The Main Works of the Former LMS

Abstract

The foundations of the London Midland & Scottish Railway Company (LMS), the largest of the ‘great four’, date from two events of worldwide repute. The first was the Rainhill trials in 1829, a contest to find the best locomotive for the new Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Four steam engines — George and Robert Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’, Timothy Hackworth’s ‘Sans Pareil’, Braithwaite & Ericsson’s ‘Novelty’ (the first tank engine) and Timothy Burstall’s ‘Perseverance’ — and one horse-powered vehicle, ‘Cyclopede’, competed for the £500 prize. More than ten thousand people watched the ‘Rocket’ win by reaching a speed of 32 miles per hour. The second event was the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway by the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, on 15 September 1830. The ‘Rocket’ pulled the first inter-city train at the opening and provided the world’s first steam service for both passengers and freight. Following this the railways expanded rapidly, transforming the landscape and economic structure of Victorian Britain.KeywordsMain WorkSteam LocomotiveRailway CompanyPaint ShopLocomotive WorkThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.