The construction of the railway presented numerous engineering challenges including the need to tunnel under the River Thames, but it was achieved using the ‘Greathead Shield’ which allowed workers to dig and line the tunnel simultaneously.
The robbers succeeded in stealing over £2.6 million in cash. Worth £50million today, the vast majority of the money was never recovered.
The first Orient Express train, known at the time as Express d’Orient, departed Paris.
The Granville–Paris Express train ran across the station platform, crashed through a 60cm wall, and fell 10 metres to the street below after it overran the buffer stop at the Gare Montparnasse terminus.
By the end of the competition Rocket was the only engine to complete the full course without suffering any damage, securing Stephenson the contract to manufacture locomotives for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway that opened the following year.
Mallard set the record of 125.88mph on a stretch of slightly downhill railway track at Stoke Band, south of the town of Grantham.
Built by George and Robert Stevenson in Newcastle, and transported to Whitstable by sea, Invicta was the first steam locomotive to haul passengers on a public railway line.
Not all the recommendations were implemented, but the subsequent Beeching Cuts resulted in the closure of 2,128 stations, thousands of miles of track, and the loss of up to 70,000 jobs.
Eight Irish rail-layers of the Central Pacific Railroad were supported by hundreds of Chinese laborers to lay a record 10 miles 56 feet of track.
28th June 2015
11th November 2022
11th November 2022
1st September 2018
