North Midland Railway - Construction

Construction

He decided the line would follow the river valleys from Derby to Leeds, with minimal gradients and large radii curves. It therefore bypassed Sheffield, but met the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway at Masborough.

Stephenson's method of working was to follow river valleys as far as possible, with branches into major towns along the way. The Sheffield people, in lobbying for the line to enter their city, engaged Joseph Locke, who believed lines should pass through towns, proceeding along hills, if necessary, with bridges, embankments and cuttings. These were the two opposing schools of thought at the time and, in this case, Stephenson had his way.

An additional advantage was that his customers would, in most cases, be transporting their goods downhill from the mines and quarries to the railhead. It should be said, however, that the North Midland was among the first of the new breed of railway conceived as a means of improved passenger travel between the great cities, particularly London, rather than, like the Midland Counties and earlier lines, an adjunct to coal mines and quarries. Indeed the rise in the coal trade, which was to become so important to the railways, had barely begun and, even a few years later, directors of the Midland Railway were questioning whether the revenue made it a worthwhile market to pursue.

In later years the Midland Railway built a diversion through Dronfield and Sheffield, which became known to railwaymen as the "New Road", as opposed to the "Old Road". It followed a route which, in 1840, would have been uneconomic to build and difficult to work.

Nevertheless, the terrain was more difficult than for the other two railways to Derby, requiring 200 bridges and seven tunnels, and an aqueduct for the railway to pass underneath the Cromford Canal. The major bridges were at Oakenshaw, over the Barnsley Canal, and the Calder and Chevet Viaducts. In addition there were massive stone retaining walls for the cutting through Belper and the embankment north of Ambergate. Although the general radius of curves was a mile, gradients were as steep as 1 in 264 and practically the whole length was embanked or in cuttings, when not proceeding through a tunnel.. The number of men employed was 8600, with eighteen pumping engines providing drainage. It was tough work and a number of lives were lost, particularly in the boring of the Clay Cross Tunnel. It must be said, however, that some of them were due to carelessness with blasting powder.

The track was 4 foot 8½ inch gauge either single or double parallel (see Rail track), the former 56 pounds per yard (28 kg/m), the latter 65 lb/yd (32 kg/m). A mixture of stone blocks and timber sleepers were used.

Not all the stations shown above were open at the beginning. The original intermediate stations were Belper, Amber Gate, Wingfield, Chesterfield, Eckington, Beighton, Masborough, Swinton, Darfield, Barnsley, Oakenshaw, Normanton and Woodlesford. All were designed by Francis Thompson. Although praising their design, Whishaw was somewhat critical, we cannot but deplore the growing evil of expending large sums of money on railway appendages. Instead of cottage buildings, which, for the traffic of most of the intermediate stopping places on this line, would have been amply sufficient, we find the railway literally ornamented with so many beautiful villas, any one of which would grace the sloping lawn of some domain by nature highly favoured..

Trains in those days, of course, had no toilets, so passengers had to use facilities at the stations while the train paused. On the North Midland at Wingfield and elsewhere, they were built under the engine house, with its water column, by which they could be flushed. Whishaw commented that it was a much better arrangement than in common use on other main lines. However, he added The doorways . . .. are in so exposed a situation as naturally to shock the female portion of travellers, who, while the trains are stopping, cannot fail to observe the constant bustle about these buildings.