Dan Bull - Origins of the British Railway

In ancient days there was no day-to-day travel on trains; no national railway. By the time of the 1800s, when the mines provided for Great Britain's hunger for energy, they had to come up with a method to get stuff directly to where it was meant to be - so they designed lines to provide the mines in Tyneside with many connections effectively.

Then, inevitably, many men and MPs objected to these developments heavily. They rejected the perception that the step was needed, as they believed that ten was a deadly speed. But by the end of the century, there were three hundred tracks just in that forementioned region.

Nevertheless, it was never easy to set up shop and steam ahead of the rest. Many moneyed men would never invest, unless it was tested and already a success. Then there were the farmers - alarmed by the smoke - choked with no knowing whether it would harm us. Even the elite were keen to stop shunting, merely as it interfered with fox hunting.

Canal companies grumpily acknowledged that their monopoly had come to be abolished. Try and fail, the sheen and polish of these iron rails could never be demolished. It was time tables were turned to deepen wallets, so the first train was timetabled with people on it; and since the days of James Watt, they've got increasingly prominent. Yeah - trainspotters may seem a strange lot, but they've got a whole heap of knowledge. Listen:

In the year 1758 Parliament first allowed a rig for trains.

1767 - Iron rails in Coalbrookdale were fixed together.

1781 - A productive year - James Watt pioneered the sun and gear.

In 1803 the Surrey Iron Railway opened publicly.