The development of the railway network in Britain:

Introduction:

The following article forms part of a trilogy of articles the will look at the history of the Vale of Neath Railway. This first article will specificably look at the development and the major technical innovations of the time that were instrumental and necessary in building a railway network from scratch. These innovations are explained in chronological order below. [1]

Britain’s railway system is recognised as the oldest in the world. The construction of the original railway system particularly during the “Railway Mania” period of the 1840’s is considered to be the largest and most transformative infrastructure project ever undertaken in the UK.

The scale of the project was huge with over 6,200 mile of track being laid; the economical impact was to eat up roughly 7% of the UK’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and even today a significant portion of the network is still in use.

The second article will concentrate of the building of the Vale of Neath Railway (VoNR) and the time the line was in operation and will include peoples memories of the using the line.

The third article will look at the accidents and fatalities that befell the line whilst it was in operation.

Industrial Revolution (1750 – 1900):

The coming of the Industrial Revolution was to transform Britain from a rural, agricultural society into a world leading industrialised nation. Along this timeline key innovations took place, for instance textile machines such as the Spinning Jenny, steam power, iron production, canals, roads and eventually railways. These new innovations along with rapid manufacturing growth and urbanisation saw an end to a way of life that had been in place for centuries.

The biggest change brought about by the Industrial Revolution was the coming of steam power, which some see as the most important event in human history since the domestication of animals and plants. The natural resources of the valley, such as coal, ironstone and limestone were needed to fuel this revolution, and such was the demand for these resources that a more efficient way of transporting these goods was required.

If we look at the main developments that led to the building of the Vale of Neath Railway line (VoNR) we need to look at the building of the canals, the Swansea and Mumbles horse drawn railway; the first steam powered locomotive trial at Penydarren; the first Stockton and Darlington passenger rail journey; George Stephenson’s first steam locomotive; the Bessemer Process of manufacturing steel and the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. [2]

Three of these major innovation took place within 20 miles (32 km) of the village, so let’s look at these events in chronological order:

The lead up to the coming of the railways:

The Neath and Tennant canal (1795 – 1921):

The building of the Neath canal can be directly linked to the Industrial Revolution. Before the Industrial Revolution Wales was a very agricultural nation. The wars of the 18th Century (the Seven Years’ War, the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars) brought about the introduction of heavy industry to supply this war machine. Some of the main industries were being located in South Wales, the Copper works of Swansea; the Iron works of Merthyr and the Coal industry of the South Wales valleys. Due to the use of steam in driving these processes, these industries were sited in and around the coal areas of South Wales.

Prior to the opening of the Neath Canal adverts appeared in the press looking for investors to develop coal and the mining of minerals in the area which led to the early industrial development of the top end of the Vale of Neath valley. [3]

For further reading on the canals see attached link:
https://gwrachtimeline.co.uk/making-of-the-neath-canal

The Swansea and Mumbles Railway (1807 – 1859)

The first Swansea and Mumbles railway used horse draw vehicles to convey quarried materials such as coal, iron ore and limestone to and from the Swansea Canal to the harbour at the mouth of the River Tawe and came under the ownership of the Oystermouth Railway.

In February 1807 approval was given to carry passengers on the line. The date the 25th of March 1807 is cited as the date when the regular passenger carrying service began between Swansea and Oystermouth. [4]

It’s now recognised as the first passenger railway in the world.

Horse-drawn tram on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, 1897

The first Steam Train to run on Rails (1803):

The world’s first successful steam powered locomotive railway journey took place on 21 February 1804 in Penydarren, South Wales by its designer Richard Trevithick a Cornish engineer.

The beginning of steam travel in Britain can be traced back to the 21st February1804 and Richard Trevithick’s locomotive. Trevithick worked for Samuel Homfray who employed him to build stationary steam engines for the Penydarren Iron works, but Trevithick went on to design a steam engine that could run under its own power.

Local Iron master Richard Crawshay the owner of Cyfarthfa Ironworks, bet Homfray that Trevithick’s engine could not pull 10 tons of iron over a distance of 9 miles from Penydarren to Abercynon. It was said the journey took 9 hours to complete, due to the weight of the locomotive breaking the tracks, with Trevithick having to replace the broken tracks himself.
This 1804 trial remains a landmark moment in the early history of railways in Wales and the broader Industrial Revolution. The journey demonstrated that steam power could be used for railway transport, a breakthrough that would eventually transform industry and travel worldwide. [5]

A replica of this locomotive can now be seen in the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea.

