The first railway carriages were built very like to coaches, with an outside seat at each end for the guard, though passengers often sat there for the sake of seeing the country.
The fares first charged between Birmingham and London were 30s. by first class, and 20s. second class (open carriages) by day trains; 32s. 6d, first class and 25s, second class, by night. In 1841 the fares were 30.s, first, 25s. second, and 20s. 3d, third glass; they are now 17s. 4d., 13s. 6d, and 9s. 5d.
"Booking" was a perfectly correct term when the lines were first used, as when passengers went for their tickets they had to give their names and addresses, to be written on the tickets and in the book containing the counterfoils of the tickets.
The day the Grand Junction line was opened was kept as a general holiday between here and Wolverhampton, hundreds of tents and picnic parties being seen along the line.
The directors of the Birmingham and Gloucester line ordered eleven locomotives from Philadelphia at a cost of 85,000 dollars, and it was these engines that brought their trains to Camp Hill at first. In comparison with the engines now in use, these Americans were very small ones. The trains were pulled up the incline at the Lickey by powerful stationary engines.
On the completion of the London line, the engineers who had been employed presented George Stephenson at a dinner held here with a silver tureen and stand worth 130 guineas. This celebrated engineer made his last public appearance at a meeting in this town of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. July 16, 1848, his death taking place on the 12th of the following month.
The L.N.W.R. Co. have 46,000 men in their employ.
The G.W.R, has the longest mileage of any railway in England, 2,276½ miles; the L. and N.W.R., 1,774½ miles; the Midland, 1,225 miles.
The returns of the L. and N.W., Midland and G.W.R. Companies for 1878 showed local traffic of 936,000 tons of goods, 693,000 tons of coal, coke and other minerals, 20,200 loads of cattle, and 7,624,000 passengers.
The south tunnel in New Street was blocked April 18, 1877, by a locomotive turning over. In October, 1854, an engine fell over into Great Charles Street.
The unused viaduct between Bordesley and Banbury Street belongs to the G.W.R. Co, and was intended to connect their lines with the other Companies. It now stands as a huge monument of the "Railway Mania" days.
The extensive carrying trade of Crowley and Co, was transferred to the L. & N.W.R. Co. May 17, 1873.
Railway Stations.'—As noted on a previous page, the first railway stations were those in Duddeston Row. Lawley Street, Vauxhall, the Camp Hill, but the desirability of having a Central Station was too apparent for the Companies to remain long at the outskirts, and the L. & N.W.R. Co, undertook the erection in New Street, of what was then (and will soon be again) the most extensive railway station in the kingdom, making terms with the Midland for part use thereof. The work of clearance was commenced in 1846, the estimated cost being put at £400,000, £39,000 being paid to the Governors of the Grammar School for land belonging to them. Several streets were done away with, and the introduction of the station may be called the date point of the many town improvements that have since been carried out. The station, and the tunnels leading thereto, took seven years in completion, the opening ceremony taking place June 1,1853. The iron and glass roof was the largest roof in the world, being 1,080ft. long, with a single span of 212ft. across at a height of 75ft. from the rails. This immense span has since been surpassed, as the roof of the St. Pancras Station, London, is 243ft. from side to side. The roof
