THE FIRST RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20668, 13 September 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FIRST RAILWAY.

A CENTENARY OF STEAM.

BY PANDARUS

Just ono hundred years ago an extraordinary cavalcade set out from Liverpool with tho Duke of Wellington at its head. This was no mere military excursion or triumphal march of tho hero of Waterloo. It was simply the procession of eight trains, arranged by a group of the notorious industrial visionaries of the day, to opon tho world's first successful railway, tho Liverpool and Manchester. When that splendid cavalcade had puffed its way successfully between the two rising cities of northern England a victory had been won more incalculable in its effects than any campaign triumph of Wellington's, and certainly more far-reach-ing in its effects than Waterloo. The railway era had begun, and with it the most drastic stage of tho Industrial Revolution.

There had been, of course adventures in railway construction before, notably Stephenson's Stockton-Darlington line, and certain fanciful experiments in other English centres. These were skittish and sensational enough to appeal as a circus to the delighted throng—not to impress the more balanced minds with the possibilities of steam locomotion. It was tho Liverpool and Manchester which proved the value of railway transport to possible investors, and its finest advertisement was the grand opening attended by the Iron Duke. This remarkable event occurred on September 15, 1830.

The Rocket's Race. Before that date a series of trials, lasting nine days, had taken place over a stretch of tho line not far from Liverpool, to discover tho typo of locomotive, which should be a " decided improvement on those now in use." The directors offered a prize of £SOO, and the several competitors included Stephenson's famous Rocket, the Novelty, the Sanspareil and tho Cyclopede. Tho last was a stupendous affair, being worked by horses on a moving platform, and it created a profound effect upon the spectators when it achieved five miles an hour, while the horses only moved at one and a-quarter. As for the Sanspareil > she was also somewhat sluggish, and moreover so impulsive that her driver grew timid and withdrew her.

But the Rocket and tho Novelty were, omens of what was to come in tho new generation of steam transport. On the first day the Rocket drew a load of twelve and a-half tons at something like eighteen miles an hour, while the Novelty sped along at twenty-eight miles an hour, though not so encumbered. According to an ecstatic contemporary, the latter *' presented one of the most sublime spectacles of mechanical ingenuity and human daring tho world ever beheld. It seemed to bo flying, as it were, on the wings of the wind." But the next day tho Novelty entered upon a decline. She did twenty miles an hour and then her bellows burst. (No ono ever seems to have doubted the sex of the locomotive even at the beginning.)

On the third day it was required that the ongines should do seventy miles, practically continuously, afc not less than ton miles an hour. The Rocket not only performed this wonder faithfully, but raced along in places at twenty-nine miles an hour. In her determination to regain the lead the Novelty burst her feed pipe, and while that was beiDg fixed the Rocket did a couple of scampers at thirty miles an hour without tender. Whereupon the Novelty made her last big bid for supremacy, and actually touched thirty miles an hour, while drawing a carriage of forty-five astonished people. Unluckily, the Novelty was not long for this world, and when one day shs tried something beyond her powers, various things burst, and she ignominiously withdrew. A Clouded Triumph.

So George Stephenson and his Rocket survived to be the idols of the great day, one hundred years ago, when the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened. Tho eight processional trains set out on the morning of September 15, with great eclat, a van containing a brass band at the head, followed by a gorgeous gilded carriage, richly draped, to convey Wellington and tho distinguished guests. All went well for tho first half of tho sixtymile trip to Manchester, and then the disaster occurred which cast a gloom over the whole proceedings. At a stopping-placj, where tho engines adjourned to take in water, that liberalminded statesman and able lieutenant of Canning, William Huskisson, presented himself at the Duke's carriage and was chatting with Wellington when along came the Rocket and knocked him down. There was terrible flurry and excitemont, out of which Stephenson emerged to have tho fatally-wounded body of Huskisson carried to his engine, on which he was rushed to find medical aid. It was too late, and poor Huskisson was fated to die that evening. One of tho staunchost supporters of tho railway during tho fight against it in Parliament, ho was tho first victim of tho locomotive on the day of its triumph. Wellington never forgot this tragedy and could not bo induced to ro-euter a train until the Queen required his attendance upon her on a railway journey in 1843. At Waterloo, when Lord Uxbridge, hit by a cannon ball, cried, " By gad, sir, my log's shot off!" tho Iron Duke had nonchalantly replied, " By gad, sir, so it is!" But here, in civilian life, and faced with this new monster, ho felt differently. Later events that same day increased the impression. More Misadventures. Tho delay caused by this accident caused rumours of a fearful catastrophe to spread in Manchester, and when the trains arrived there the city mob were in ugly mood. They surrounded the Duke's carriage and pelted it with stones, with tho result that tho authorities arranged for the grandees to return to Liverpool as fast as George's speediest cngino could rush them. This was dono at tho expense of upsetting the running of tho lines, and confusion reigned. Then, some, of tho engines found the climb up a steep incline too much for them, and the male passengors had to get out and walk. Finally, there wcro furious demonstrations by the people all along the line, against this new puffing demon, and at ono placo tho Comet ran into a wheelbarrow maliciously placed on the rails.

But there was no stopping the progress of the railway. That eventful day established tho triumph of steam, and was the prelude of unneard-of scrambles for railway stock all over the country within the next decade, and, incidentally, the " greatest transformation in the habits of mankind that has ever come about, othorwise than by a process of slow and gradual evolution."