Railways provide a vital means for transporting large amounts of goods and people across a wide distance. In the Victorian Era, this was especially important to the growth of industrial facilities and a higher migration of people into urban centers. Railways delivered means of innovation and creation, under the brilliant minds of those who ran them. Men like Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the Great Western Railway revolutionized the English countryside and the nation as a whole. In May 1821, Manchester City welcomed the opening of a new express mail service between the city, in the northwest of England, and London, 200 miles away in the southeast. The new service would leave London at 6:00 p.m. and, "proceeding at the rate of eleven miles per hour, including all stoppages," [1] would arrive in Manchester at 10:20 the following morning. The journey time of "16 hours, 20 minutes, cut 13 hours off" [2] the horse-drawn carriage time. The drawback was that the service would carry only mail; though as the paper encouraged, "the commercial advantages are manifest. The opportunity it would also give of transmitting the earliest account of civil commotion, or intelligence to the government, must not be disregarded." [3]
In the early 1800s, the railway was not even a consideration in the minds of people; however, just 30 years later the average number working for one was 47,000. [4] The dynamic change in the infrastructure of England in a major part was due to the creation of the railway system under the guidance of Parliament and to the interest of Queen Victoria. Without these paths of transportation, the nation could not develop into the modern society of today. The railway was one of the most important aspects of Victorian life. As a creation of the inventive Brunel, the Great Western Railway acted as the prototype for many of the other lines, such as the London North Eastern and Midlands Railways. Brunel created bridges that crossed gaps much longer than ever attempted before, developed a larger gauge track bed for passenger comfort and even an atmospheric rail system. [5] These improvements made the Great Western a premiere railway of the Victorian Age.
For nearly one hundred years, the railway acted as an essential and exceptional part in the modernization of English economics and culture. By 1844, there were 2,235 miles of track in operation and an additional 855 miles authorized by the government, which were already in construction. Of these miles, 104 different railway companies existed under charters from Parliament or had been merged into the larger corporations. [6] Of the companies in operation, the Great Western encompassed more than any other in terms of trackage, station building, rail infrastructure (to include bridges, sheds, yards, equipment faculties and workhouses) and employees. As the inducted line of the age, the Great Western expanded eastern from London to Bristol and northward to Manchester. The company also created itself on the ideals of passenger comfort. Brunel's focus was more on the value of the customer's opinion, which in his mind would establish a network of popularity based on peer to peer advertisement. In these efforts to improve passenger moral, Brunel went against the construction methods of other lines and used a larger, wider track gauge completely inadaptable with other rail company's track. The problems of gauge became evident in July of 1844, where the broad gauge Bristol to Gloucester line met with the narrow gauge Birmingham and Gloucester Railway. In order to travel beyond the city towards Birmingham, passengers and goods had to change trains; thus causing a major inconvenience to customers and damage to parcels. The Great Western attempted to purchase the narrow line but was blocked by government regulation, the line being sold to the Midland Company in 1854, expanding a narrow, standard type gauge alongside the Great Western lines. This intrusion caused major problems on the section of track for the Great Western, as revenues from both passenger and freight changed over to the Midland's coaches. [7] The fight over the gauge issue soon became escalated with the creation of the Oxford to Rugby line in late 1845, later known as the Battle of the Gauges. The issue now permeated into the Parliament's agenda for the November sessions, establishing a Royal Commission to investigate the need and institution of a national standard rail gauge. After several tests of engine equipment on both gauge types, inquiries of passenger comforts and discussion among railway workers, the commission established that "broad gauge was superior for speed and steady running and the greater capacity of its engines; the narrow was better suited for the general traffic of the country, especially the transport of goods." [8] In order to satisfy all groups involved, the government established the precedent for broad gauge modification to accommodate the smaller wheel sets of narrow engines. Parliament believed this to be the best method, as the Great Western encompassed only 274 miles versus the combined narrow gauge tracks of all other companies, which housed 1900 miles of narrow type iron rail. The creation of the Gauge Act in 1846 made all lines built after that point to follow the new national standard of 4 ft. 8 ½ in. gauge to prevent the detraining of goods and passengers at stations. The accommodations of the Great Western's lines created a three track system for several years until a change of command in the company's board of trustees agreed to follow the national standard.
