Year: 1875

ENGLISH CELEBRATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT


OF RAILwAYs-THE FIRST EFFORT FIFTY YEARS


AGO.


WEST HARTLEPooL Sept /, 1875.


More than even national interest attaches to q cee
braton which commences in comparatively small
English town on the 9th OF September for by 1t it
is proposed to celebrate the jubilee OF railways So
South Durham blows the trumpet, and Darlington, the
drab centre Of Northern Quakersm beats the loud
tlmbrel in praise of George Stephenson and Edward
Pease by whose energies the first railway was brought
into being fifty years ago That railway swallowed
up dozen years ago by the Northeastern Railway-one
of the five great lines of Engand-at whose bidding
these celebrations be held at Darlington. Tho
first engine is taken down from its pedestal and
rcd to the chief engineering works in the form
the centre of group of its successors There is to be
feast Of body and flow of mind in a marquee
in Southend grounds, to which railway magnates are
hidden all the world statue to Joseph Pcase,
long time treasurer ofthe first railway TO be unveiled
and royalty is asked to withdraw the veil There
TO be excursions to the chief places Of industry opened
in the neighborhood since the primal railway made ex
tended trade possible and the multitude are already
agog with the antlcpations of the festival in which with
music and marches, they are to swell the ranks And
as the story of the commencement Of communication
by rail has cosmopolitan interest the American public
should hear OF it through the HERALD


Fifty sixty years ago there no nook of England
which had greater riches in its bosom or more unnvt
ing prospects than the part of Durham lying between
the rivers Tees and Wear. There were Goals in the
western part which found a market in towns to tho
south and for which unlimited demand was proba-
BILE if they could have been rapidly conveyed from the
plymouth to the large towns But the Tees not
navigable many miles from It's mouth, and the Wear
for still shorter distance Lead and coal were borne
| small thn hnrls nt Gfnnl
ton the nearest port but the cost OF the journey and
its length practically put embargo trade canal
had long been suggested, but there seemed likeli-
hood OF its being carried out though engineer after
engineer had demonstrated its practcability But with
the beginning of this century combined effort in that
direction seemed determined on, and at last infuen


al committee appointed at Stockton IN July 1915
on which committee the names of two inhabitants Of
Darlington the one Jonathan Backhouse banker
and manufacturer; the other, Edward Pease manu-
facturer, and both Quakers That committee employed
Mr. George Leather, civil engineer to survey the land
and report and in his report there evidence that there
had been some suggestion OF railway, for in it he
trass the expense of conveyance on railway with that
of q canal


LOOKING TO HORSES AS THE MOTIVE POWER,


he estimates the cost OF keep at f52 per horse annually
and the drivers wages at f39 for the same period and
the receipts from goods carried at f32 per year Also
This 'losing game' is the first official estimate of rail
way The influence, however, OF Messrs pease and
Backhouse the committee caused some
gravitation of opinion toward a railway, and
to propitiate this the order for the draught bill
or parts of both Eventually it was was decided that
railway should be the means of communication.
George Stephenson now appeared on the scene and
persuaded Edward Pease TO take power to work the
tratlic by engines, few of whch-the "Put1ng Bill
lies" of the pts-were working at coeries And
when, after one legislative defeat and another post
ponement the bill of the company was passed by Par
Lament in 1921, il contained the requisite power.
Through the exerons oS Joseph Pease, of Edward
OF that ilk the requisite capital of El20 900 was
cured, and in May. 1922 the first rail OF the line
laid at Stockton onTees Three years spent
In construction, In the building of rolling stock-
could
in the construction at works built for the purpose by
Stephenson, Edward Pease and Thomas Richardson of


THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE EMPLOYED


on public railway By September 1925, all ready,
and on the 9th of the month the opening took
place Three years before the Manchester and Liver
pool line was opened What would be called now


mixed tran'' was run, 'Locomotionn-as the first
gine was named fttingly-havng freight
ofwagons laden with COAL flour and passengers and one
long coach, in which the directors and their friends
were congregated. have seen the one memento of
that day an oil painting, owned by Mr.. Henry Pease
one of the few survivors of the opening, and in the
train is represented crossing the bridge the little
river Skerne at good pace whilst quantity attred
waving hats that have suspicious broad brims
and carriers vain is drawn up near, the driver Of
which looks wonderngly on That first trip, with
GEORGE STEPHENSON DRIVER
demonstrated the practicabty of railways and demol-
ished the idea OF canal There has been looking
back since that beginning, so SMALL but of constant
growth The little line of 1925 developed into system
before II was absorbed into greater. The annual in
come OF the company dozen years ago three times
than the capital fifty years since Instead OF
ing two little market towns with coal it had caused the
development of the trade until 1t the channel of
conveyance TO a large part of the globe 1t had gwen
birth to greater ndustry-tha of iron through
whose northern centre its lines like the spokes
wheel The engine had 200 descendants; the first
factory at Newcastle has sent out its products
and It's shoots to all parts of the world and great
as the growth of the grain of mustard seed has been the
growth of that system of railway communication which
the genius of Stephenson and the foresight and pluck of
the Darlington Quakers inaugurated. There is no
need to dwell the story Smiles has given of
It's outlines 1t Is sufficient TO say that though for
about eight years horses and their iron competitors
had the hauage OF the passenger and goods acs yet
| in or about 1888


HORSE POWER WAS DISCONTINUED


extension became the order OF the day. and the primal
railway sought for fresh fields and pastures to
swell its traffic returns. 1t laid the foundations of
Marlborough, a seaside town Of a growth more
American than English; it ostered the coal traffic. 1t
developed the iron trade of Cleveland and gave squirt
To its local manufacture until about third of the
amount OF pig iron produced in the United Kingdom
is brought TO bank in Cleveland Industrial centres
have arisen all along the route, such Conset where
the population has been more than multiplied dozen
times and the commerce oil the district has been revived
until there now local boasts that northern trade
the backbone OF that OF England and If its
celerated momentum be kept up, the course OF the
successor OF the first railway may prove the truth
England of the aphorism that 'northward the star Of
empire wends its way" In South Durham there have
frequently been recurring commemorations Of the
erest attaches to the celebration of that event which
has given what Tennyson calls ian everlasting name''
to Darlington as the pioneer of railways This idea,
taken up by the Northeastern Railway, which is a
power in the railway world is being seconded worhly
by the town chiefly concerned and TO it the eyes of
those interested IN railways will be turned at the
braon of that event which realized the dreams of
Stephenson and enabled the world be girded with
rails