Tarquin O’Flaherty continues his account of the birth of steam powered rail, in which some people accuse Stephenson of being a lunatic
By the beginning of 1825, George Stephenson had produced his completed Liverpool to Manchester survey, together with a comprehensive listing of all costs, which included engines and all rolling stock. The entire estimate came to 400,000 pounds. This was 100,000 pounds more than had been suggested in the uncompleted James survey. Despite this the committee not only accepted the figure, but almost immediately announced their intention to pursue a parliamentary bill.
On all sides, for and against, a blizzard of propaganda was launched. Locomotive demonstrations were organised at Killingworth to show both the strength, speed and reliability of the latest Stephenson engines. Not to be outdone, the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company loaded horse-drawn barges at Liverpool and made the round trip to Manchester, and back again, including unloading, in 24 hours. They had also, at last realizing the potential threat to their monopoly, reduced their fees by twenty five per cent.
For a respectable passage through parliament, the shareholders for this vast railway enterprise needed to be equally respectable. There were nearly 350 in all. Many of these were solid business people from Liverpool and comprised the biggest block of 164 shareholders. Amazingly, London, rather than Manchester had an almost comparable amount with 126. Manchester made up the numbers with 54. This very respectable level of investment would certainly ease the passage of the bill through parliament and certainly augered well for the future of railways in general.
In the beginning local councils didn’t want locomotives belching steam and smoke in the cities. That is why most of the major stations in England’s cities, like London’s Euston and Paddington stations terminate way outside the city centres.
‘…the vilest nuisance that ever the town had experienced…’ was said of the approaching horror at a Council meeting in Liverpool.
The Liverpool Mercury was concerned about ‘…the vomiting forth of long black smoke at places of rendezvous for the engines…’
Considering how polluted and murky the atmosphere already was in the cities with their ‘…dark, satanic mills…’ I hardly think a bit more would have made much difference!
The debate on this momentous bill began in parliament in March 1825. Naturally the opposition, using expert engineers, had been studying Stephenson’s figures and plans in minute detail for weeks. The canal and river lobby were extremely vociferous. They had the most to lose should the railway prove successful. There was also the powerful landed aristocracy, some of whom had their fortunes tied up in canals and waterways which already traversed their land. Allowing this threat to their investments to get up would be like cutting their own throats.
When the bill got to the committee stage, several hundred objections immediately demanded attention. These objections alone, the examination of which began on the 21st of March took weeks of the committee’s time, but were finally cleared by the 31st of May.
George Stephenson was called on the 25th of April and proved a total disaster. Advised by his own counsel not, when asked, to exaggerate speeds, carrying capacities etc for fear of frightening his conservative audience, Stephenson couldn’t help himself. Advised to say that speeds would not be in excess of 4 mph (when he knew the trains could travel at twenty) he suggested innocently that higher speeds than 4mph might be possible. The opposition’s counsel seized on this immediately, and promptly jacked up the ‘higher speeds’ to 12mph. Intelligent, rational opinion of the day truly believed that a train travelling at this breakneck speed would literally disintegrate, and kill all on board. Only madmen, people ‘fit for Bedlam’ believed this would not happen. This made Stephenson, in some people’s eyes, a lunatic. And this was only the beginning.