Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Steaming ahead
THE STOCKTON & DARLINGTON RAILWAY, COUNTY DURHAM, 1822
When a crowd gathered in Stockton-on-Tees on 27 September 1825 to watch the arrival of a
steam train, it witnessed history in the making. The slow, 25-mile journey from the collier-
ies near Shildon marked not just the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway but also
the dawn of the railway age. Horse-drawn waggonways were already a familiar sight in the
industrialising north-east of England, so the concept of a railway was not entirely new. This,
however, was an acknowledged landmark in the evolution of public transport: the world's
first permanent, locomotive-powered, passenger-carrying railway line. Few, if any, of those
first spectators could have predicted how far the railway network would develop by the end
of the century (see Seats with a view ) , or how important it would become.
The initial proposals to create a railway line in the area had encountered strong opposition
from powerful aristocratic landowners, who resisted its incursion onto their estates. An Act
of Parliament authorising the Stockton & Darlington Railway Company's chosen route was
finally passed in 1821. That same year, the company appointed the steam engine pioneer, Ge-
orge Stephenson, as its chief engineer. He decided to upgrade the railway's design so that
locomotive-driven trains, as well as horse-drawn waggons, could run along it. This map, prin-
ted and published in 1822, reflects his resurvey of the route: the line authorised in 1821 is
marked in blue, with Stephenson's alterations in red. The sections below the map, showing
the height of the line, became a common feature of 19th-century railway maps. Parliament
approved both the revised route and the use of steam power in 1823.
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