199th Anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway

[Rana Temporia]

A number of narrow gauge railways used water to haul wagons up inclines. There were also steam hauled inclines on the Bolton and Leigh railway at Daubhill and Chequerbent. Both were replaced by diversions to allow trains to run directly through to Leigh and then on to the Liverpool and Manchester. 

For Anyone in Lancashire there is an incline above Calf Hey reservoir near Helmshore with the pad of the steam engine still in place. The loaded stone wagons were wound down to a railway which took the stone to Haslingden station and on across the country. Trafalgar Square is laid in Haslingden flag stones. More locally they were used instead of slates on buildings as they have very fine and level bedding planes from when they were laid down and are easily split. Some of the old sleepers are still in situ in the quarries on the hill there. 

[threelink]

Some distance up the Cromford and High Peak from Middleton Top lies the site of a winding house that was partially demolished and buried during a regrading of the line. The winding house is long gone but the boiler house escaped total demolition. Protruding from the side of an embankment is a waggon boiler, still in situ. 

 

[What About The Bee]

I thought to look at the Ordnance Survey maps of the area.  Fortunately, we have a 25 inch to the mile map which includes the old engine house.  Moreover, the survey date is 1856, well before closure.

At this scale, individual rail can be seen.  Both the left and right hand rails of a track are visible.

Here is a link to the relevant map.  Zoom in to the upper left hand corner to see the infrastructure.

https://maps.nls.uk/view/120937998

What struck me was that there were a large number of tracks and in particular, there are sidings on either side of the engine house.

Using the scale on the map, the siding on the right is ~300 feet long.  

Now it occurs to me that parked chaldrons would be situated on near level or actually level track.  They would not be on an incline.  

So there must be a near level pad around the engine house.  

In a modern satellite view, we have this

Superimposing the images by aligning the reservoir, we have this

The 300 foot siding ends around here

About to that clump of trees

@Rallymatt, should you get up there, this is on the unpaved side of the engine house.  Street view does not provide views in unpaved areas and the fleeting glimpse does not give enough information to say if it is near level.

Bee

[Rallymatt]

Straight away looking at the 1856 map you can tell the track is close to level around the winding gear, all the spot heights are within a couple of feet of each other right next to the track bed. 
Useful reference pictures @What About The Bee👍 

I was thinking, the illustration that shows the run away wagons and the Pearces’ in. Is there a date on what that was done? It looks more like an illustration from a history book than what would appear even in a news paper of the time, although many got their news from illustrations because they couldn’t read so hence the artistic licence to get the story across. 

[ukpetey]

On 27/09/2024 at 02:10, What About The Bee said:

Because, clearly, ½ foot = 5 inches.  Ah, the joys of decimalization. 🤣

Bee

 

I live in New Shildon, I could pop in and measure it for you! 

[What About The Bee]

53 minutes ago, ukpetey said:

I could pop in and measure it for you! 

Yes please, sounds good.  Please provide your answer in Sumerian Cubits 🙂

Bee

[What About The Bee]

4 hours ago, Rallymatt said:

the illustration that shows the run away wagons

I am extremely leary of that illustration.  I tried to reverse search the image, and nothing returns. Just links back to the Brusselton page. The image has all the trappings of a children's illustration.

Artistic license

The incline is drawn as if it abuts the winding engine.  I recognize that the artist needed to show the engine house and the run away wagons in the same frame.  Still, the image is wildly inaccurate.  Adults might notice this, but children never will.

The individual in the foreground is running towards the loose chaldrons.  For those who have never been around large industrial accidents, that never, ever happens.  Only a fool attempts to stop tons of out of control kit.  You get out of the way and let it wreck.  Heroic portrayal for the children?  Yes.  Realistic?  The brakeman jumping off the chaldron in the background is more like it.  Train crews do that to this day.  

Individuals are shown riding in a chaldron.  Other than on Opening Day, individuals are noted riding in horse drawn coaches on the S&DR.  Even Experiment went horse drawn after Opening Day. There is no record of a run away chaldron consist on Opening Day.  The individuals in the chaldron do make for drama, so as to play up a story.

I cannot find mention in any newspaper of any incident of any kind about the Brusselton Incline.  I carefully note that this doesn't mean wrecks didn't happen.  Rather, it means that what ever run away did happen, likely did not involve loss of life.  Loss of life on early railways often did get mention in the press.  Careening wildly down a hill in a chaldron is very likely to result in injury or death.  Yet, no mention??

So while it has all the trappings of the heroic individual who saved the frightened passengers on an out of control consist;  caution is advised.  The image doesn't make logical sense.

I cannot trace the image.  

Bee

Edited Tuesday at 21:16 by What About The Bee
Phrase order inverted

[Rallymatt]

It was an actual incident and was recorded in the press at the time, there were deaths. Search out the later article in the Northern Echo (a long established paper of the area) from its 2014 piece on the line, it’s mentioned. To me it looks like a grammar school history book illustration from early 1900’s. 
I am surprised the issue of holding wagons is testing the Brussleton Incline Group, I presume they have looked at the maps and visited the site? Worth remembering that a great deal of factual information is also held at National Railway Museum archives in York. There is a Chaldron that was retired in 1980’s at Shildon, although I think that one was in service between Murton and Seaham on the coast, where the first NCB electrics ran. 
Running in line with an impending doom was obviously picked by Hollywood… no one ever thinks to step aside… 🤣

Edited Tuesday at 22:23 by Rallymatt
Extra pointless comment 😁

[What About The Bee]

From the "Northern Echo"  2014

The most famous rope breakage came in 1832, involving a wagon containing the Pease brothers, Joseph and Henry (Joseph is on the statue in Darlington's High Row and Henry founded Saltburn). Timothy Hackworth was also in it, as was William Kitching, the founder of the Whessoe foundry.

