The Midland Railway: Its Rise and Progress
A Narrative of Modern Enterprise

This lively historical account, first published in 1876, portrays the early struggles and development of Britain's first large-scale railway amalgamation.

Frederick Smeeton Williams (Edited by)

9781108050364, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 April 2012

730 pages, 120 b/w illus. 7 maps
21.6 x 14 x 4.1 cm, 0.91 kg

Frederick Smeeton Williams (1829–86) was a Congregational minister and pioneering railway historian. His first major transport work, Our Iron Roads (1852), enjoyed significant popularity, reaching its seventh edition by 1888. This, his second such effort, first published in 1876, is a lively history of the incorporation and development of one of Britain's first major railway companies following the earliest large-scale railway amalgamation of the Victorian age. Including 123 illustrations and 7 maps, this book is especially valuable for its contemporary description of the building of the Settle and Carlisle line, a notoriously difficult and expensive route to construct, with costs reaching £3.8 million by the time of its opening in 1875. Williams's spirited style lends colour to his portrayal of the Midland Railway's beginnings, its increasing competitiveness and the everyday concern of railway operations, making this an engaging resource for historians of transport, business and engineering.

Preface
1. The Midland Counties railway
2. The North Midland railway
3. The Birmingham and Derby railway
4. The Birmingham and Bristol railways
5. Leicester to Swannington, Peterborough and Bedford
6. Temporary rise, culmination, and decline of prosperity
7. Extensions to Manchester and London
8. New lines to Sheffield, Bath and Liverpool
9. Settle and Carlisle railway projected
10. Amalgamation with Glasgow and South Westerm proposed
11. Conflict with Great Northern company
12. Lines to Knottingley, Wigan, and Swansea
13. Lines from London to Manchester described
14. Lines from Trent to Barrow-in-Furness described
15. Settle and Carlisle line described
16. Line from Derby to Bath and Bristol described
17. Notts, Leicestershire and western lines described
18. Shareholders, directors, and executive establishments, etc.
Appendix
Index
List of subscribers.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]