Transport - Rail

A selection of images based on the theme of rail transport

Add to My Favourites Copyright Crown copyright.NMR Road End Adit, Honister Slate Mine, Buttermere, Cumbria Mines and quarries were the first sites to use railways. The railway runs from the mine entrance to the tipping point.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, Cumbria This narrow gauge railway was opened in 1875 for the purpose of transporting iron ore from the mines at Nab Gill. When the iron mining industry of Eskdale collapsed in about 1884, the railway was in danger of closure, but it was sustained by quarry and passenger traffic, and has survived to this day as a tourist attraction.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Passengers disembark from a tram in Shepherd's Bush, London Trams were first used as a form of public transport in New York in the 1830s. The small wheels on metal tracks made the ride smoother than horse drawn carriages. Electric trams were introduced from the 1890s.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Bodmin Road Station, St Winnow, Cornwall Four tracklayers at work. In 1888 the Great Western Railway made a branch line from Boscarne Junction to Bodmin Road Station, which is now known as Bodmin Parkway Station. This linked the area to the main railway network.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Railway Bridge, Brackley, Northamptonshire The railway station at Brackley on the Great Central Railway opened in 1899. This picture from 1896 shows the construction of the bridge in progress. The line was closed in 1966.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Constructing Akeman Street Station, Buckinghamshire The line between Grendon Underwood and Princes Risborough was authorised in 1899 and opened in 1906. This picture from 1905 shows the work in progress on the station which was one of two small halts on the line between Ashendon and Grendon Underwood, the other was Wotton.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Avon Bridge, Bristol This bridge, built in the Gothic style by I K Brunel in 1839, carried the Great Western Railway over the tidal River Avon. Today Brunel's bridge is hidden between a pair of girder bridges.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash, Cornwall A view over the rooftops of Saltash towards the Royal Albert Bridge, which crosses the River Tamar. It was built from 1848 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to carry the Great Western Railway.
Add to My Favourites English Heritage.NMR Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash, Cornwall A view of the railway bridge that crosses the River Tamar linking Saltash in Cornwall with Plymouth in Devon. It was completed in 1859 to the designs of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He was the first to cross the bridge after completion.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of Oxfordshire County Council Slough Railway Station, Slough, Berkshire Several steam trains standing at the station platforms, with the Victorian station buildings in the background.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Carlisle Railway Station, Cumbria A view from the platform of the railway station. The station was one of the busiest stations hosting seven different companies and covering eight routes.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR The Royal train An interior view of the sitting room on Queen Victoria's Royal Train. Victoria was the first monarch to use this mode of transport; her first journey took place on 13th June 1842 and took her from Slough to London Paddington in 25 minutes.
Add to My Favourites Copyright Crown copyright.NMR Kings Cross Station, Camden Town, London A view of steam trains leaving Kings Cross in about 1925. The station was built by Lewis Cubitt between 1851 and 1852.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Changing the departure boards at Liverpool Street Station, City of London A member of the station staff manually changes the departure information board. Liverpool Street Station opened in 1875 to serve the Great Eastern Railway and still serves the destinations shown here on the boards.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Signal box, Grendon Underwood, Buckinghamshire The man at the levers has a pocket watch in his waistcoat to check the times of the trains. The coming of the railways in the middle of the 19th century was the first occasion that time needed to be standardised across the country, and the term 'Railway Time' was often used.	Add to My Favourites Crown copyright.NMR Railway Signal Box, Dover Marine, Kent The busiest stretches of railway required a vast network of communication and signalling systems to keep the trains running both efficiently and safely. Here the complicated arrangement of levers controlling the signalling near Dover can be seen.
Add to My Favourites Copyright English Heritage.NMR Bridge, Sydney Gardens, Bath, Avon A train passes under I K Brunel's cast iron bridge of circa 1841in Sydney Gardens.