The battle over gauge would continue for several years as new lines expanded from the Great Western and other railways hoping to connect. By 1854, and after efforts from figures such as Lord Palmerson, the issue was resolved by the Amalgamation Act, stating that Great Western's purchase of smaller railways with current standard gauge track could not be adapted to fit the engines of a larger wheel base. From this point on all new and purchased tracks were required to be built with the national gauge set. Great Western's last broad gauge trains ran on May 20th, 1892 on the remaining lines between London Paddington station and Bristol. Following the close of service, trains were halted and work began to convert over the track. In the following days, over 200 miles of the old lines had been reconstructed in a short 31 hour period. The mixed gauge third rail, combining narrow and broad gauges in a single track, created under the Royal Commission soon was removed. [9] The vision of Isambard's great broad gauge rail system fell into obscurity and soon became nothing more than text in the histories of the Victorian Era. Economics over comfort ultimately defeated the idealistic vision of a Victorian high speed and smooth riding rail system.
With new technology of rail, Victorian cities quickly grew and adapted to a major swing in population groups. The impact of the railway on these cities was great and evolved many small villages into thriving centers of trade and commerce. Small coal mining industries, once powered by horse and carriage quickly drew upon the rail system. Almost immediately after a branch line was extended, mines or other industry opened new faculties and increased production. The growth in cities of industry, like Bristol and London quickly saw the need for the rail system to power the great coal burning generators. According to the Board of Trade's 1845 report on rail arrangements in the county of Lancashire, [rail] "'has now become almost as much a matter of necessity as the adoption of the most improved machinery to enable a manufacturing community to contend on equal terms with its rivals and to maintain its footing.'" [10] In these terms the economic importance of British rail was clear; industry leaders needed access to the system and in turn the system needed the profits generated from manufacturing to improve and expand the lines. The entire reason the Great Western had become a reality was the need for efficient inter-county transportation with the ability to hold high yields of material. Bristol, as a coal and shipping epicenter maintained transportation of goods between the city and London for years prior to rail expansion. These included using horse-drawn wagons and ships to skirt the southern coast. Problems quickly arose in this fashion as the French often captured sea-going vessels and the passage of goods via wagon took much too long to produce high profit margins. When Brunel proposed a rail system and gained the charter in 1835, it was done to limit the negative effects of previous transit methods.
In terms of how a railway affected the Victorian city, no other place experienced such drastic change as London. At the height of railway mania, over 13 different companies held stock or operated lines into 5 major stations within the city limits. The Great Western built and headquartered in Paddington station, the London North Eastern Railway operated out of King's Cross and the Midlands Railway located a short distance away in St. Pancras Station. The original site of King's Cross was built near the Great Exhibition Glass Palace by an order from Queen Victoria to serve as the main terminal for those wishing to partake in the festivities. [11] Many of these larger stations housed separate branches for goods storage and distribution warehouses, slightly beyond the passenger terminals. According to land laws established in the years before railway expansion into the city, each parcel was purchased directly by the rail company's shareholders. This meant that all land claimed in property sale would reflect on the stock price of the railway itself. If a section of land was speculated to yield ease of access for the line, but upon construction entailed a different outcome, the price of the stock could fall drastically. Even the purchase of land in London became difficult as lines flooded the landscape. Each railway wanted access to hubs of passenger activity as well as a method to house goods in the outskirts of shipyards along the Thames. When the Great Eastern Railway approached Parliament for subsidized funds, it was estimated to cost ₤1,363,000 in order to structure a Station and the line expanding out of the city. However, the costs soon exceeded this estimate and became closer to double that number. Parliament refused to budge on the original amount granted and the Great Eastern nearly bankrupted the line if not for private investment. [12] Ultimately the Liverpool Street Project, as it would be known as, was a commercial success, with high passenger turnout long into the eventual government consolidation of rail in the 1920s.
