Why You Can't Google the First Train

Join me on a quest to find history's first modern passenger railway. Was it the Stockton & Darlington or the Liverpool & Manchester?

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2. “Locomotion No 1: Museums' row…” BBC. March 5 2021.
3. History of The S&D Railway. Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway
4. Holmes 1975, p13 (see2) Stockton and Darlington Railway 1825-1975 by Peter J. Holmes (1975)
5. Britannica. Stockton & Darlington Railway
6. MAAS Museum “Locomotion No. 1, George Stephenson…” 2014. M. Simpson
7. BBC. 2021. “Stockton and Darlington Railway: What's so special…”
8. “First in the world. The Making….” SAIM
9. BBC In Our Time. George and Robert Stephenson. 2020.
10. Mumbles Train. Swansea Museum.
11. “Swansea looks at tram return” BBC. Oct 2004.
12. When did the Merthyr Tramroad become the Penydarren Tramroad? Stephen Rowson, Railway and Canal Historical Group. 2001
13. “The largest ship trackway in ancient…”Walter Wener. 1997. International Journal of NAutical Archaeology.
14. S&DR Myth Busting No. 2. What's in a Name?
15. Edward Pease 1767 - 1858. Science Museum Group
16. Construction to Opening 1822-1825. Sdr1825 dot org. Uk

00:00-:2:30 Mapping S&D
2:30-5:45 Conflicting Sources?
5:46-7:38 The Quest Begins
7:38-11:23 The L&M and S&D Compared
11:23-16:13 Side Quest Railroads
16:13-20:23 Who Cares About this Quest?

Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images.

[plainsbiomeproductions]

To put it simply, the Stockton and Darlington railway was the first railway to carry passengers however it was designed to carry coal, the Liverpool and Manchester railway was the first railway SPECIFCALLY DESIGNED to carry passengers. Thus, the L&M was the first railway to have modern, recognisable features such as platforms, timetables, and specially built passenger carriages. While the Stockton and Darlington railway was the first railway to carry passengers, the L&M was the world’s first “passenger railway”.

[pras]

This is (sort of) a part two to my response to the mostly excellent video.
Personally, I have only one answer to "What was the first railway?" and that is to ask "How do you define a railway? What does it need to have?"
"Wheels on rails" - German mines in 12th century.
"Metal rails" - First half of 18th century in Northern England they started covering wooden rails with iron plates. The first iron rails were probably made in Sheffield, England before 1790. These were still L-shaped and the wheels travelled along the bottom of the L.
"Metal edge-on rails, flanged wheels" - 1793 in South Wales (Beaufort and Blaenavon lines).
"Steam Locomotive Haulage" - Pen-y-darren in South Wales 1804.
"Separate (Independent) Railway Company" - "Surrey Iron Railway" in Southern England in 1805 . Previous railways were part of another business venture (mostly mines) . It was horse hauled with L-shaped rails.
"Fare-paying Passengers, Railway Station(?)" - "Swansea and Mumbles Railway" in South Wales 1807. Passengers were collected and dropped off at "The Mount" but no details of facilities exist. It was horse-hauled.
"Flanged Wheels and Steam Locomotives and Fare-paying Passengers" - Stockton and Darlington 1825. Passengers reported to the goods yard office (usually doubling as an inn!).
"Dedicated Passenger Stations, Inter city, Double Track Main Line, Steam Haulage only" -Liverpool and Manchester 1830.
I am sure I have missed a few things 😅

[johnkuzma]

The Pennyderren plateway had the first steam locomotive (built by Richard Trevithic in 1804) but it was too heavy for the cast iron rails and thus was rarely used.

[TheFlyingScotsmanTV]

Just an aside really - but I come from a little village in scotland that 150 years or so ago had some lime workings close by - and a railway setup to shift the lime to the main line (now the main scotland to england east coast line). well the only evidence of that old line existing was in maps from the 1870s and the still recognisable banks in the forests where a railway line once stood.. until my parents found rotting away in the middle of the forest, 2 old wooden signs with big old iron rivets in them stating the names of the 2 stations that used to be served by them. Both are now features in my garden, hopefully preserving them for a wee while longer.

[KarynHill]

The reason to care, in a larger way, is that these "mistakes" happen all of the time. Wording matters, and when searching or using AI, that wording is even more important. A person might infer what you mean due to prior conversation, the day's news, or things they know about you. AI and search engines have some of this information because we're all tracked to the point the internet knows us better than we know ourselves, but they can only "infer" in a limited way. It won't necessarily make the intuitive leaps one human being may make about another.

Not particularly a train fan but enjoyed this video!

[kikivoorburg]

This is a great coverage of many of the complexities involved with the early development of the railways!

As a rail-fan for most of my life, I was aware of the S&D vs. L&M debate, as well as the fact that collieries had proto-railways far before anything intended for public use. Even still I hadn’t heard of the Swansea and Mumbles before nor the Ancient Greek “railway”.

Not that my opinions matters, but I’d say “the first proper railway” was the S&D, while “the first passenger railway” was the L&M. The S&D ushered in railways as a mode of transport, the L&M made it clear passenger transport could be a priority. Many railways even to this day rely/relied on goods traffic to stay afloat, with passenger services being a bonus rather than the main economic force. That’s why I think the S&D’s focus on goods can’t really disqualify it as the “first proper railway”. (Oh and for what it’s worth I’d say the Swansea and Mumbles is really more of a horse-tram than “railway”!)

[frogandspanner]

2:17 A dale is a river valley, especially in the north of England and the borders of Scotland. e.g. Lauderdale in Scotland, and Wharfedale in England. The Yorkshire Dales are the most beautiful part of the world, in God's own county.

