The challenges of Building Railways

[Heartland]

Whilst HS 2 is presently a major project in this region, there is also the expansion of the West Midlands Metro
When the first line of the Metro was planned, there were those that opposed the scheme as it passed through Hodge Hill. The first line finally came to be built along the railway line from Snow Hill and since then has involved increased infrastructure using roads.

In the past Engineers faced challenges to re-construct New Street Station (as reopened in 1967) as part of the West Coast Electrification program that eventually united London Euston with Glasgow

Before that railway change involved improvements and widening programs, but the most important changes to this area came with the making of the first railways. Robert Stephenson engineer for the London and Birmingham Railway faced challenges to build that line and deserves credit for getting the line completed in five years despite the geological problems encountered at Kilsby Tunnel. Stephenson also faced problems through the collapse of the Dee Bridge on the Chester & Holyhead Railway but received praise for the tubular bridges at Conway and over the Menai Straight. The line from Chester to Holyhead took 6 years to complete.

Building iron bridges had its challenges, the GWR (Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Dudley) had a bridge collapse at Winson Green which led the chief engineer I K Brunel to strengthen the remainder such as the pair that crossed Great Charles Street in Birmingham.

Navvy disputes also played a part in disrupting construction schedules and delaying construction. The disputes between there Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway
and the Birmingham Wolverhampton & Stour Valley Railway is a case in point.

 

[Lloyd]

If you look at the difference in time and relative cost of building the original railways compared to HS2 (for instance), you must also look at the methods involved. Labour was cheap, there was no dole so those needing money to live had to work for pittance pay. there were skilled engineers who designed the construction to be as simple as possible, so unschooled labourers could complete it. Nowadays, almost every worker has to have a degree in his particular field to be able to operate the machinery he uses. Compare the cost of a tunnel boring machine with a few thousand picks, shovels and wheelbarrows, take away minimum wages and health & safety regulations and you can see how it was done. As workers died, they were soon replaced by others desperate for pennies for their bread and beer. I wouldn't want to turn back the clock that far, but I know I have to accept that if I want progress, I have to pay for it.

 

[Heartland]

Yes education and training is part of the process these days, but this has been going on for some time now. In the days of the navvies there were those that came from, the ag lab community and some worked their way up to foremen roles. At the Commonwealth Games last year the commentary suggested a dependence on Irish workers as contractors, although there is little to support that this was the case in the Midlands, at first. What information that is available on the census of 1841 supports this belief, but then some people chose not to be recorded on the census.Yet as the network developed there were those who went from contract to contract depending on the work and these people were a mixture of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh workers.