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First Railways In The Midlands

Heartland

Heartland

master brummie
The first railways in this region were generally canal tram roads that linked coal mines, ironstone mines, furnaces and limestone mines with the Birmingham Canal Navigations. Track was either edge rail or plate rail, and horse haulage the preferred mode of traction.

The Kingswinsford, or Shut End Railway, was the first to use a locomotive (Agenoria) and this worked along a level section of track placed between two inclines. This railway ran to the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal.

Often there was little infrastructure involved and with their passing little trace remained. This was particularly true with many coal pit tramways whose routes changed as one pit closed and another opened.
 
By chance I was at the National Rail museum on thursday last, and took this photo of the Agenoria. It was dificult to get a good shot without other items iintruding.
DSCN1682 agenoria.jpg
 
I have always wondered if the chimney was that tall at first. There may have been a, engineering reason, such as a draught for the boiler, yet contemporary steam engines have shorter chimneys. The tall chimney may have been the result of it being used as a stationary boiler after it was retired from regular use. That happened when the two inclines were by-passed by other tracks and locomotives worked through to the canal basin.
 
In addition to the Shut End Railway. another local line was the Statford & Moreton Railway, engineered by William James which was like the Shut End line, composed of iron rails laid on stone blocks. That railway started at Bancroft Basin in Stratford upon Avon and went as far as Moreton in the Marsh. Later there was a branch to Shipston. Unlike the Shut End Railway, the railway to Moreton was horse drawn.

William James had plans for other railway schemes and was involved, before his bankruptcy, with the survey of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Being involved with different business interests James is said to have been involved with too many at the same time. His railway engineering projects had the potential to develop into a network of lines, but only the line to Moreton was built.
 
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