I grew up (1950s) close to Matthew Middleton Colliery Railway - which was the first steam railway in the world (1812), although not a passenger railway. When I was young the old lines were still in place, although not in use, and there were remnants of a phase when steam-powered cable hauling was used rather than steam locomotives. It is criminal that those historically important things were destroyed to build a housing estate (the Manor Farm estate) in the early '60s.

[JustcallmeJayrot]

Loved this video. The mix of storytelling, humor, research, and info was terrific. Keep it up.

[billymcmedic]

From my understanding, the concept of a “railway” wasn’t new for the S&D, the fact it’s primary design was for the conveyance of coal demonstrates this. The S&D had more in common with the waggonways that had been around for a good few decades by this point rather than a modern railway. One example I can think of from the top of my head is the tanfield railway, one of the oldest railways in the world (in dispute with the Middleton railway on this. Tanfield was the first long distance waggonway built in 1725, but Middleton was the first built with an act of parliament), but anyway, tanfield railways purpose was to convey coal from the inland coal fields of Durham, to the river Tyne where it could be shipped along the river and eventually be exported from South Shields on the coast, a very similar purpose to the S&D. The S&D was single tracked with passing points, and saw both horse drawn and steam loco pulled trains move along it, there was no timetable, no central company operating the movement of wagons, individuals would pay a fee to use the line and go for it. In essence S&D was an iron railed waggonway with steam locomotives

Meanwhile, L&M is closer to what we would recognise as a real railway, double tracked, regular services, all trains operated by a central company, and it was a dedicated steam hauled line, having held trials to figure out what was the best steam locomotives to use on this line (Rainhill trials). Importantly, it’s primary purpose wasn’t the conveyance of coal, but of manufactured goods from Manchester factories to the docks of Liverpool, and raw goods back in the other direction, competing with the canal barges and donkey haulage, the passenger part basically being advertisement for the railway.

S&D’s innovation was the development of functional iron rails and steam locomotives, L&M’s innovation was how the innovations of the S&D could be better employed in operation. I consider the L&M the first “true” railway in the modern understanding, with the S&D being the final step in the development of the Railways predecessor in the Waggonway

Also, as an aside, as part of the aforementioned Tanfield Railways construction, the currently oldest surviving railway bridge in the world, and at the time of its construction the largest single span bridge in Britain, was built in the form of causey arch. It was only in active use for a few years before it was diverted, but was certainly a feat of engineering

[bele]

This may be way off-topic, but I was very fascinated by seeing someone apparently in the US drink Gerolsteiner in a video. I didn't even know you could get it outside of Germany, much less overseas.

[Luredreier]

12:32
Yes, horses qualify just fine in my book.
My requirement is just something on a track (as opposed to road), it can be 100% wooden track, but it keeps the wheels on track and has less friction then a regular road of the time, and it's pulled somehow.

[WeirdSeagul]

i might be locally biased but its clear the Stockton Darlington is the first. Of course the first is going to be smaller that is the nature of the undertaking and its by 5 years which is significant not a few months were technicalities could be argued

[Rosiebeatle]

I work in a steam museum in Darlington and it's a privilege to do so, and watching the amazed and fascinated faces of visitors is priceless 😊... And we were the first passenger railway because we also have the first passenger station...and as we had a passenger carriage, were a passenger and freight railway pulled by steam engines...the first 🥇

[MarceloBenoit-trenes]

Stockton-Darlington ran horse drawn passenger "trains" (in fact, stage coaches running on rails) until 1833 more or less, when they were replaced finally by steam trains. It was the first public steam railway. The first regular passenger service pulled by steam locomotiives was the Canterbury-Withstable railway, opened on May, 1830, with one locomotive and fixed steam engines to climb an incline. But yes, the first inter city modern railway was Liverpool-Manchester.

[Schmidtelpunkt]

Framing is everything. So much comes down on what terms one applies. The more archaic the topic, the more difficult it becomes finding common ground without an explicit definition prior to debate. My three favorite terms which are useless in that way are time, work and art. I wouldn't have thought "railway" would rank so high, but I guess it is still better than "train" as in the title.

[robertridley-fjzz]

I had to come here from Nebula to tell you how much I enjoyed this. Wonderfully explanative, good research and charming presentation. I'm originally from Newcastle, George Stephenson country, lived in Manchester (and by the way the Liverpool St station still exists as part of a Museum, and I'm a rail-fan. Did you just create this video for me? If so thanks. I'd say sterling work, but of course none of these railways used Sterling Engines.

[uncinarynin]

Another thing the Stockton and Darlington railway standardized is the 1435 mm standard gauge which is still the most widely used in the world.
Apparently the choice of this gauge was influenced by existing horse-drawn carriages. Britain soon became an important country manufacturing and exporting railway locomotives, which helped establish that gauge in other countries as well and made it much easier to form an international network in later years. (Notable exceptions: Spain/Portugal with one broad gauge, the Russian Empire including former zones of influence such as Finland with another, India curiously having almost the same gauge as Spain despite formerly being under British rule, south Asian narrow gauge networks, much of Japan ... uhh the world is full of exceptions. But still standard gauge is definitely the most common worldwide.)

[Luredreier]

2:16
"Dale" means valley.
It's a Germanic word.
In Norwegian valley is "dal"
It's the name of a location in LotR.

[matthewfletcher]

Just stumbled on your channel and I must say, I appreciate the research that goes into this. Keep it up!

[eliotreader]

watching a living iron horse in action is a gorgeous thing to see