Railway history: 200 years of the steam locomotive

Steam locomotive, 1917 Steam locomotives Undulating railway Railplane model Bennie and Railplane model
Photographs copyright Glasgow City Council (Museums), University of Salford Information Services Division,
Glasgow University Archive Services, and University of Dundee Archive Services. These are links to larger images.

Nostalgia for the Age of Steam is part of our national character: the sight and sound of a steam locomotive has the power to stir strong feelings. Poems such as Edward Thomas's Adlestrop and W. H. Auden's Night Mail join with books such as The Railway Children and films like Brief Encounter to reflect and reinforce these emotions.

June 2004 saw the launch of Railfest 2004, a wide variety of events commemorating the 200th anniversary of the first steam locomotive to run on rails, at Pen Y Darren Ironworks near Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, with a locomotive constructed by the Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick (1771-1833). The world's first regular railway passenger service also began in Wales, in 1807. Railfest 2004 was a celebration of train travel and railway heritage across the UK.

The collections described in the Archives Hub include papers of inventors and engineers, records of locomotive manufacturers, railway companies and railway workers' unions, and papers of writers who had a special enthusiasm for railways and steam engines. And along with the steam train, we even take a ride on the Undulating Railway and the Railplane as well.

We also include links to websites of archives and museums relating to railways and train travel, and to heritage railways, and some suggested reading.

Collection descriptions

Inventors, railway engineers, and locomotive manufacturers

James Watt (1736-1819): collection relating to the inventor, engineer, and steam engine manufacturer
Proposed London to Porth Dinllaen Railway: report by civil engineer Charles B. Vignoles (1793-1875)
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859): chief engineer of the Great Western Railway
Richard Badnall (died 1842): co-inventor of the 'undulating railway'

Railway companies

Mumbles Railway: the first regular rail passenger service in the world, 1807
Early railways in Britain: includes photographs of steam locomotives
Railway Acts (1826-1923): legislation relating to railway companies, in particular the Liverpool & Manchester Railway
Shiell and Small, Solicitors (1832-1990): includes records of Scottish railway companies

Railway workers' unions

Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales: founded in 1872
Amalgamated Society of Vehicle Builders, Wheelwrights Carpenters and Mechanics: founded in 1873
Aslef (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen): formed in 1880
General Railway Workers' Union: founded in 1890; amalgamated with others to form the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) in 1913
Transport Salaried Staffs' Association: formed as the National Association of General Railway Clerks in 1897
National Union of Railwaymen (NUR): formed in 1913 as the amalgamation of several unions; itself amalgamated with others to form the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) in 1990

Railway-mad writers

Thomas Sopwith (1803-1879): mining engineer who kept diaries of his travel by rail
Edward Thomas (1878-1917): poet and author of Adlestrop, 1900, inspired by a railway journey and the railway station in Gloucestershire.
W.H. Auden (1907-1973): author of Night Mail, a poem as commentary for the 1936 documentary film about the London Midland and Scottish Railway's mail train.
Canon B.S.T. Simpson (born 1912): correspondence on railways with Reverend W Awdry (1911-1997), creator of the Thomas the Tank Engine stories for children about railway engines.