**Homfray won the bet when Trevithick’s engine hauled 70 men and 10 ton of iron 9.75 miles.**

George Stephenson Steam Locomotive (1814 -1830):

George Stephenson’s first steam train was unveiled on July 25th, 1814, it was named “Blucher” and was capable of conveying 30 tons of coal in eight wagons at a speed of four miles per hour. He was not the most educated man and never attended school but by 18 years of age he was teaching himself to read and write. Stephenson had a talent for improving other peoples ideas and went on to improve the pulling power of Blucher and went on to devise an improved type of railway track.

In 1825 he was instrumental in convincing a businessman who was planning a horse drawn railway for the Stockton-on-Tees to Darlington line to order a steam locomotive instead. This locomotive was called “Locomotion No 1” and was able to transport 450 people 25 miles at a speed of 15 mile per hour.

In 1830 he has developed the now world famous locomotive “Rocket” which was capable of a speed of 36 mile per hour and was operating on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. With the coming of “Rocket” the most advance locomotive of its day, the Railway age had began. [6]

The Stockton and Darlington Railway (1825 – 1863):

The first railway to use steam locomotive was the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR). The line was officially opened on the 27th September 1825, and ran between the collieries near Sheldon to Darlington and Stockton in Country Durham in north-east England.

From the opening of the line coal had been carried to ships by steam locomotives and this lucrative business was soon extended to the new port of Middlesbrough. Originally passengers were carried by horse drawn coaches until steam locomotives were introduced in 1833. [7]

So the Stockton and Darlington Railway can rightfully claim to be the first steam powered public passenger service in the world.

**The *Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway*, a watercolour painted in the 1880s by John Dobbin, crowds watch the inaugural train cross the Skerne Bridge in Darlington.**

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1830):

The first steam powered inter-city passenger and goods line was the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) opened on the 15th of September, 1930. It revolutionised transport between Liverpool and Manchester by providing the first scheduled service between the two major cities.

A famous 1829 competition (Rainhill Trials) to see what was the best locomotive to be used on the line was won by George Stephenson’s famous locomotive Rocket.

The 31 mile long line was the first to be entirely double tracked and used the standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1/2 in. The engineer who designed the line was the famous engineer George Stephenson. The impact of the opening of the line was to reduce journey time from 12 hours by canal to under 2 hours, which in turn sparked the “Railway Mania” of the 1840’s across Britain.

The opening ceremony was marred by the first widely reported death on the railways of the MP William Huckisson. [8]

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway can lay claim to being the first Inter City steam driven passenger service, which opened the way for “Railway Mania” of the 1840’s.

**A lithograph of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway crossing the Bridgewater Canal at Patricroft, by A. B. Clayton.**

The change from iron to steel manufacture (1568\1603 – 1850):

In the early 19th century the race was on to improve the process of manufacturing iron, making it more efficient and cost effective to produce in order to feed the voracious appetite of the industrial revolution.

Early iron making had used small bloomery hearths fuelled by charcoal and using hand operated bellows to process small scale output of iron.

In Elizabethan times (1568 – 1603) these bloomery hearths were replaced by 10 meter high blast furnaces which needed fast flowing streams to run their water powered bellows. They also needed large areas of woodland to produce charcoal, alongside local supplies of ironstone and limestone, which was a critical factor to avoid the high costs of transporting raw materials. An example of this type of method of iron making can be found in the Melin Court ironworks just outside Resolven. It operated from 1708 to 1808. It was originally built to run on charcoal but was converted to coke during the 1790’s and utilised the Melin Court brook for water power to drive the bellows.

The next evolution of iron making was the introduction of coke (derived for heating coal in the absence of air) to fuel the furnaces. In 1709 Abraham Darby of Coalbrookdale, Ironbridge used coke instead of charcoal to smelt iron in a blast furnace. This innovation made iron production cheaper, more efficient and allowed for mass production and ignited the Industrial Revolution.

The first type of coke-fired furnace to operate in South Wales was in 1758 in Hirwaun, and quickly spread once Henry Cort devised a technique called puddling or “the Welsh Method” in 1784 to produce high quality wrought iron. The invention of the steam engine in the mid 1850’s removed the need for water to power the blast.

