The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844.[2] The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It amalgamated with several other railways to create the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at grouping in 1923.[3]
The MR was in a commanding position having its Derby headquarters at the junctions of the two main routes from London to Scotland, by its connections to the London and Birmingham Railway in the south, and from York via the York and North Midland Railway in the north.[8]
They met at Gloucester via a short loop of the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway. The change of gauge at Gloucester meant that everything had to be transferred between trains, creating chaos, and the C&GWU was owned by the Great Western Railway, which wished to extend its network by taking over the Bristol to Birmingham route. While the two parties were bickering over the price, the MR's John Ellis overheard two directors of the Birmingham and Bristol Railway on a London train discussing the business, and pledged that the MR would match anything the Great Western would offer.[11][pageneeded]
Since it would have brought broad gauge into Curzon Street with the possibility of extending it to the Mersey, it was something that the other standard gauge lines wished to avoid, and they pledged to assist the MR with any losses it might incur.[11][pageneeded] In the event all that was necessary was for the later LNWR to share Birmingham New Street with the Midland when it was opened in 1854, and Lawley Street became a goods depot.[12]
Eastern competition
The MR controlled all the traffic to the North East and Scotland from London. The LNWR was progressing slowly through the Lake District, and there was pressure for a direct line from London to York. Permission had been gained for the Northern and Eastern Railway to run through Peterborough and Lincoln but it had barely reached Cambridge.
Two obvious extensions of the Midland Counties line were from Nottingham to Lincoln and from Leicester to Peterborough. They had not been proceeded with, but Hudson saw that they would make ideal "stoppers": if the cities concerned were provided with a rail service, it would make it more difficult to justify another line. They were approved while the bill for the direct line was still before Parliament, forming the present day Lincoln Branch and the Syston to Peterborough Line.
The Leeds and Bradford Railway had been approved in 1844. By 1850 it was losing money but a number of railways offered to buy it. Hudson made an offer more or less on his own account and the line gave the MR an exit to the north, which became the start of the Settle and Carlisle line, and it gave the MR a much more convenient station at Leeds Wellington.[citation needed]
In spite of the objections of Hudson, for the MR and others, the "London and York Railway" (later the Great Northern Railway) led by Edmund Denison persisted, and the bill passed through Parliament in 1846.[13]
The Battle of Nottingham
In 1851 the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway completed its line from Grantham as far as Colwick, from where a branch led to the MR Nottingham station. The Great Northern Railway by then passed through Grantham and both railway companies paid court to the fledgling line. Meanwhile, Nottingham had woken up to its branch line status and was keen to expand. The MR made a takeover offer only to discover that a shareholder of the GN had already gathered a quantity of Ambergate shares. An attempt to amalgamate the line with the GN was foiled by Ellis, who managed to obtain an Order in Chancery preventing the GN from running into Nottingham. However, in 1851 it opened a new service to the north that included Nottingham.[14][pageneeded]
In 1852 an ANB&EJR train arrived in Nottingham with a GN locomotive at its head. When it uncoupled and went to run round the train, it found its way blocked by a MR engine while another blocked its retreat.[15] The engine was shepherded to a nearby shed and the tracks were lifted. This episode became known as the "Battle of Nottingham" and, with the action moved to the courtroom, it was seven months before the locomotive was released.[citation needed]
An illustration of King's Cross from 1852, shortly before its use by the Midland Railway
In 1850 the MR, though much more secure, was still a provincial line. Ellis realised that if it were to fend off its competitors it must expand outwards. The first step, in 1853, was to appoint James Allport as general manager, and the next was to shake off the dependence on the LNWR to London.
Although a bill for a line from Hitchin into King's Cross jointly with the GN, was passed in 1847 it had not been proceeded with.
The bill was resubmitted in 1853 with the support of the people of Bedford, whose branch to the LNWR was slow and unreliable, and with the knowledge of the Northamptonshire iron deposits.
