoted in the 1840s with the aim of completing a rail link between England, Wales and Ireland. As such, the proposed railway was seen as ‘a great national undertaking to connect the South of Ireland as well as South Wales and the Metropolis’, with many perceived benefits in terms of mutual trading opportunities and greater political integration. Branch lines would serve Pembroke Dock and other destinations, the length of the proposed scheme being around 210 miles. The SWR was intimately connected with the Great Western Railway, and with I. K. Brunel as its engineer, the line was built to the GWR broad gauge of 7 feet 0¼ inch.Although the SWR main line skirted most of the South Wales industrial areas, it connected with a variety of coal-carrying Welsh lines, including the Taff Vale, Cardiff and Barry Railways – all of which eventually passed into Great Western hands as a result of the 1923 grouping. The SWR main line had, in the meantime, been extended to Fishguard Harbour, and this historic line continues to serve as an important rail link between England, Wales and the South of Ireland.

The ‘North & West Route’, which, in recent years, has become known as the ‘Welsh Marches Line’, extends from Newport to Chester. Historically, this 137-mile route is an amalgam of three distinct railways: the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway, the Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway and the Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway. All three lines came under Great Western control at a relatively early date, although the Shrewsbury & Hereford section became a joint undertaking, which was owned by the GWR and the London & North Western Railway companies.The line runs through attractive and sometimes spectacular scenery via Abergavenny, Pontrilas, Hereford, Leominster, Ludlow, Craven Arms, Shrewsbury and Ruabon, thereby providing a useful transport link between North and South Wales, while some services run north-eastwards from Shrewsbury to Crewe over a former London & North Western line that forms part of a direct link between South Wales and the Manchester conurbation.

LEEDS to CARLISLE – The line from Leeds to Carlisle furnished the Midland Railway with an independent route to Scotland, in opposition to the rival London & North Western line. The railway extends for 113 miles, the easternmost sections having been constructed by the Leeds & Bradford and ‘Little’ North Western railways, while the spectacular northwards continuation from Settle to Carlisle was built by the Midland.Opened in 1875, the Settle & Carlisle line was built at a relatively late date by an imperial nation at the height of its power, and the infrastructure exemplifies Victorian construction techniques at their most confident. There are no less than 25 viaducts, together with 85 overbridges, 130 underbridges and 13 tunnels – the massive arched viaducts having an imperial grandeur that echoes the splendours of ancient Rome. Although it has been threatened with closure at various times, the Settle & Carlisle route remains in operation as part of the national rail system, and it is now regarded as a tourist attraction in its own right.

The obvious success of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway demonstrated that steam railways were a safe, fast and efficient form of transport, and by the end of the 1830s ambitious entrepreneurs were planning a multiplicity of railways up, down and across the land. At first, the new railways were of purely local importance, but the need to connect important cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow led to the promotion of major trunk routes, one of the first of these being the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway, which was authorised on 6 June 1844 as a northwards extension of the Lancaster & Preston Junction Railway.In its original form the Lancaster & Preston line was little more than a branch, but the establishment of railway communication between London and Scotland was regarded as a matter of national importance, and the L&PJ and L&CR lines thereby became vital parts of the West Coast Main Line. Building work was soon under way, and this important main line was opened as far as Kendal on 21 September 1846 and completed throughout to Carlisle on 15 December. The new railway, which ran through difficult terrain on its way to Carlisle, was a major feat of civil engineering, and its bridges, viaducts and other infrastructure stand to this day as tangible monuments of the early days of railway construction.

The Manchester & Leeds Railway was sanctioned by Parliament in 1836 as a railway commencing at Manchester and terminating at Normanton, from where trains would reach Leeds via the North Midland Railway. Although Leeds is only 35 miles from Manchester, the hilly nature of the surrounding terrain meant that the company engineers adopted a circuitous route through Rochdale, Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and the sinuous and steep-sided Calder Valley. The ‘Calder Valley’ line was opened between Manchester and Littleborough on 3 July 1839, and further sections were brought into use on 5 October 1840 and 3 January 1841. The railway was completed throughout on 1 March 1841.The completed railway was heavily engineered, the Summit Tunnel between Littleborough and Walsden being the longest in the world at the time of its construction. This highly scenic line still forms part of an important rail link between Manchester and Leeds, although trains now travel on a shorter route via Halifax and Bradford. The eastern half of the route also forms part of separate Trans-Pennine route via Todmorden, Burnley and Blackburn.

The Chester & Holyhead Railway was incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1844, and the promoters were thereby empowered to build an 85-mile line along the North Wales coast, the engineer for the line being Robert Stephenson. The C&HR was, from its inception, intended to form part of a rail link between London and Dublin – the assumption being that such a line would improve the economic position of Ireland, while at the same time binding it ever more closely to the rest of the United Kingdom. In engineering terms, the C&HR presented huge challenges. The first 45 miles would follow an easy route alongside the Dee Estuary, but at Conwy the railway would have to cross a tidal river. The line would then be carried past the great towering headland at Penmaenmawr, while to the west of Bangor, the Menai Straits would have to be spanned by a bridge large enough to clear the masts of the largest vessels. The railway was completed by 1850 and, since that time, it has fulfilled its primary role as an artery of communication between England, Wales and Ireland.

Authorised on 8 May 1833, the London & Birmingham Railway was one of Britain’s first great trunk lines. Engineered by Robert Stephenson (1803-1859), the L&BR line was regarded at the time of its construction as ‘the Eighth Wonder of the World’. The route was opened in stages; the first section from Euston to Boxmoor was brought into use on 20 June 1837. The route was extended to Tring on 16 October 1837, and on 9 April 1838 further sections were opened from Tring to Denbigh Hall and between Rugby, Coventry and Birmingham. Finally, on 17 September 1838, the L&BR route was completed throughout its 112-mile length.In its original form, the L&BR functioned as a transport link between London and Birmingham, but the establishment of long-distance railway communication between London and Scotland was regarded as a matter of national importance, and further companies such as the Grand Junction Railway and the Lancaster & Carlisle line were brought into existence to facilitate this ambitious aspiration. Although the L&BR was, at first, suspicious of these new companies, the London & Birmingham directors eventually decided to co-operate, and by 1846 the major west coast companies had amalgamated to form the ‘London & North Western Railway’ with the West Coast Main Line from Euston to Glasgow being one of the busiest railways in Britain, if not the world.

Approved in May 1833 at the same time as the London & Birmingham Railway, the Grand Junction Railway was intended to act as a link between the London & Birmingham and the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Built under the guidance of Joseph Locke, the Grand Junction was opened along its complete length on 4 July 1837. From 19 August 1839, through coaches were able to run for 218 miles from London through Birmingham to Preston. Preston had been connected to the railway network through the North Union Railway, which had been laid out by Irish engineer Charles Blacker Vignoles and opened to the public on 31 October 1838.Brought into existence to facilitate the ambitious aspiration of long-distance railway communications between London and Scotland, these lines would be among those that amalgamated in 1846 to form the London & North Western Railway, the forerunner of today’s West Coast Main Line.This book, the last in a six-part series, will examine these lines along with the Trent Valley Railway, all vital links in the network of railways that became the West Coast Main Line, one of the busiest railways in Britain, if not the world.