The next stage in the development of Iron making was the use of Anthracite coal instead of coke to fuel the furnaces. After ten years of experimenting George Crane of Ynyscedwyn, near Ystradgynlais had improved the hot blast technique using anthracite coal and announced his finding to the British Association’s meeting in Swansea in 1838. [9]

The early use of the technique was very promising and allowed the iron masters of the time to use the readily available anthracite in the area. Unfortunately the downside was the local anthracite tended to crumble during heating and by 1860 all the furnaces using this method had closed.

This process was employed at the Venallt Ironworks in Cwmgwrach which was constructed in 1842. The Venallt iron works was to close in 1848 when the iron master Jevons business’s in Liverpool collapsed. The remains of the Venallt and Banwen iron works are the only examples using this method surviving today. [10]

**A model of the Venallt Ironworks, it used anthracite as fuel and the hot blast process.**

The use of anthracite in the hot blast technique was taken to America by a trainee of Ynyscedwyn named David Thomas, he opened a furnace at Catasauqua which started the iron industry in the Lehigh Valley where there were massive reserves of Anthracite that didn’t crumble whilst being heated. They then became very successful competitors and this lead to the destruction of the iron industry in the South Wales valleys. [11]

The true “race” for an improved manufacturing process reached its climax in the 1850s with Henry Bessemer. His development of the ‘Bessemer Converter” allowed for the mass production of steel by blowing air through molten pig iron to burn off impurities. This dropped the price of steel by over 80% almost overnight, shifting the world from the “Age of Iron” to the “Age of Steel” and enabling the production of steel for the railways, shipbuilding, bridges and heavy engineering.

The Bessemer process was to be instrumental in the construction of early railway lines. The process reduced the cost of steel, making it more affordable for the construction of trains and railway lines. This affordability led to the rapid expansion of the railway system, which was essential for transporting goods and people across vast distances. [12]

The Navvies who built the Railways:

The railways, like the canals of Britain 100 years earlier, were built by the Navvies (short for navigators). They were hardy highly skilled manual labourers, working long hours (often 10 – 16 hours per day) and enduring extreme physical hardship and in constant danger from accidents and tunnel collapses. A typical navvy could shift 20 tons of earth a day just using basic hand tools like shovels and picks and gunpowder. They were to use their skills and equipment to dig tunnels, cut through hills and build embankments and viaducts. By 1850 they had constructed 3,000 miles of railway line.

They lived close to where they worked often living in remote construction sites, the huts they lived in were temporary and overcrowded and lacked sanitation. They lived like they worked, living in shanty towns of turf and timber huts with heavy drinking, gambling and brawling in order to cope with their brutal conditions. These conditions would lead to outbreaks of diseases such as typhus, cholera and dysentery.

At the peak of the “Railway Mania” of the 1840’s it was estimated that the construction of the railway network employed 250,000 workers. [13]

The development of rails:

One of the most safety critical components of the railway network is the rails the trains run on, below I have laid out the key innovations in rail technology over the centuries.

The earliest use of wooden rails was in the mining industry in Germany in the 12th century, when wooden planks were used to guide wheeled ore carts through muddy tunnels.

By the 16th century more sophisticated “wagonways” appeared in Europe and Britain. These used wooden rails made of oak or beech with a flanged wheel to keep the wagons on track.

The next development of rail technology was the use of cast iron plates nailed onto the top of wooden rails to reduce wear. They were produced in the Ketley ironworks in 1760, but they came with a major design flaw. When these thin iron strips wore down they would break away and curl up into what was called “snake heads” that pierced the floor of the carriages.

In the late 18th century “plateways” were developed. They used L-shaped cast iron rails with a vertical flange on the rail to guide the flat wheeled wagons. This system was in use in the Cwmgwrach mines run by Protheroe and run from the mines in the Gwrach valley down past the Venallt and onto the wooden bridge which connected to the branch line of the Neath and Tennant canal called Cnel Bach. [10]

In 1789 William Jessop introduced all iron “edge rails” when the flange was moved from the rail onto the wheel, which is the standard configuration used to this day.

As trains got bigger and therefore heavier the brittle cast iron rails of the day were prone to breaking under the heavy load. In 1820, John Birkinshaw patented rolled wrought iron rails which were more ductile and could be produced in longer lengths (15 feet versus 3-4 feet for cast iron rails).

The next major change was to move from iron rails to steel rails produced using the Bessemer Process (see above). This process produced more affordable and several times more durable steel. The first experimental steel rails were laid at Derby station in 1857. [14]

This concludes this article and the following article will be about the history of the Vale of Neath Railway (VoNR).

References and Resources: