51L: The finely detailed railway model. A brief background to the Midland Railway

Midland Railway: A brief biography

The Midland Railway, formed in May 1844, from the amalgamation of the Midland Counties, North Midland and Birmingham & Derby Junction railways. The Midland rapidly expanded out of the English Midlands that was it base to London and the south and Carlisle (via Settle) in north. At the time of grouping in 1923 it was the largest railway company. Through the formation of joint services with many other lines and an aggressive policy of absorbing & owning smaller lines it developed into one of the most influential companies throughout the 19th and well into the 20th century. Its influence spanned most of England, into North and South Wales and Southern Scotland. Although it developed some enemies along the way its promotion of joint owned lines, such as the M&NB (with the North British Railway) and the M&GSW (with the Glasgow & South Western Railway) meant that its services controlled from the central hub in Derby trains ran to Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland, Bristol, London (St Pancreas), Lancashire (Liverpool, Heysham, Barrow). In its time the Midland served more cities and towns in the British Isles than any other railway company. It was one of the early adopters of through braking systems for passenger and freight services. Through the ports of Tilbury, Heysham and elsewhere it had a substantial fleet of ships providing ferry services to Ireland and European destinations.

It became synominous with Derby, one of the first major railway towns, where it built its own Locomotives, Carriages and Wagons. However, unlike other companies, it also placed considerable reliance on other manufacturer's to meet its requirements for rolling stock. Some of the carriages (especially for the Scotch Joint Stock companies) were built outside the Midland to Midland designs by companies as diverse as the North British, G&SWR and the Gloucester Wagon Works amongst others.

It owned, or had effective control of the following railways:-

LT&S the London Tilbury & Southend Railway
County Donegal
Birmingham and Gloucester Railway
Belfast & Northern Counties Railway
Burton & Ashby Light Railway (an electric tram service in the Burton area)

It shared ownership of many railways, often providing the rolling stock or acting as 'lead' partner

CLC: Cheshire Lines Committee
S&DR: Somerset & Dorset
M&GNR: Midland and Great Northern
M&GSWR: Midland and Glasgow & South Western
M&NBR Midland & North British Railway
Eastern & Midland Railways
'Scottish Joint Stock'

Innovations promoted and introduced by the Midland included:

The introduction of centralised train control (1920's), initially caused by the heavy mineral traffic from the South Yorkshire coalfields, primarily transporting coal to the English Midlands and London.
The Introduction of the luxurious Pullman services, based on the George Pullman's travelling hotel concept imported form the United States in 1874.
Overhead electrification of the Lancaster-Morecombe-Heysham services in 1908
Provision of third class accommodation on all passenger services in 1872
The scrapping of second class accommodation and bringing third class accommodation up to what other railways deemed second class (1875)
The development of Heysham as a dedicated railway port to provide express passenger services to and from Ireland and the Isle of Man.
The development of inter station transfer services between London Termini.

After absorption into the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923 it continued to be a major influence in the development of the LMS, particularly in the development of Locomotive design. Arguably in conjunction with the LNWR & LYR it helped form the LMS into the premier railway network in the UK with its concentration of services on the West Cost services between the major cities of Birmingham, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Liverpool and Manchester.

For further reading, amongst the many books and periodicals on the Midland Railway, we suggest the following:

'Midland Style' by George Dow, published by the Historical Model Railway Society (1975)
'Midland Railway Portrait' by Peter Truman & David Hunt, published by Foxline (1989)
'The Midland Railway' by Chaxailton Ellis, published by Ian Allen (1953)
'An Illustrated History of Midland Wagons'; volumes 1 & 2 by R.J Essery, published by Oxford Publishing Co
'An Illustrated Review of Midland Locomotives' by R.J. Essery & D Jenkinson, published by Wild Swan Publishing
'Midland Record' edited by R. J. Essery and published by Wild Swan
'The Midland Railway, A Chronology' by J Gough
'The Midland Railway, A Pictorial History' by J B Radford, S W Smith
Locomotive and Train Working in the Latter Part of the Nineteenth Century, Volume 2, E L Ahrons

Many of the these books may be obtained from specialised book sellers for some suggestions press here.

Societies for those interested in the Midland Railway:

The Midland Railway Association

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