Yet another badly researched skim piece which praises to high heaven Trevithick, Stephenson et al yet fails, as usual with these shlock jocks, to mention the likes of Matthew Murray and John Blenkinsop and their association with the WORLDS first successful and commercial use of steam locomotive traction, apart from a two second silent glimpse of a painting supposedly representing the area, the Middleton colliery railway. First in the world to be covered by act of any parliament (1757) the first to use steam locomotion as mentioned successfully and commercially (1812) a full thirteen years before Stephenson got his act together with the Stockton and Darlington, and with engines still in use thirty years later and and officially recognised as the oldest continuously railway in still in existence today.

The engines were of the rack type which served the double purpose of being light enough so as not to break the cast rails of the period but also were able to haul greater loads than any of their competitors, which commercially speaking made them a damn sight more viable than the existing adhesion types of the period.

In all weathers 90 tons was the average haul compared to the adhesion locomotives of Stephenson and co which struggled with 30 tons in the dry and half that in the wet which given the local was often more than not. On one occasion a load of 30 waggons weighing 140 tons was hauled as observed by visitors acting on behalf of the directors of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

Many detractors sight rack railways as a technological dead end which many years later would hold water with the introduction of better rail technology but at the time they were far more successful than adhesion locomotives which others only persisted with as Blenkinsop had his rack system patented and would have jumped at the chance at that time to copy it off their own bat. The round foundry sold/licenced at least a dozen of these engines to other collieries as well a couple over seas whereas engines such as Rocket was a one off and Locomotion no1 sold just two of the type.

Yes I get what these other lads did for public rail transport and well deserved are their plaudits yet time after bloody time Blenkinsop and Murray aren't even sodding acknowledged as the world first pioneers they were whereas Trevithick is praised to high heaven for an engine that couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding and for his other engines which amounted to no more than novelty fairground rides or uncompleted prototypes. Stephenson whilst fully deserving of his of mentioned accomplishments wasn't adverse to a spot of idea pinching especially in his role as inspector to Parliament for the railways which gave him unfettered access to rail companies and their workings.

One such occasion was when he visited Middleton to report on an engine explosion. having ensconced himself at a local inn ( still in existence but disused) he befriended a young draughtsman from the Murray works and, after plying the young idiot with copious amounts of grog, escorted him back to his lodgings whereupon the silly drunk young sod showed Stephenson the blueprints for some new innovation Murrays were to apply to one of their engines. these promptly "vanished" into the ether never to be seen again with some arguing that the said innovation ( believed to be related to valve gear) appeared on subsequent north eastern locomotives. Make of it what you will


Chris Barrie in this video just like the likes of Dan Snow and other so called industrial researchers always tread the same cut and paste route when it comes to steam locomotion with no variable difference in their output with no mention of the true world originators of commercial and successful steam locomotion. Maybe because it's only a colliery line therefore not as attractive video fodder as say public railways but non the less it does and should be mentioned just as often and also just as loudly.

Imagine US historical video makers constantly never acknowledging Washington and Franklin as signatories on the constitution and only mentioning some bloke called Bert Jones, you get the gist I hope?

That's my diatribe for the day. (laughs)