When the rope snapped, three of them managed to scramble clear.

"The unlucky man who did not jump was William Kitching, a man of Ortonian dimensions, weighing some 18 or 19 stones who was by no means so spry in the legs as his younger companions," said The Northern Echo in 1875. "Perceiving his danger, Mr Kitching clutched hold of the long brake and laid his whole weight across it."

A gang of youths, led by John Summerson, jumped aboard and helped.

"Thanks to their united exertions, the wagons were only going at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour when they reached the bottom of the incline, and in a few minutes they were brought sharply up by running into some other waggons. None of them happened any injury, but Mr Kitching, purple in the face and streaming with perspiration, received a shaking for which he was entirely unprepared."

Mr Pease gave young Summerson a shilling for his efforts.

÷÷÷

Cannot find the earlier reference.  Likely not searching for it properly.  A Kitching was on the Board of Directors, as was a Pease.  Plenty of notices of board meetings.  Not so much in the way of an accident.

 

[LTSR_NSE]

2 hours ago, What About The Bee said:

Yes please, sounds good.  Please provide your answer in Sumerian Cubits 🙂

Bee

Is The Doctor required to procure an appropriate individual to conduct such measurements?  Or would an arbitrarily marked stick of arbitrary length suffice? 😉

[Rallymatt]

@What About The Bee That’s the one.
It ‘appears’ that the illustration probably dates from an 1875 article in The Northern Echo recounting the incident of 1832. So the drawing was done somewhat comically 43 years after the event. 
The Northern Echo is very well respected regional newspaper covering the North East, formed in 1870 (38 years after the ‘accident’) and was financed by the Pease Family who were of course instrumental in establishing the S&DR. These facts start to indicate more about why an article should emerge on a long ago event. Celebrating 5 years of the Northern Echo and featuring its financial backers? It’s worth mentioning that the Pease family were not only very influential but the archetypal philanthropists. 

 

[What About The Bee]

A positive note about the Northern Echo image.

We have an excellent view of the engine house and its details.  While I am always concerned about non-period images, the drawing of the building itself is a period drawing.  That is, the engine house was still standing in 1875 and therefore, the details drawn are not imaginary.  The still standing part of the old engine house could be matched up to the drawing, undoubtedly so.

The iron bearing, that giant X, is fully anchored into the wall.  On the other side of the wheels, the corresponding wall thickness is fairly stout.  Hauling tons of chaldrons of coal up a slope would require that.

The chimney for the stationary engine is filled with artful embellishments.  Industrial chimneys are fairly stark, being built for purpose, not for style.  

Bee

 

[threelink]

Hi Bee. In many areas chimneys were a status symbol and could be ridiculously ornate, not merely functional. 

[threelink]

I have yet to read the Northern Echo article but what, please, does 'Ortonian' mean? I'm still on holiday, with no access to a dictionary or thesaurus and Google does not recognise the word (could be the hotels clonky wi fi). Help... 

[What About The Bee]

Hi Three Link

I tried looking that up too.  It only traces back to a modern British playwright named Orton.  

From context, I assume it means portly.  19 stone is 266 lbs or 120 kg.  That's a fairly round individual.

Arthur Orton (20 March 1834 – 1 April 1898) was an English man who has generally been identified by legal historians and commentators as the "Tichborne Claimant", who in two celebrated court cases both fascinated and shocked Victorian society in the 1860s and 1870s.

I'm going to guess they mean him.  His picture may be seen here

https://classic-literature.co.uk/bram-stoker-the-tichborne-claimant-arthur-orton/

Bee

[threelink]

Thanks Bee. Likening the man to fraudster was a bit risky, I would have thought, but I'm sure you are right 

[Rallymatt]

On chimneys, many houses had ‘fake’ ones to show off to the neighbours, chimneys = fireplaces that means wealth and probably ‘staff’ 

[What About The Bee]

I've not put the image under discussion here, as it may be subject to copyright.  

You may see the image here

Bee

[Rallymatt]

I feel a call to the Northern Echo may be in order

[What About The Bee]

Hi @Rallymatt

The issue with the copyright is that typically it ends 70 years after the death of the copyright holder.  So if the artist lived until 1954, it is an issue.  That might be too close to call, if, as you assumed, it was from the early 1900s.

I searched in the British Newspaper Archive for the Northern Echo article of 1875.  We have direct quotes from the article, so I thought it would be a doodle.  No matter how I fiddled with the search criteria, I could never find it.  Something is wrong. 

If the image was published in 1875, then I think the copyright expired.  But add 25 to 30 years later, and it might just still be in copyright.   Or the Northern Echo may have taken measures to extend the copyright.  Too close to call for me.

Bee

 

[Rallymatt]

I was meaning to ask if in their archives they have details of if the paper commissioned the illustration or even for a copy of the original article. In pursuit of research Copyright isn’t a worry 

[threelink]

I'm not sure of the value of that image. It's full of inconsistencies and technical inaccuracies / impossibilities. 

[Rallymatt]

I think it’s mislead more than is educated. 

[What About The Bee]

Exactly @threelink

So many non-period images do this, that I virtually discount the lot.  

Here is another  non-contemporary image.  It shows Active/Locomotion No.1 on Opening Day of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.  Oh, it so wonderfully drawn!  What a heroic day, complete with fanfare!  Hoorah!!  Except it is utterly and completely wrong.  Active/Locomotion No.1 is drawn with parallel motion instead of slide bar motion.  [buzzer sound]

Relying upon non period drawings mean you are relying upon someone else's opinions and conclusions. 

Why do that (even for me)????  The original source materials are there, for your study.

Bee

Edited Thursday at 21:51 by What About The Bee
A coupling rod is also displayed. For me, that's a contentious issue. Your mileage may vary