discussed. At the Brusselton incline, fixed engines must necessarily be made use of; but with respect to the mode of working the railway generally, it was decided that horses were to be largely employed, and arrangements were made for their purchase. The influence of Mr. Pease also secured that a fair trial should be given to the experiment of working the traffic by locomotive power; and three engines were ordered from the firm of Stephenson and Co., Newcastle, which were put in hand forthwith, in anticipation of the opening of the railway. These were constructed after Mr. Stephenson’s most matured designs, and embodied all the improvements which he had contrived up to that time. No. I. engine, the “Locomotion,” which was first delivered, weighed about eight tons. It had one large flue or tube through the boiler, by which the heated air passed direct from the furnace at one end, lined with fire-bricks, to the chimney at the other. The combustion in the furnace was quickened by the adoption of the steam-blast in the chimney. The heat raised was sometimes so great, and it was so imperfectly abstracted by the surrounding water, that the chimney became almost red-hot. Such engines, when put to their speed, were found capable of running at the rate of from twelve to sixteen miles an hour; but they were better adapted for the heavy work of hauling coal-trains at low speeds—for which, indeed, they were specially constructed—than for running at the higher speeds afterwards adopted. Nor was it contemplated by the directors as possible, at the time when they were ordered, that locomotives could be made available for the purposes of passenger travelling. Besides, the Stockton and Darlington Railway did not run through a district in which passengers were supposed to be likely to constitute any considerable portion of the traffic.
We may easily imagine the anxiety felt by Mr. Stephenson during the progress of the works towards completion, and his mingled hopes and doubts (though his doubts were but few) as to the issue of this great experiment. When
the formation of the line near Stockton was well advanced, Mr. Stephenson one day, accompanied by his son Robert and John Dixon, made a journey of inspection of the works. The party reached Stockton, and proceeded to dine at one of the inns there. After dinner, Stephenson ventured on the very unusual measure of ordering in a bottle of wine, to drink success to the railway. John Dixon relates with pride the utterance of the master on the occasion. “Now, lads,” said he to the two young men, “I venture to tell you that I think you will live to see the day when railways will supersede almost all other methods of conveyance in this country—when mail-coaches will go by railway, and railroads will become the great highway for the king and all his subjects. The time is coming when it will be cheaper for a working man to travel upon a railway than to walk on foot. I know there are great and almost insurmountable difficulties to be encountered; but what I have said will come to pass as sure as you live. I only wish I may live to see the day, though that I can scarcely hope for, as I know how slow all human progress is, and with what difficulty I have been able to get the locomotive thus far adopted, notwithstanding my more than ten years’ successful experiment at Killingworth.” The result, however, outstripped even the most sanguine anticipations of Stephenson; and his son Robert, shortly after his return from America in 1827, saw his father’s locomotive generally employed as the tractive power on railways.
The Stockton and Darlington line was opened for traffic on the 27th September, 1825. An immense concourse of people assembled from all parts to witness the ceremony of opening this first public railway. The powerful opposition which the project had encountered, the threats which were still uttered against the company by the road-trustees and others, who declared that they would yet prevent the line being worked, and perhaps the general unbelief as to its success which still prevailed, tended to excite the curiosity of the public as to the result. Some went to rejoice at the
opening, some to see the “bubble burst;” and there were many prophets of evil who would not miss the blowing up of the boasted travelling engine. The opening was, however, auspicious. The proceedings commenced at Brusselton Incline, about nine miles above Darlington, where the fixed engine drew a train of loaded waggons up the incline from the west, and lowered them on the east side. At the foot of the incline a locomotive was in readiness to receive them, Stephenson himself driving the engine. The train consisted of six waggons loaded with coals and flour; after these was the passenger-coach, filled with the directors and their friends, and then twenty-one waggons fitted up with temporary seats for passengers; and lastly came six waggon-loads of coals, making in all a train of thirty-eight vehicles. The local chronicler of the day almost went beside himself in describing the extraordinary event:—“The signal being given,” he says, “the engine started off with this immense train of carriages; and such was its velocity, that in some parts the speed was frequently 12 miles an hour!” By the time it reached Stockton there were about 600 persons in the train or hanging on to the waggons, which must have gone at a safe and steady pace of from four to six miles an hour from Darlington. “The arrival at Stockton,” it is added, “excited a deep interest and admiration.”
The working of the line then commenced, and the results were such as to surprise even the most sanguine of its projectors. The traffic upon which they had formed their estimates of profit proved to be small in comparison with that which flowed in upon them which they had never dreamt of. Thus, what the company had principally relied upon for their receipts was the carriage of coals for land sale at the stations along the line, whereas the haulage of coals to the seaports for exportation to the London market was not contemplated as possible. When the bill was before Parliament, Mr. Lambton (afterwards Earl of Durham) succeeded in getting a clause inserted, limiting
the charge for the haulage of all coal to Stockton-on-Tees for the purpose of shipment to ½d. per ton per mile; whereas a rate of 4d. per ton was allowed to be taken for all coals led upon the railway for land sale. Mr. Lambton’s object in enforcing the low rate of ½d. was to protect his own trade in coal exported from Sunderland and the northern ports. He believed, in common with everybody else, that the ½d. rate would effectually secure him against competition on the part of the Company; for it was not considered possible to lead coals at that price, and the proprietors of the railway themselves considered that such a rate would be utterly ruinous. The projectors never contemplated sending more than 10,000 tons a year to Stockton, and those only for shipment as ballast; they looked for their profits almost exclusively to the land sale. The result, however, was as surprising to them as it must have been to Mr. Lambton. The ½d. rate which was forced upon them, instead of being ruinous, proved the vital element in the success of the railway. In the course of a few years, the annual shipment of coal, led by the Stockton and Darlington Railway to Stockton and Middlesborough, was more than 500,000 tons; and it has since far exceeded this amount. Instead of being, as anticipated, a subordinate branch of traffic, it proved, in fact, the main traffic, while the land sale was merely subsidiary.
The anticipations of the company as to passenger traffic were in like manner more than realised. At first, passengers were not thought of; and it was only while the works were in progress that the starting of a passenger coach was seriously contemplated. The number of persons travelling between the two towns was very small; and it was not known whether these would risk their persons upon the iron road. It was determined, however, to make trial of a railway coach; and Mr. Stephenson was authorised to have one built at Newcastle, at the cost of the company. This was done accordingly; and the first railway passenger carriage was built after our engineer’s design. It was,
however, a very modest, and indeed a somewhat uncouth machine, more resembling the caravans still to be seen at country fairs containing the “Giant and the Dwarf” and other wonders of the world, than a passenger-coach of any extant form. A row of seats ran along each side of the interior, and a long deal table was fixed in the centre; the access being by means of a door at the back end, in the manner of an omnibus.
