London and Birmingham Railway

The London and Birmingham Railway (L & BR) was a British railway company that existed from 1833 to 1846 and then merged into the London and North Western Railway. They built the 190 km long route between London and Birmingham, which was completed in 1838. The L & BR was one of the world's first long-distance routes and the first train that led to the center of the British capital. Today it forms the southern section of the West Coast Main Line.

History

Plans to build a railway from London to Birmingham it was the first time in 1823, when engineer John Rennie founded a company with which this project was to be put into action. Rennie suggested to lead the route via Oxford and Banbury. A little later, Francis Giles founded a rival company, which was planning a route via Coventry. As a result, none of the companies could raise enough money for the track construction, so they decided the merger in 1830. The newly formed company appointed Robert Stephenson as chief engineer. Stephenson chose the route via Coventry, mainly because he feared flooding from the River Thames at Oxford.

Parliament rejected the first bill for the construction of the track, mainly because of opposition from landowners and channel operators. In May 1833 law but has been approved and construction began in November of the same year. The opening was originally due to take place with the Grand Junction Railway ( GJR ) simultaneously, which reached Birmingham from the north. However, due to problems in the construction of the Kilsby Tunnel in Northamptonshire this deadline could not be met.

On July 20, 1837, the first section between London Euston and Boxmoor was opened in Hemel Hampstead. The commissioning of the remaining route should have taken place on June 28, 1838 the day of the coronation of Queen Victoria, but the work had not been completed. However, the L & BR realized that the volume of traffic on this day would be particularly high. They therefore drew the opening of the sections Birmingham - in Bletchley and set on the middle section of a stagecoach connection a - Rugby and London. The continuous operation was recorded on 17 September 1838.

As the locomotives were not powerful enough at the beginning, the trains were pulled up on the relatively steep section of London Euston to Camden by a stationary steam engine to rotating cables, invented by the responsible for the construction of this stretch Charles Fox facility. The original engine shed in Camden still stands today and forms the central part of the Cultural Centre The Roundhouse. The main engineering workshop was located in Wolverton.

1846 merged L & BR, the GJR and Manchester and Birmingham Railway to London and North Western Railway. None of the termini of the L & BR (both by Philip Hardwick designed ) was preserved in its original form. The Curzon Street Station in Birmingham closed in 1854 and replaced by the New Street Station. The Euston station in London in 1962 and demolished in 1968 gave a new building.