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BRITAIN ON TRACK TO MARK 200 YEARS OF STEAM TRAINS
An invention that changed the world is 200 years old in
2004. Britain is celebrating the bicentenary of the
steam railway locomotive with a year-long events
programme, but it is not an engineering giant such as
James Watt or George Stephenson being fêted.
The man who first put steam engines on rails was a tall,
strong Cornishman described by his schoolmaster as
“obstinate and inattentive”. Richard Trevithick
(1771-1833), who learnt his craft in Cornish tin mines,
built his “Penydarren tram road engine” for a line in
South Wales whose primitive wagons were pulled, slowly
and laboriously, by horses.
On February 21, 1804, Trevithick’s pioneering engine
hauled 10 tons of iron and 70 men nearly ten miles from
Penydarren, at a speed of five miles-per-hour, winning
the railway’s owner a 500 guinea bet into the bargain.
He was 20 years ahead of his time – Stephenson’s
“Rocket” was not even on the drawing board but
Trevithick’s engines were seen as little more than a
novelty. He went on to engineer at mines in South
America before dying penniless aged 62. But his idea was
developed by others and, by 1845, a spider’s web of
2,440 miles of railway were open and 30 million
passengers were being carried in Britain alone.
With the launch in January of a new £2 coin by the Royal
Mint – bearing both his name and his ingenious
invention, a coin approved by Queen Elizabeth II –
Trevithick has at last received the public recognition
he deserves.
A full-size replica of his Penydarren locomotive will be
one of the highlights of this year’s celebrations and
should be fully restored in time to mark the anniversary
where it all began, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.
It will also be a star guest, along with other important
engines from the past and present, at a major Railfest
at the National Railway Museum in York in the summer
(May 29 – June 6).
York’s rail museum is one of the best of its kind and
its Railfest promises something for all ages: a
collection of historic locos from the “Rocket” to the
train star of the “Harry Potter” films, along with a
vintage funfair, theatre performances, train rides and a
railway bazaar. The event is billed by its organisers as
“once in a lifetime” – there will certainly be a
carnival atmosphere – and all in the heart of one of the
country’s most historic cities.
Perhaps because it was the birthplace, Britain can boast
more railway attractions per square mile than any other
country. The figures are impressive: more than 100
heritage railways and 60 steam museum centres are home
to 700 operational engines, steamed-up by an army of
23,000 enthusiastic volunteers and offering everyone the
chance to savour a bygone age by riding on a lovingly
preserved train. The surroundings – stations,
signal-boxes and wagons – are equally well preserved and
much in demand by TV companies filming period dramas.
(Website:
www.ukhrail.uel.ac.uk.)
Wales deserves a special mention for its Great Little
Trains. Though small in stature, these narrow-gauge
lines are real working railways, originally built to
haul slate and other minerals out of the mountains, but
now a wonderful way for visitors to admire the scenery,
which is breathtaking. There are eight lines to choose
from and one, the Ffestiniog Railway, is the oldest of
its kind in the world.
Then there are the railway museums that are historic in
their own right. “Steam” at Swindon is built into the
former workshops of the Great Western Railway (GWR)
which has near-legendary status among rail fans; the GWR
Railway Centre at Didcot re-creates its golden age in an
old steam depot where polished engines are tended
lovingly. Part of Manchester’s Museum of Science and
Industry is situated in the world’s oldest passenger
station; and the ‘Thinktank’ museum in Birmingham
contains the world’s oldest active steam engine,
designed by James Watt in 1778.
But it is North East England that is known as the
birthplace of railways for here, around Newcastle, the
world’s first tramways were laid and, later, the world’s
first public railway between Stockton and Darlington
steamed into life. At Shildon in County Durham, a £10
million permanent Railway Village is taking shape, to
open in the autumn, the first out-station of the
National Railway Museum.
At nearby Beamish, the open-air museum of North Country
Life – where the past is brought magically to life –
there’s an opportunity to see one of the earliest
railways re-created. Feel the wind – and steam – in your
hair as you travel in open carriages behind a working
replica of a pioneering engine such as Stephenson’s
Locomotion No.1, built in 1825.
If you can, go south-westwards to Cornwall where the
story of the great engineer Trevithick began. In his
home town of Camborne is a bronze statue of him holding
a model of one of his engines; while not far away the
little thatched cottage where he lived, at Penponds, is
open to the public. It is hard to imagine that
scribblings in this humble home were to lead to the
‘high-pressure steam engine’ and the world would never
be quite the same again.
by Bob Barton
Useful Information
Tour the UK by
train in style with Orient-Express
Accommodation in
converted railway stations:
The Old Railway
Station, Petworth, West Sussex
- hotel/B&B
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