Railway history • First era

Note: this page is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for the official page of the operating company or manufacturer. 

The railroad’s 200-year history is characterized by three main eras:

Before railways

In brief:  
• Revolutionary transport at a time when walking and horses dominated;  
• The technical advances in mechanisation that led to the steam engine.  

In all pre-industrial economies, poor transport links were a major obstacle to economic growth. The late 17th and 18th centuries saw major improvements in transport systems in England and Wales, which accompanied and facilitated early industrialisation and regional specialisation. But this was far from being the case throughout Europe.

Around 1750-1770, European societies were still largely rural. Most main roads were not suitable for wheeled traffic, and those who could afford it travelled mainly on horseback. They rarely reached an average speed of more than 5-7 km/h, and travel was generally limited to the bright hours of the day.
In the 18th century, transporting coal 15 kilometres by road generally doubled the ‘mine gate’ price (or ‘factory gate’ as we would say today). As a result, mined coal was only used within a 25-kilometre radius of a mine or waterway. Transporting coal by water was radically cheaper than by land. This already highlighted the major socio-economic disparities between people living close to a mining region and those who lived a long way away and never knew coal heating.

➤ See transports before railways
 
During the 17th and early 18th centuries, the length of navigable rivers was considerably increased, while the second half of the 18th century saw the construction of a vast network of canals in just a few decades. This also highlights why some regions benefited from early development, while others did not, such as mountainous or very hilly regions.
At the dawn of the railway age, the dominant form of passenger transport for those who could afford it was the stagecoach. These carriages could transport passengers across the country at an average speed of 10-12 km/h, even at night. Alexandre Dumas noted that in 1828 it took 14 hours to travel from Paris to Rouen by stagecoach. However, stagecoaches were far too expensive for the majority of the population and here we have yet another contradiction, where travel was synonymous with wealth.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, considerable progress was made in England to develop the steam engine, which was initially used to pump water in mines. Richard Trevithick, a mining engineer, experimented with this engine on a mobile with his locomotive called ‘Pen-y-Darren’, which hauled a first train of waggons with 10 tonnes of ore. The date was 21 February 1804. This time, the advent of the train was a reality.

➤ See the history of locomotive

Developpement of railway networks in Europe (1825 to ca 1920)

In brief:  
• Dazzling expansion, enabling industrialisation and, by extension, capitalism;  
• Strong government support through various concessions and network extensions;  
• A peak in line mileage around 1910-1920.
 
The years 1825 to 1840/1850, depending on the country, were marked by the beginnings and fairly rapid expansion of the network. This era saw the railways play an important role in shaping much of the European economy and society during this period. Rail was clearly a revolutionary form of transport, while horse-drawn carriages and walking still dominated.

In Britain, railways and steam locomotives effectively provided considerable transport capacity for coal and iron ore to fuel the Industrial Revolution, which then spread rapidly to other parts of Europe. It is fair to say that the railway was one of the driving forces behind first English and then European industrial capitalism. Indeed, as we saw above, the railway became a radical tool that made it possible not only to carry much more coal in one go, but above all to distribute it well beyond the 25-30 kilometre limits of the pre-industrial era.
 
➤ See railway history in Great-Britain 
 
➤ See the impact of rail on the economy and industrialisation

The history of the English railways is marked by a profusion of projects that quickly had to be put in order. The Railway Regulation Act 1844 was the first Act of Parliament to establish a minimum standard for passenger rail transport. It mandated compulsory services at an affordable price for the poorest people to enable them to travel to find work in the new English industrial age, an instrument that was causing the decline of the countryside and the peasantry.

It was also at this time that the ‘Stephenson gauge’ was established, initially based on the coal carts used to transport coal from the mines near Shildon to the port of Stockton-on-Tees (1.422mm). George Stephenson later used the 1.435mm gauge (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) to free up axle movement on curves on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

The success of the first Stockton and Darlington (S&DR) train led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to design several other larger railway projects. As a result, the 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) gauge became widespread and dominant in Britain, leaving the many other gauges in use by the wayside. Fortunately, as Stephenson was called upon to spread his invention outside England, to Belgium, France and Germany, it was his gauge that was logically adopted. It would much later be known as the ‘standard gauge’. 
 
➤ See the history of railway gauges

In France, the arrival of the train between Saint-Étienne and Andrézieux, a line granted in perpetuity and inaugurated in 1827, was followed by the first modern French line, intended for the general public, inaugurated in 1837 between Paris and St Germain-en-Laye. In 1833, the engineer Alexis Legrand drew up the national railway plan that formed the French rail network. James de Rothschild and Emile Pereire were among those who invested in some of the network’s lines. But the network turned out to be divided into tiny, scattered networks. In 1859, at the instigation of the Duc de Morny, the French rail network was divided between six major companies (Nord, Est, Ouest, PLM, Paris-Orléans and Midi). The French rail network seems to have reached its maximum mileage in 1930, with almost 42,600 kilometres of lines.
 
➤ See the history of railways in France
 
In a Germany that was not unified as it is today, the first German railway line between Nuremberg and Fürth went into service on 7 December 1835 (Bayerische Ludwigsbahn). The Berlin-Potsdam railway followed as the first railway in Prussia, covering 14 km from Zehlendorf to Potsdam and continuing a few months later to Berlin.

The German Reich was fragmented into several smaller nation states, each with sovereignty over traffic. Moreover, Germany was still an agricultural country with a low level of industrialisation. Before 1870, numerous public and private railways existed side by side. With the unification of the Reich in 1871, work began on the complete nationalisation of the railway sector. To avoid Prussian influence, 8 large state railway administrations were created: Baden, Bayern, Sachsen, Württemberg, Hessen, Elsass-Lothringen, Mecklenburg and Oldenburg.
 
The individual railway companies were subsequently supervised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and from 1878 by the Ministry of Public Works. Cooperation between the railway administrations of the Länder led to the joint operation of the German national railways in 1903 and the joint operation of freight wagons in 1909. By 1914, the rail network of the German Empire had reached a total length of 64,000 kilometres.
 
➤ See the history of railways in Germany

Other countries followed similar paths. Above all, the period from the origins of the railways to the Great War of 1914 was marked by the multiplicity of projects and the extension of the network, which reached its apogee in almost all European countries at the beginning of 1900. It is worth noting that, in addition to state railways, the major countries also had large companies, which were extended at the beginning of the 1920s, as well as numerous local railways.

In the meantime, many companies had built majestic stations, whose purpose at the time was to magnify rail transport.  
 
➤ See changes in passenger station architecture 
 
As technical advances were made, steam locomotives grew in importance, able to pull increasingly heavy loads. By the turn of the 20th century, rail transport had reached its peak, with both state-owned and private companies operating. A vast secondary network, often narrow-gauge, supplemented the ‘great railway’ for fine services. 🟧

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