The Leicester and Hitchin Railway ran from Wigston to Market Harborough, through Desborough, Kettering, Wellingborough and Bedford, then on the Bedford to Hitchin Line, joining the GN at Hitchin for King's Cross. The line began its life in a proposition presented for the shareholders by George Hudson on 2 May 1842 as: "To vest £600,000 in the South Midland Railway Company in their line from Wigston to Hitchin."[citation needed] a full decade before realisation. The delay was partly due to the withdrawal of GN's interest in the competing scheme, the Bedford and Leicester Railway, after Midland purchased the Leicester and Swannington Railway and the Ashby Canal and Tramway,[16] which were to have been the feeder lines. With the competition thwarted there was less rush to have this line as well as its branch lines to Huntingdon (from Kettering) and Northampton (from Bedford) finished. Both these branches were subsequently built by independent companies.
While this took some of the pressure off the route through Rugby, the GNR insisted that passengers for London alight at Hitchin, buying tickets in the short time available, to catch a GNR train to finish their journey. James Allport arranged a seven-year deal with the GN to run into King's Cross for a guaranteed £20,000 a year (equivalent to £2,410,000in 2023),[17]. Through services to London were introduced in February 1858.[18] The construction of the Leicester and Hitchin railway cost £1,750,000[2] (equivalent to £222,460,000in 2023).[17]
St Pancras 1868
The interior of the Barlow train shed, c.1870
By 1860 the MR was in a much better position and was able to approach new ventures aggressively. Its carriage of coal and iron – and beer from Burton-on-Trent – had increased by three times and passenger numbers were rising, as they were on the GN. Since GN trains took precedence on its own lines, MR passengers were becoming more and more delayed. Finally in 1862 the decision was taken for the MR to have its own terminus in the Capital, as befitted a national railway.
On 22 June 1863, the Midland Railway (Extension to London) Bill was passed:
"An Act for the Construction by the Midland Railway Company of a new Line of Railway between London and Bedford, with Branches therefrom; and for other Purpose".[19]
The new line deviated at Bedford, through a gap in the Chiltern Hills at Luton, reaching London by curving around Hampstead Heath to a point between King's Cross and Euston. The line from Bedford to Moorgate opened for passenger services on 13 July 1868[20] with services into St Pancras station starting on 1 October 1868.[21]
Continuing friction with the LNWR caused the MR to join the MS&LR and the GN in the Cheshire Lines Committee, which also gave scope for wider expansion into Lancashire and Cheshire, and finally a new station at Manchester Central.[23]
In the meantime Sheffield had at last gained a main-line station. Following representations by the council in 1867 the MR promised to build a through line within two years. To the MR's surprise, the Sheffield councillors then backed an improbable speculation called the Sheffield, Chesterfield, Bakewell, Ashbourne, Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway. This was unsurprisingly rejected by Parliament and the Midland built its "New Road" into a station at Pond Street. [citation needed]
Among the last of the major lines built by the MR was a connection between Sheffield and Manchester, by a branch at Dore to Chinley, opened in 1894 through the Totley and Cowburn Tunnels, now the Hope Valley Line.
In the 1870s a dispute with the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) over access rights to the LNWR line to Scotland caused the MR to construct the Settle and Carlisle line,[24] the highest main line in England, to secure access to Scotland.
The dispute with the LNWR was settled before the Settle and Carlisle was built, but Parliament refused to allow the MR to withdraw from the project. The MR was also under pressure from Scottish railway companies, which were eagerly awaiting the Midland traffic reaching Carlisle as it would allow them to challenge the Caledonian Railway's dominance on the West Coast traffic to Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Glasgow and South Western Railway had its own route from Carlisle to Glasgow via Dumfries and Kilmarnock, whilst the North British Railway had built the Waverley Line through the Scottish Borders from Carlisle to Edinburgh. The MR was obliged to go ahead and the Settle to Carlisle opened in 1876.[24]
Later history
Midland locomotive visiting the North Norfolk Railway, once part of the M&GN, which the Midland part owned
By the middle of the decade investment had been paid for; passenger travel was increasing, with new comfortable trains; and the mainstay of the line – goods, particularly minerals – was increasing dramatically.
