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On September 17 1838, my mother's birthday though she wasn't born until 1916, the very first passenger train service left London, from the newly built Euston Station. The train ran on a brand new railway line built between London and Birmingham. The line was engineered by Robert Stephenson, son of George of the “Rocket” fame. That first journey took 5˝ hours to cover the 112 mile trip. The train went from London to Rugby, on to Coventry and then arrived at Curzon Street in Birmingham. It arrived on platforms next to the ones used by trains that went from Birmingham and on to Manchester and Liverpool, so people just had a little walk to make the connection.
For the first five or so years, the locomotives were actually pulled up the steep incline near Camden Town, apparently because the Act of Parliament granted to the company didn't allow them to operate locomotive engines nearer to London than Camden. Ropes and stationary engines hauled the trains over this stretch of line. This stopped completely, the hauling not the trains, in 1844. The age of the train was really here now and tracks were appearing all over the country. Planning wasn't brilliant as some tracks were wider than others meaning not all engines and carriages could run on all lines.
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