Expansion of new transportation equipment drastically changed methods of moving raw materials and manufactured properties across the English countryside. Unfortunately, this also meant a change for agricultural productivity, leading to a crisis of output for many small communities. Between 1842 and the late 1870s, rail availability and access for rural outcroppings slightly improved in terms of transport speed, reliability and quantity of shipments. Even with these improvements, existing or new track remained far from villages in the remote sections of the nation. Those with the benefit of living near major or branch rail lines could easily move their crops and livestock to the depot. For those without this easy of access, a crisis of significant proportion ensued. In the town of Dorset, rail facilities tended to favor the movement of cattle and byproducts associated rather than the more common cereals. These included crops such as wheat and barley; Dorset becoming the most recognized center of regionalization in crop production following years post rail expansion. [13] As rail systems connected to the small village, farmers realized the potential for new and improved methods of agriculture. Dairy farming quickly became much more profitable than the yields accepted in cereal cropping. With this type of market; however, labor and cost of equipment proved to be much too high to offset. Another prevention in this, dairy farms required proximity to a rail depot to preserve the quality of goods. Farmers living farther away from these rail stops simply used the dairy in local consumption. [14] As a whole, the railway increased the value of certain crops and agrarian products, while reducing others; cereals and root harvests falling victim to low national demand. Those in the more rural areas, without the ease of rail transport, found themselves restricted to the local markets; the previous methods of transportation now obsolete to make acceptable profits beyond the village.
Early rail focused on profits gained in the realm of passenger service. As the next logical step in freight service, railways also created methods to reduce cost and help maximize profits not only for the manufacturer but the line itself. Even with the possibility and eventual shift in focus, passenger service remained the primary interest of The Great Western and those like it. The Industrial Age marked the evolution of all transport, improved roads and better carriages, but steam dominated the market against horse-drawn or wind-powered movement. Rail made travel across wide spaces of land quicker and predictable with improved reliability and timetabling. In the early 1870s, England had over 13,000 miles of iron track laid and in the following twenty years, a common person traveled via train every two weeks. [15] This was an era of astonishing developments in passenger movement; trains now much faster than horse carriage, with averaged speeds rising from twenty to twenty-eight miles per hour by 1890. Mainline voyages increased speeds beyond the thresholds of the upper thirty miles per hour in this same period. [16] According to reports funded by the railways to the English rail commissions, the amount of time saved by moving people via rail far outweighed any other method by fivefold. The economic savings translated to the nations as "amounting to some 2 percent of GDP as early as 1850, to 5 percent of GDP by 1865, 10 percent by the end of the century, and a full 14 percent by 1912." [17] For the rail companies, this helped to fund expansion of faculties via government loans and subsidy, allowing costs for the customer to fall significantly, speed and comfort soon growing in the same fashion. Evident from 1870 onwards, a push to increase ridership came as companies pursued to attract more patrons with luxuries in third-class coaches. Englishmen now had the freedom to travel, at low cost and quickly across the wide distances; many now traveling more often than ever before. Eventually rail would decline as the premiere form of passenger transport, with rail companies shifting to freight.
To keep costs relatively low in terms of workforce, rail companies often looked to the lower classes of society for labor. This was not an uncommon occurrence, as many of the rising factories pulled from these same groups to fill their assembly lines. Workers during this era sought to incorporate themselves within select unions for representation during company board meetings and budget hearings. These formalities on behalf of the workers unions; however, were often seen as an affront to the managers, operations leaders and to the general dismay of stockholders, fearing unruly or unjustified demands from such institutions. As the primary party responsible for daily functioning of a rail company, managers felt accountable for the safety of not only passengers but the employed as well. These unions seemed to hamper the relationship of the labor hierarchy in the eyes of company leaders, a threat to status quo, respect among operations and the general management of their corporation. Great Western provided several amenities to their employees, "housing, education, recreational facilities, sick pay, accident insurance, death assurance and pensions," [18] provisions not generally found among other industries. For these reasons, the creation of unions was seen as not a necessity as most, if not all, provisions were in fact given by the company. The redundancy of a trade union in the railway sector spread among the owners and quickly turned to a feeling of personal attack against the generosity of providing such conveniences. Beyond this, the demands for increased wages among lower class union employees brought a fight between them and the rail managers. Parliament gave little concession, placing the groups in an unusual position: "state legislation, in the form of the 1894 act, prevented them [unions, requisition] from raising their rates to meet any increase in labor costs." [19] Thus the fear remained: if unions were to permeate into the mainstream of all rail companies and succeed in the forced raising of wages, the disadvantage to the fiscal health of the line was to be in jeopardy. Up until the mid-nineteen-teens, the majority of rail companies kept out or refused to recognize workers unions until government consolidation and reorganization finally resolved the issue. Until this time, workers remained content with the commendations given and attendance for union remained fairly low.