Allport retired in 1880, to be succeeded by John Noble and then by George Turner. By the new century the quantity of goods, particularly coal, was clogging the network. The passenger service was acquiring a reputation for lateness. Lord Farrar reorganised the expresses, but by 1905 the whole system was so overloaded that no one was able to predict when many of the trains would reach their destinations. At this point Sir Guy Granet took over as general manager. He introduced a centralised traffic control system, and the locomotive power classifications that became the model for those used by British Railways.[citation needed]
In 1913, the company achieved a total revenue of £15,129,136 (equivalent to £1,880,400,000in 2023)[17] with working expenses of £9,416,981[27] (equivalent to £1,170,440,000in 2023).[17]
First World War and the Grouping
With the onset of the First World War in 1914, unified Government control of the Midland, and all the main line railways, was imposed through the medium of the Railway Executive Committee. The Midland retained its private sector independence, being given income to match 1913 levels, but was required to undertake huge volumes of military traffic, largely freight, with little opportunity to maintain the network and rolling stock.
At the end of the war, the railways were worn out and it was obvious that resumption of pre-war business was impossible. The Government passed the Railways Act 1921 by which all the main line railways were amalgamated into one or other of four new large concerns, in a process known as the "Grouping". The Midland Railway was a constituent of the new London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) from the beginning of 1923; it was the largest joint stock company in the world.[28][29]
Clockwise from top left: Coat of arms displayed on the outside wall of Derby station; insignia on London Road bridge, Leicester; and wyverns in the wrought iron canopy at Hellifield and in a carved capital at St Pancras
The coat of arms combines the symbols of Birmingham, Derby, Bristol, Leicester, Lincoln and Leeds. The wyvern, a legendary bipedal dragon, was used extensively as an emblem by the Midland, having inherited it from the Leicester and Swannington Railway. The MR, which used a wyvern sans legs (legless) above its crest, asserted that the "wyvern was the standard of the Kingdom of Mercia", and that it was "a quartering in the town arms of Leicester".[41] The symbol appeared on everything from station buildings and bridges down to china, cutlery and chamber pots in its hotels, and was worn as a silver badge by all uniformed employees. However, in 1897 the Railway Magazine noted that there appeared "to be no foundation that the wyvern was associated with the Kingdom of Mercia".[42] It has been associated with Leicester since the time of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster and Leicester (c.1278–1322), the most powerful lord in the Midlands, who used it as his personal crest, and was recorded in a heraldic visitation of the town in 1619.[43]
In 1850, a train was in a rear-end collision with an excursion train at Woodlesford station, Yorkshire. The cause was a signal not being lit at night.[45]
In 1853, the boiler of a locomotive exploded whilst it was hauling a freight train near Bristol, Gloucestershire.[44]
On 9 September 1867, an up cattle train collided with a stationary ballast train in Dove Holes Tunnel. An 11-year-old girl being given an unofficial ride in the ballast train brake-van was killed. The cattle train detached from its two locomotives and ran back down the gradient to New Mills, where it collided with a Manchester-Derby express, which became the second runaway of the incident.[46]
On 28 August 1875, a passenger train overran signals and was in a rear-end collision with an excursion train at Kildwick, Yorkshire. Seven people were killed and 39 were injured.[45]
On 11 August 1880, a passenger train was derailed at Wennington, Lancashire. Eight people were killed and 23 were injured.[45]
On 19 August 1880, a passenger train stops inside Blea Moor Tunnel, Yorkshire due to a faulty brake pipe. An express passenger train overruns signals and is in a rear-end collision at low speed.[45]
On 27 August 1887, an express passenger train overran signals and collided with a freight train that was being shunted at Wath station, Yorkshire. Twenty-two people were injured.[47]
On 9 June 1892, a passenger train overran signals and was in collision with another at Esholt Junction, Yorkshire. Five people were killed and 30 were injured.[48][49][50][51]
On 3 December 1892, a freight train crashed at Wymondham Junction., Leicestershire, severely damaging the signal box.[52]
On 2 September 1898, an express passenger train was derailed at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire by a trolley that had fallen off the platform onto the track. Seven people were killed and 65 were injured.[53]
On 24 July 1900, a passenger train was derailed at Amberswood, Lancashire. One person was killed.[54]
On 23 December 1904, an express passenger train was derailed at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire due to excessive speed on a curve. Another express passenger train collided with the wreckage at low speed. Four people were killed.[45]
On 19 January 1905, an express passenger train overran signals and was in collision with a passenger train at Cudworth, Yorkshire. Seven people were killed.[47]
In June 1907, a luggage train was derailed by trap points at Silkstream Junction after the driver misread signals.[56]
On 24 December 1910, an express passenger train was in a rear-end collision with two light engines near Moorcock Tunnel, to the south of Ais Gill summit, due to errors by the signalman at Hawes Junction and the firemen of the light engines. The train was derailed and caught fire. Twelve people were killed and seventeen were injured.[57]
On 2 September 1913, a passenger train overran a signal and was in a rear-end collision with another passenger train between Mallerstang and Ais Gill, i.e. to the north of Ais Gill summit. Sixteen people were killed and 38 were injured.
1 2 Includes all railways owned, leased or worked by the company, including those in Ireland
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References
1 2 The Railway Year Book for 1920. London: The Railway Publishing Company Limited. 1920. p.209.
1 2 3 Barnes, E.G. (1969). The Rise of the Midland Railway 1844–1874. New York: AugustusM. Kelley. p.308.
↑ Whitehouse, Patrick; Thomas, David St John (2002). LMS 150: The London Midland & Scottish Railway A century and a half of progress. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN0-7153-1378-9.
↑ Edward Walford (1878). "28. Agar Town, and the Midland Railway". Old and New London: Volume 5. Cassell, Petter and Galpin. pp.368–373 – via British History Online.
↑ Christiansen, Rex (1983). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Volume 7 The West Midlands. David St John Thomas David & Charles. p.53. ISBN0-946537-00-3.
↑ Anderson, P.H. (1985). Forgotten Railways Vol 2: The East Midlands (2nded.). Newton Abbot: David and Charles.
↑ "Capture of a Railway Engine". Bell's Weekly Messenger. British Newspaper Archive. 9 August 1852. Retrieved 12 July 2016– via British Newspaper Archive.
↑ Hadfield, Charles (1970). The Canals of the East Midlands. David and Charles. ISBN0-7153-4871-X.
↑ Davies, R.; Grant, M.D. (1984). Forgotten Railways: Chilterns and Cotswolds. Newton Abbot, Devon: David St John Thomas. pp.110–111. ISBN0-946537-07-0.
↑ "Local and Personal Acts". The Sessional Papers Printed by Order of The House of the Lords Or Presented by Royal Command in the Session 1863. 1863. p.119 – via Google Books.
↑ "A new line of railway". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. England. 1 December 1879. Retrieved 23 September 2017– via British Newspaper Archive.
↑ "Midland Railway". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. British Newspaper Archive. 21 February 1914. Retrieved 1 August 2016– via British Newspaper Archive.
↑ David Wragg, LMS Handbook, Haynes Publishing, Yeovil, 2010, ISBN 978 1 84425 828 4, pages 9, 11, 21 to 24
↑ Binns, Donald (1995). The Skipton-Colne Railway and The Barnoldswick Branch. Trackside Publications, Skipton, N. Yorkshire. ISBN1900095009.
↑ Markham, C.A. (1970) [1904]. The Iron Roads of Northamptonshire. Wilbarston: Pilgrim Publications.
↑ Maggs, C. (1986). The Birmingham Gloucester Line. Cheltenham: Line One Press. ISBN0-907036-10-4.
↑ Maggs, ColinG. (1992) [1969]. The Bristol and Gloucester Railway and the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway (Oakwood Library of Railway History) (2nded.). Headington: Oakwood Press. ISBN0-85361-435-0. OL26.
↑ Geoffrey Briggs, Civic & Corporate Heraldry, London 1971 C. W. Scot-Giles, Civic Heraldry of England and Wales, 2nd edition, London, 1953 A. C. Fox-Davies, The Book of Public Arms, London 1915 Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis, The Midland Railway, 1953 Frederick Smeeton Williams, The Midland Railway: Its rise and progress: A narrative of modern enterprise, 1876 The Railway Magazine, Vol. 102, 1897 Dow (1973)[pagesneeded] Clement Edwin Stretton, History of The Midland Railway, 1901
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