Midland Railway
The
Midland Railway (MR) was a
railway company in the
United Kingdom, which existed from
1844 to
1922.
Eventually the Midland owned a large network of railway lines centred on the
East Midlands, and its head office was in
Derby. Initially, the MR's main line, now known as the
Midland Main Line, connected the East Midlands to
London and to
Leeds. The company also owned the main lines connecting the East Midlands to
Birmingham and
Bristol, and another to
Manchester. In the end, they were the only railway of the time to own or share lines in
England,
Scotland,
Wales and
Ireland.
It was formed in
1844 by the merger of the
Midland Counties Railway, the
North Midland Railway, and the
Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway.
Alomst immediately, it took over the
Leicester and Swannington Railway and the
Sheffield and Rotherham Railway in
1845, but it was not until
1870 that a through route via
Sheffield to the north was opened, from
Chesterfield. It also absorbed the
Mansfield and Pinxton Railway in
1847 building a connection of the latter between
Chesterfield and
Trent Junction at
Long Eaton along the
Erewash Valley, giving access to the
Nottinghamshire coalfields.
In
1846 it took over the
Birmingham and Bristol Railway in the face of the
GWR's plans to extend to
Birmingham, after a legendary chance meeting on a train, of the Midland's
James Ellis and two Birmingham & Gloucester directors. Previously, in
1845 the so-called "Battle of the Gauges" had resulted in a competition between the GWR's
Ixion and two narrow gauge locomotives, Stephenson's 'Engine A', and the ex-North Midland Railway 'No.54 Stephenson.' The latter, an earlier Stephenson "long boiler", ran off the line after 22 miles. In
1854, the line was converted to standard gauge, initially as mixed gauge track with three rails so that both broad and standard gauge trains could run on it.
Initially the Midland ran into London using the
London and North Western line from
Rugby to
Euston . Although the bill for running the line from
Hitchin into
Kings Cross, jointly with the
Great Northern Railway, was passed in
1847 it was not until
1857 that the Midland could run its own trains into the Capital. By
1867 this was severely congested and the Midland built its own line into
St. Pancras.
The
Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway had been built in
1849 between
Ambergate Junction and
Rowsley a few miles north of
Matlock . The Midland extended the line from Rowsley to
New Mills South in
1867, joining the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway into Manchester. In
1880 it opened its own line into
Manchester Central station.
In the
1870s a dispute with the
London and North Western Railway over access rights to the LNWR line to Scotland caused the MR to construct the
Settle and Carlisle (S&C) line, the highest main line in England, in order to secure the company's access to Scotland; ironically the dispute with the LNWR was settled before the S&C was built, but
Parliament refused to allow the MR to withdraw from the project, which was completed in
1876.
The Midland also acquired a number of other lines, including the
Belfast and Northern Counties Railway in
1903 and the
London, Tilbury and Southend Railway in
1912. In common with other railways, they shared running rights on some lines, but they also developed lines in partnership with other railways, and were involved in more such 'Joint' lines than any other railway. In partnership with the Great Northern Railway it owned the
Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway to provide connections from the Midlands to East Anglia; the M&GN was the UK's biggest joint railway system. The MR also provided motive power for the
Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway.
The Midland pioneered the use of
gas lighting for
trains in Britain, put third-class carriages on all its trains in
1872, and abolished second class in
1875, giving third class passengers the level of comfort formerly afforded to second class passengers (elsewhere some third class passengers travelled in open wagons). This was an entirely pragmatic move - the second class seats were not well patronised - but controverial. Interestingly, there had been considerable resentment, on the part of the third class passengers, at the 'toffs' using it, at least for short journeys. Others saw it as promoting the working class above their social station. The railway also introduced the first British
Pullman supplementary-fare cars. The non-contiguous numbering of classes, with 1st and 3rd class only, continued until
1956, when third class was renamed second.
The company was
grouped into the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) on
January 1,
1923 and was the most influential of the pre-grouping companies that formed the LMS.
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locomotives of the Midland Railway.
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Midland Railway Society
