Derby Works - Early Days

Early Days

Around 1840, the North Midland Railway, the Midland Counties Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Railway set up workshops to the rear of Derby station. Although the Midland Counties had an engine house at Nottingham, the main facilities for all three lines appear to have been, initially at least, those at Derby. That for the Birmingham and Derby was next to its line, near London Road. It was about 140 feet (43 m) long and 43 feet (13 m) wide, with three lines and three wide archways at its entrance, supporting a water tank. In one corner was a smithy. The Midland Counties' shed was rectangular and about 800 feet (240 m) long to the north of the site. Adjacent to it were water and coke facilities, and locomotive repair workshops. The North Midland's became a full repair facility, with a smithy, lathes and other machine tools. These were associated with what is believed to be the first Roundhouse, designed by Francis Thompson. On each side of it, in a vee, were workshops for locomotive and rolling stock repair.

In 1841, problems were becoming apparent with the heat of the exhaust gases through the fireboxes of the locomotives, and the North Midland works assisted George Stephenson in the design of his "Long Boiler locomotive" In the same year, the Midland Counties locomotive "Bee" (formerly "Ariel") was fitted with 'Samuel Hills Smoke Consuming Apparatus' in an attempt to conform to the Government's insistence that they should "consume their own smoke." This experimentation was carried on with the use of a brick arch in the firebox to use the cheaper coal instead of coke, but it was initially unsuccessful.