George Stephenson: A Life From Beginning to End (Biographies of Engineers Book 2) by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2017-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The Liverpool-Manchester Failure

“What can be palpably more absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stagecoaches?”

—The Quarterly Review, March 1825

One of the professional groups who had read about the Stockton-Darlington line and was persuaded by its example was the Liverpool-Manchester Railway Company. The members of the company approached Stephenson with a request to survey a line for them between Liverpool and Manchester on May 19, 1824. The proposed line was intended to accelerate the passage of cotton from Liverpool’s docks to Manchester’s mills.

From the beginning of the century, the quantity of cotton imported to Liverpool from the United States had increased hugely, the population of the city skyrocketing as a result. At first, all goods had to be shipped by river before a canal was built to allow for goods to be shipped faster. But this was still not fast enough. Merchants in Manchester complained about the weeks of waiting to see their goods moved off the docks. There were huge queues every day at the offices of the canal agents with people waiting to arrange for transportation that way. It became clear that there was far more trade than the waterways could accommodate.

So, William James had been appointed to complete a survey for the line, and Robert Stephenson worked with him on the project. But James was beset by financial problems, he was slow to produce his final survey and was then imprisoned for bankruptcy. The company decided to appoint a new engineer to survey the line for them and chose George Stephenson. This decision caused a gulf between father and son.

It was around this time that Robert Stephenson was preparing to embark on an adventure to explore gold mining, first in Mexico and then in South America. His letters of the time make reference to a warm climate being of benefit to his health. He had, after all, spent years working in coal mines and had a history of poor health from his mother’s side. However, this meant being absent from the opening of the Stockton-Darlington railway, where a locomotive built in his works would be undertaking its maiden trip. It was also a significant moment in his father’s life.

Another possible reason that has been suggested for Robert’s absence is that he had become close friends with William James, who had subsequently lost his position to George Stephenson. James had sorely needed the job of engineer for the company. His profession had been as a land agent, but he appears to have allowed his business to slide while he pursued railway surveys up and down the country. None of this railway work ever became anything solid for him, and meanwhile, his business had gone bankrupt. The Liverpool-Manchester line must have seemed to be his last hope. Even while in prison James clung to his survey notes, refusing to give them up.

Robert Stephenson had become good friends with James and may well have felt that his father was doing the man a disservice.

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