NEW NOVEMBER 2017.  These are pages from the book 'The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland' by Francis Whishaw, Civil Engineer and member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. They come from the second edition, dated 1842. The very informative extracts describe from an engineer's viewpoint the Eastern Counties Railway, the London and Blackwall Railway and the Northern and Eastern Railway as they were at that date. 

For the ECR he discusses the course of the railway, earthworks and bridges, stations, the gauge chosen, carriages, locomotives and costs. He is critical when he considers it to be appropriate - thus he predicts that the 5-foot gauge will lead to problems in the future, and also writes "The intermediate stations of Stratford and liford are on an extensive scale, and present a neat appearance; but we should gladly have seen less costly buildings at these places."

He thinks the London and Blackwall Railway is "a work displaying considerable ingenuity and originality of contrivance", and gives plenty of detail about it, including how the working was carried out by stationary engines and ropes.

Finally the Northern and Eastern Railway gets a similar treatment. The novel style of the fencing for much of the length between Stratford and Broxbourne warrants a special mention.

One page of the file is rather blurred but still readable. To maintain the integrity of the document we have left it in place but added a re-typed version of it at the end. The file will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.