Housing, as the Great Western recognized, was the most covenanted amenity among laborers; the railway cottage being the most common of housing structures. Around maintenance yards, along stretches of open countryside and even cramped between roundhouses, thousands of these building were constructed. For a common railway employee, nothing more could keep them in service of the line other than regular pay. A driving force to reduce the power of growing union popularity among other industries, the railways used cottages as a tool to prevent such action. In one example, engineers in a union on the London and North Western Railway filed a strike against the company, resulting in the immediate "eviction from their company-owned cottages in Camden Town." [20] "For the man who lived in a rent-free or low-rented cottage, taking part in a strike might lead to disaster;" [21] many workers as a result gladly accepted the generous facilities rather than risk membership into labor organizations. Cottages together formed railway estates, essentially micro-communities completely self-maintaining, with little interaction beyond its borders. Companies established these estates on the outer limits of existing towns, like New Swindon and Crewe. This kept the workers out of trouble and provided ease of access to engine shops and various other rail structures. As with the Great Western, the structures supplying the line were built well away from population centers, keeping the general public away from the dangers of operation. The Rowsley engine facilities were built on the side of a peak just to keep them at a distance from the nearest village; Carlisle and Kingmoor turnouts, engine works and repairs sheds, owned by the Caledonian Railway, existed nearly three miles outside of their respective towns. [22] In the Victorian Age, most railway estates were established; however; the existence and construction of single cottages extended into the twentieth century, placed wherever land could be found.
Workers for the railway in the Victorian Era were some of the most specialized in the entire nation's labor force. Each worker in every part of the line became employed via different methods. For those operating in high intensity environments, like engineers, recruitment came in the form of scouting by the rail companies to find the most suitable from industrial centers in the northeast. For those with lower skill levels, jobs often came as a result of being "over the fence", found in villages adjacent to the emerging tracks; "the villager's smock was replaced by the company uniform, the spade tip on a fireman's shovel, the rush flare by a signalman's lantern." [23] The railway was an entity never before seen in the eyes of a common laborer; suddenly men were able to escape the routine existence of their fathers' before them and venture into a new and exciting world, full of opportunity and risk. Work based on the light of the sun and the weather of the seasons was gone. On a railway, labor continued into the small hours of darkness, throughout every temperature. As with any new procedure, discipline among workers was a concern of managers who expected the basic tenants of timeliness and respect. Thus the great chain of being within a rail company stemmed from the prerequisites of the effort itself, often requiring a certain level of obedience, literacy, with remaining expectations exuded from railway officials. Many of those overseeing work previously held position within the national army; however, a clear dissimilarity existed in railway tenet. These former officers, familiar with the unruly masses of a standing military, now found themselves with more literate and sober men. [24] Discipline problems between these two groups often resulted in minor corrective action, rather than the brutality and humility of flogging found in a corps. [25] As a result, workers most often remained content with laboring under the banner of the railway.
Victorian England marked a new chapter in the history of society. This was the age of rapid growth and blistering speeds, not only in the expansion of cities but that of the transportation connecting them. This was the age of railway mania, when thousands of investors sought to make a fortune on the new technologies of steam. Many tried and few succeeded, methods were tested and often failed, and lines expanded and shut down. As with any industry, few main names dominated the world. The Great Western, the London North Eastern and the Midlands Railway were just a handful of the dozens of tracks that permeated the English countryside. Even into the modern period, many of the original tracks or roadbeds still carry thousands of passengers each day, establishing rail's dominance as a premier method of transportation. Without the efforts of men like Brunel, the Victorian age and that of our modern time would be drastically changed, and industry alongside those vicissitudes.
Endnotes
