The Tubular bridge was built to carry the North Wales main line over the River Conwy. It was built to a design made by William Fairbairn. Before Robert Stephenson was made engineer, the bridge would have probably been built by Thomas Telford who would have built a suspension bridge, but suspension bridges are not robust enough for carrying trains, as Robert understood. In 1846 the building of the bridge started. Engineering experiments were conducted on a large scale by William Fairbairn and scale models were tested at Mill Wall works. A wrought iron box girder was invented. Also a cellular girder was refined so that it could hold 2.4 times the capacity. Steam powered hydraulic engines lifted the girders into place. The architect was Francis Thompson who designed the turrets and arrow slits. The iron work was done by Eastern and Amos and the contractor was a William Evans. The Tubular bridge was officially opened in 1849 having been completed in 1848. Reinforcements were added in 1899. Around a thousand other bridges used Robert Stephenson's structure for the tubular bridge including the Britannia bridge over the Menai Straits which burnt down in 1970. Above: The bridge on the right is Robert Stephenson' s tubular bridge.
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By Chris55 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons The Stockton and Darlington Railway was the first railway using steam locomotives to be built in this world. It was the beginning of Railways..
During the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century, coal from the mines in Country Durham was taken by horse and cart to the nearest river or harbour. Proposals were put forward to improve navigation on the River Tees but nothing happened. Then Edward Pease proposed a horse drawn tram road which was supported, especially by the local Quaker businessmen. Several surveys were done for the horse drawn tram road. Each time the survey was laid before parliament the land owners objected. So it failed. The route was changed again and finally in 1821 an Act was passed by parliament allowing the Stockton and Darlington railway to be built between the collieries inland at Witton Park to the River Tees at Stockton via Darlington. Unfortunately the Act said it was to be a toll railway drawn by horses. Steam locomotives hadn't been invented yet! Edward Pease was not happy with the route planned of the railway so he appointed George Stephenson to do a new survey of the route. George helped by his eighteen year old son Robert found a new route which was shorter and suggested they should use the brand new wrought iron edge rails made by John Birkinshaw for the route. George Stephenson was made chief engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1822. His twenty five mile route for the railway was approved of by parliament the following year. Also moveable steam locomotives and carrying of passengers were allowed. The locomotive factory in Newcastle upon Tyne, which was new. opened in the same year. Robert Stephenson was made managing director. Soon there were orders for two steam locomotives for the railway. The 'Robert Stephenson and Company' was in business. The company was going to supply steam locomotives to the word's railways up until the 1950's. The Railway was going to be built to Stephenson's gauge of four feet eight inches. An extra half inch was added to reduce friction where the line curved. This was the standard gauge for our railway today. Stationary steam engines operated the western part of the line. The twenty miles between Stockton Quay and Shildon were going to be run by steam locomotives. On the railway there were embankments fifty foot high and a wrought iron girder bridge over the River Gaunless. Also there was a graceful arched stone bridge over the River Skearne. The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on the 27th of September 1825. The date is just as important as when man first walked on the moon in the year 1969. On this special day thousands of people watched George Stephenson's steam locomotive, ( Locomotion ) pull its first passenger steam train on a railway that was public for the first time in the world. About five hundred passengers were carried in the only 'Passenger Coach Experiment' and twenty one converted coal wagons. 'Locomotion' was built at Stephenson's works in Newcastle. She was the first to have driving wheels connected by coupling rods. The iron wrought rails were connected with fish plates every fifteen feet. The rails were laid on stone block which could bear the weight of heavily loaded trains. Forty thousand people and a twenty one gun salute welcomed the first steam hauled passenger train of the world at Stockton Quay. The success of the line proved the viability of steam railways. Horse drawn coaches were still used right up until 1833 when steam hauled services was finally started. ( Locomotion ) retired and became a steam engine that was stationary in 1841 and preserved in 1857. In 1975 it was moved to Darlington Railway Center and Museum. Later on the Stockton and Darlington Railway expanded eastwards to Middlesbrough docks and carried on to transport iron ore from the hills of Cleveland. The railway was a major coal haulier. In 1860 after it had expanded west it was taken over by other railways in 1863. Two hundred miles were taken over by the North Eastern Railway. Today it is still open for business and passenger trains still run on what is now the Tees Valley line. The Stockton and Darlington Railway was a great success. This small beginning has led to the Great Railway Age and we haven't looked back. George Stephenson George Stephenson' s work in the past has helped to shape the railway network as we know it today.
George Stephenson was born in Wylam just outside Newcastle in 1781. When he was eight years old George ( being the second child ) went to work for the first time. He earned two pence a day for looking after a widow's cows. Then George found a job at the mine. When the coal came up out of the pit George, like most of the local boys had to remove the stones. Next at the age of fourteen years old he helped his father who was a fireman of the pumping engine at the coal mine. Unfortunately the mine closed and George and his father had to find fresh work. So George and his parents moved away to a different area where he found a job looking after pumping engine with a fellow called Bill Coe which pleased him. Soon he became so intrested in the engine they were looking after that on week ends he would take it apart, clean and oil the parts and have it working again by Monday. One day the colliery engineer told George's father" The lad's a born engineer." All because his engine was running smoothly. At the age of eighteen he went to night school for a penny a week and learnt how to write his name. Next he moved to another school to learn arithmetic. Soon he was reading out the news sheets to the other miners. The news sheets were about the war against Napoleon. George started taking on other jobs like mending shoes. While in this business he met a girl called Francis Henderson. George asked her to marry him and they married soon after. Their first born was Robert Stephenson who also is quite important in the history of British rail. Next they had a daughter who was called Fanny but she died within months of her birth. Then Francis Henderson died of cancer. So he married his second wife, Betty in 1820. As he got older it became clear that he was a competent, civil and mechanical engineer. One of his early inventions was a miners safety lamp which was widely used. Another of his inventions was his first steam engine Blucher which he built in 1820. He was made chief engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway which was opened in 1825 and it was the first public railway in the world using steam locomotives. He then went on to engineer several other railways including the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which was the world's first inter city railway which opened in 1830. He built the Grand Junction Railway and the Manchester and Leeds railway. Once while tunnelling in Derbyshire he came across rich seams of coal. He was tunnelling for the North Midland company. He also went into business with George Hudson and Joseph Sanders. Together they opened ironworks, coal mines and limestone quarries. Meanwhile there was a constant demand for locomotives from all over the world including America. The early rail roads of America got their first locomotives from George Stephenson's factory in Newcastle. George Stephenson spent his last years living in Tapton House where he ran a small farm. While he was there he experimented in breeding stock and tried to find out how to speed up fattening up chickens. In 1848 George Stephenson the Father of Railways passed away. George Stephenson was a kindly man with a great love of children and a strange knack of taming wild birds His virtues were perseverance and shrewdness and he had a gift of imagination. George Stephenson was a gifted man who's mind never stopped trying to work out how things worked As a result he made a great contribution to engineering in particular and we all benefit from his inventions. Works Cited 1. Unstead, R. J., People in History. London; Morrison and Gibb Limited, 1957. 2. Holland, Julian, History of Britain's Railways. Glasgow; Harper Collins publishers, 2015. |
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