History of the Railways is one man's (probably hopeless) attempt to describe the history of the railways across the world using nothing more than a microphone, his wits, and a stack of dusty old books.

Come and join Michael Lancashire as he gets distracted, fascinated, and yes, even sidetracked, by stories from the railways (or railroads if you're American).

When the railway age kicked off, it didn't come out of nowhere.

Railways need 4 things to work:

• A track
• People to build it
• Rolling stock
• And some form of motive power

In this episode we look at the development, and state of the art, of the first three down to 1825, setting the scene for our next episode on motive power.

Find show notes and more at https://historyoftherailways.com/

Come and join Michael Lancashire as he gets distracted, fascinated, and yes, even sidetracked, by stories from the railways (or railroads if you're American).

Come and join Michael Lancashire as he gets distracted, fascinated ... and yes, even sidetracked ... by stories from the railways (or railroads if you're American).

Find show notes and more at https://historyoftherailways.com

Find show notes and more at https://historyoftherailways.com

Support the show at http://patreon.com/HistoryoftheRailways

The Rainhill Trials weren't what most people think ...

As far as the directors of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway were concerned, the Rainhill Trials wasn’t a competition between locomotives … it was a test to prove that any locomotives were a viable option. 

In the first of a two-parter on Rainhill, I introduce the engines that competed, and the men behind those engines. 

• Thomas Brandreth’s Cycloped
• Timothy Burstall’s Perseverance 
• Braithwaite and Ericsson’s Novelty
• Hackworth’s Sans Pareil
• And the Stephensons and Booth’s Rocket 

Come and join Michael Lancashire as he gets distracted, fascinated ... and yes, even sidetracked ... by stories from the railways (or railroads if you're American).

Find show notes and more at https://historyoftherailways.com

Support the show at http://patreon.com/HistoryoftheRailways

The Rainhill Trials weren't what most people think ...

As far as the directors of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway were concerned, the Rainhill Trials wasn’t a competition between locomotives … it was a test to prove that any locomotives were a viable option. 

In the second of a two-parter on Rainhill, we look at the trials themselves - how each engine fared - and some of the controversies and accusations of conspiracy that followed. 

Going into the trial there were 5 entries:

• Thomas Brandreth’s Cycloped
• Timothy Burstall’s Perseverance 
• John Braithwaite and John Ericsson’s Novelty
• Timothy Hackworth’s Sans Pareil
• George Stephenson, Robert Stephenson and Henry Booth’s Rocket 

But what happened next?

Listen and find out...

Come and join Michael Lancashire as he gets distracted, fascinated ... and yes, even sidetracked ... by stories from the railways (or railroads if you're American).

Find show notes and more at https://historyoftherailways.com

Support the show at http://patreon.com/HistoryoftheRailways

The Liverpool & Manchester Railway is recognised as the first modern railway, but it almost never got off the ground. And the main reason might surprise you ...

George Stephenson's poor performance.

As engineer of the line, Stephenson had to brief parliament on it and he did so badly that... well, you'll just have to listen to find out...

In the first of a two-parter on the birth of the L&MR we’re going to look at the struggle to get the idea for the line accepted, and how it almost fell at the first hurdle.

Listen to the episode now and find out what happened next...

Come and join Michael Lancashire as he gets distracted, fascinated ... and yes, even sidetracked ... by stories from the railways (or railroads if you're American).

Find show notes and more at https://historyoftherailways.com

Join the conversation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheRailways/

Support the show at http://patreon.com/HistoryoftheRailways

In part 2 of our mini-series on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, we’re going to hear how the L&MR clawed its way back from the rejection of their first bill and finally got approval.

Along the way I'll discuss the squabbles of engineers who should have known better: George Stephenson, Charles Blacker Vignoles, George Rennie and John Rennie. 

History of the Railways is a podcast for anyone interested in railroad history. Come and join Michael Lancashire as he gets distracted, fascinated ... and yes, even sidetracked ... by stories from the railways (or railroads if you're American).

Find show notes and more at https://historyoftherailways.com

Join the conversation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheRailways/

Support the show at http://patreon.com/HistoryoftheRailways

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

1:32 Last episode's trivia answer

2:08 Criticism of George Stephenson

5:07 The Rennies

6:55 Charles Blacker Vignoles 

10:05 Bridgewater Canal Party Opposition Removed

12:45 New Prospectus

14:23 Back at Parliament

15:50 But Who Will be the Engineer?

17:51 George Stephenson Returns

19:47 Vignoles in an Uncomfortable Position

21:57 Edge Hill Tunnel

25:12 Vignoles' Ability to Hold a Grudge

26:36 George’s men on the line

27:54 This episode's trivia question