History

THE ELECTRIFICATION OF THE LIVERPOOL AND SOUTHPORT RAILWAY.  The railway companies of this country have keenly felt the competition which the advent of electric tramways has caused, and have sought means to protect themselves against it. A number of things have been suggested so as while not reducing the speed of the trains, to keep down expenses to such a point as would enable the fares charged to be reduced to the level of, or even below, the small charges made by the tramways. There have been..

THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT RAILWAY (1866)  The present Metropolitan Railway, extending from Bishop’s-road to Moorgate-street, forms, as is very generally known, but the northern side of an irregular "circle" of underground railways which will surround that part of the metropolis lying between the existing line and the Thames. Of this "inner circle", as it is called, the Metropolitan District Railway will form the southern side, whilst the eastern and western portions wi..

THE WIDENING OF THE METROPOLITAN RAILWAY (1868) The widening of the Metropolitan Railway between King’s-cross and Farringdon-street stations, with the deviations of the branches to the Great Northern Railway, has been practically completed, and on the 15th of January was formally inspected by Captain Tyler on behalf of the Board of Trade.  A constantly increasing traffic has rendered this extension necessary, and the new lines are intended for the service of the Great Western, Great Northe..

HISTORY OF THE METROPOLITAN RAILWAY. Probably few persons among the many hundreds of thousands annually using the Metropolitan Railway are aware that when it was first opened for traffic, in January, 1863, from Bishop's-road to Farringdon-street, it was a broad-gauge line, worked by broad-gauge engines and carriages. As a matter of fact, it was a "mixed gauge" line, being laid with both the 7ft. and the ordinary 4ft. 8½ in.  gauges, although only broad-gauge rolling stock ran o..

THE ELECTRIFICATION OF THE METROPOLITAN RAILWAY (1904) Our Readers will remember the controversy which took place some three years ago on the question as to the method of electrification to be employed on the systems of the Metropolitan and District Railways. The Hoard of Trade finally decided that direct current of comparatively low tension — from 500 to 600 volts—was to be used on both railways, which were to arrange matters in such a way that the trains of either company could run on the o..

St. PANCRAS STATION, MIDLAND RAILWAY EXTENSION (1867) We propose to give a description of the works now in course of execution for this railway, commencing at about two miles from the London terminus, and following the course of the line until we arrive at the St. Pancras station, where the line terminates. The railway is constructed for four lines of way for a considerably further distance than we have named, and at the point from which we started it emerges from under the Hampstead Junction Railway, wh..

PULLMAN CARS (1875)  In the year 1859 Mr. Pullman constructed the first of the cars which have since made the name of Pullman world-famed, and this car was placed in service on the Chicago and Alton Railway, a line extending from Chicago to St. Louis, some 280 miles in length. Previous to this time sleeping cars had been in use, to a limited extent, upon several American railways, but they were for the most part crude in their arrangements, and ill adapted for meeting the requirements of fatigui..

Midland Railway 0-4-4 Tank Engine (1876) We give this week a two-page engraving, together with other views on the present and opposite pages, of one of a class of powerful tank locomotives constructed from the designs of Mr. Samuel W. Johnson, for working heavy local passenger traffic on the Midland Railway. The engine now illustrated may be considered to be a development of the type introduced by Mr. Johnson on the Great Eastern Railway, while he was the locomotive superintendent of that line - a type w..

MIDLAND RAILWAY DOUBLE-BOGIE CARRIAGES (1876). It is now about two years since the Midland Railway Company commenced running Pullman cars on their line, the first regular service of these cars having been established, as many of our readers will remember, between London and Bradford. The result of the working of these cars was so satisfactory to the company that they soon largely extended their use of double-bogie passenger stock; and when about fourteen months ago {vide page 203 of our nineteenth volume..

NEW FIRST AND THIRD CLASS DINING CARRIAGES ON THE MIDLAND RAILWAY (1893) The Midland Railway Company, which was the first to allow third-class passengers to travel by all trains, is just about to make further provision for their convenience and comfort. Commencing on Monday, July 3rd, the Midland Company, in conjunction with the Glasgow and South Western Company, will place on the Scotch service additional afternoon expresses, which will run between London (St. Pancras) and Glasgow (St. Enoch), start..

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY COMPANY'S LOCOMOTIVE WORKS AT DERBY. (1895) In presenting to our readers a description of the Midland Railway Works, we feel sure that no apology will be required if we first briefly trace the history and development of this important line. Although nominally dating from May 10th, 1841, the Midland Railway system really may claim to have originated some twelve years prior to this date, when a short line sixteen miles long was constructed under the supervision of Robert Stephenson,..

STEAM MOTOR COACHES, MIDLAND RAILWAY. (1904) On July 4th the Midland Railway Company put into service the first of the self-propelling steam railway coaches that are to run between Morecambe and Heysham, and in this week’s issue, through the courtesy of Mr. Deeley, the locomotive superintendent, and Mr. Rain, the carnage and wagon superintendent, of that railway, we are able to publish several illustrations and give the leading particulars of one of these vehicles. Two of these coaches have been co..

"RAILWAY SLEEPING CARRIAGE" The practice of attaching sleeping cars to long journey trains has prevailed for many years in America, and there are but few who travel frequently over our long northern routes who do not devoutly wish that a similar accommodation were afforded in England. It has indeed been a long recognised  necessity, and it is satisfactory to find that some step has recently been taken towards supplying the want. The North British Railway Company have taken the initiative i..

We illustrate above a  ... type of goods engine, designed by Mr. Drummond, locomotive superintendent of the North British Railway, and constructed at the companies works at Cowlairs, near Glasgow. The engines are similar in external appearance to the new goods engines desiigned by Mr. Stroudley for the London and Brighton Railway, but are more powerful machines and considerably heavier. The work to be performed by these engines is very severe, as the grades are steep and very long, and the work has ..

LOCOMOTIVE FOR THE NORTH BRITISH RAILWAY. We give this week a ...  engraving of one of a type of passenger locomotives recently constructed from the designs of Mr. Drummond, the locomotive superintendent of the North British Railway, for working the fast passenger traffic on that line. As will be seen from our illustration the engine is of the inside cylinder type with a single pair of driving wheels, the cylinders being 17 in. in diameter with 2 ft. stroke, and the driving wheels 7 ft.in diameter..