The Broad Gauge
At its height the Broad gauge network stretched from London to Cornwall, and from the south coast to the Midlands and across through southern Wales. In terms of scale this must make it Brunel's biggest and costliest failure. Yet it is hard to condemn a system that was actually superior to the one it was eventually replaced by. This wasn't a case of a good idea giving way to a better one, it was all about who had the greater weight of numbers on their side in terms of territory covered.
When Brunel was appointed as engineer to the Great Western Railway in March 1833, he determined that it was going to be the finest railway in Britain. The railways were so new that there were no ground rules laid down by government or any other body regarding engineering details such as the choice of gauge, the distance between the rails. In the north of England George Stephenson had chosen the 4 feet 8.5 inch (1.4 metres) gauge for the Stockton & Darlington Railway simply because it was already being used in the collieries which it served, and naturally enough his son, Robert Stephenson, followed suit. That all seemed a long way from the Bristol to London railway that Brunel was designing. He dismissed the northern 'coal wagon' gauge in favour of a wider one at 7 feet and a quarter inch (2.1 metres) as he felt this would be 'more commensurate with the mass and velocity to be attained'. One of his early proposals had been that the railway carriages would be contained within the wheels rather than sitting above them, although this was never put into practice.
It has been suggested that Brunel chose a different gauge for the sake of being different from his rivals, but whether or not this is true the 'broad gauge', as it became known, was ratified by the GWR Board in 1835. The GWR would pioneer its own way and it was going to be magnificent. Brunel also had his own method of supporting the rails using longitudinal timber sleepers running the whole of their length, joined by cross sleepers at 15 feet (4.6 metre) intervals and anchored by beech piles driven into the ground. Once trains actually started running on these tracks it was discovered that the rigidity of the piling resulted in an extremely bumpy ride as the sections between them flexed up and down. Consequently, the piles were pulled up or driven down clear of the track.
Over the next ten years, from 1835 to 1845, the various railway networks spread their spidery fingers across the map of Britain. The GWR extended westward beyond Bristol and the new lines connecting to it, with Brunel as their engineer, were also built to the broad gauge. It is sometimes overlooked that Brunel was not alone in adopting a 'non-standard' gauge. About a hundred miles of the London & North Western Railway had been constructed to a gauge of 5 feet (1.5 metres), some Scottish lines had been laid with 4 feet 6 inch (1.3 metre) and 5 feet 6 inch (1.7 metre) gauges, and the Surrey Iron Railway was of 4 feet (1.2 metre) gauge. Opinions varied on the merits of the various gauges, both in terms of performance and the desirability of standardisation but matters only came to a head when different gauges met head on. This happened for the first time at Gloucester where the Midland Railway met an extension of the GWR. Brunel's solution was the transit shed which had broad gauge track entering on one side of a central platform and the 'standard gauge', as it was already being referred to, on the other. All passengers, their luggage and goods had to be laboriously transferred from one train to the other. This resulted in pandemonium, as described by The Illustrated London News:
It was found at Gloucester that to trans-ship the contents of one wagon full of miscellaneous merchandise to another, from one Gauge to another, takes about an hour; with all the force of porters you can put to work on it In the hurry the bricks are miscounted, the slates chipped at the edges, the cheeses cracked, the ripe fruit and vegetables crushed and spoiled; the chairs, furniture, oil cakes, cast-iron pots, grates and ovens all more or less broken... Whereas, if there had not been any interruption of gauge, the whole train would in all probability have been at its destination long before the transfer of the last article, and without any damage or delay.
The government called for a Royal Commission to look into the matter. Forty-four witnesses gave evidence on behalf of the standard gauge, while the broad gauge was defended by only four, including Brunel and Gooch. Trials between the two factions were conducted with trains travelling between Didcot and London, and the broad gauge came out on top. But with considerably more miles of standard gauge than broad, the Commissioners recommended that for the sake of uniformity the 4 feet 8.5 inches (1.42 metres) should be declared the gauge for all public railways. In 1846, the Gauge Act dictated that all new lines had to conform to the standard gauge, unless they were extensions to the existing broad gauge network. Although the use of mixed gauge lines kept the broad gauge trains working for another fifty years, but this had many drawbacks not least of which was the cost, and gradually the broad gauge lines were converted to standard. In 1892 the remaining 415 miles (668 km) of broad gauge, between London and Penzance, were converted in an extraordinary show of organisation lasting thirty-one hours over the weekend of 21-22 May.
For many the broad gauge represents a lost opportunity. A Punch cartoon portrayed the ghost of Brunel passing among the navvies as they carried out their work. Entitled 'The Burial of the Broad Gauge' it bade farewell with the words, 'Good-bye, poor old Broad Gauge, God bless you.'
Brunel and locomotives
It is a curious fact that Brunel's genius did not extend to the design of locomotives. When it came to placing the orders for the first locomotives he imposed a set of specifications upon the builders that could only result in an inferior performance. A speed of 30 mph (48 km/h) was to be considered the 'standard velocity', and at that rate the piston speed should not exceed 280 feet per minute, whereas 500 feet per minute was not at all unusual on the standard gauge locomotives already in service. Consequently, the first examples built to his requirements and delivered in early 1838, featured excessively large driving wheels powered by undersized boilers. They proved to be underpowered and unreliable, and in the ensuing furore Brunel's reputation and his job were on the line. L. T. C. Rolt, Brunel's most celebrated biographer, didn't pull any punches when he summed up the situation:
For the motive power troubles which beset the Great Western in its earliest days Brunel was far more culpable; indeed it is safe to say that these first locomotives represent the most inexplicable blunder in his whole engineering career.
At its height the Broad gauge network stretched from London to Cornwall, and from the south coast to the Midlands and across through southern Wales. In terms of scale this must make it Brunel's biggest and costliest failure. Yet it is hard to condemn a system that was actually superior to the one it was eventually replaced by. This wasn't a case of a good idea giving way to a better one, it was all about who had the greater weight of numbers on their side in terms of territory covered.
When Brunel was appointed as engineer to the Great Western Railway in March 1833, he determined that it was going to be the finest railway in Britain. The railways were so new that there were no ground rules laid down by government or any other body regarding engineering details such as the choice of gauge, the distance between the rails. In the north of England George Stephenson had chosen the 4 feet 8.5 inch (1.4 metres) gauge for the Stockton & Darlington Railway simply because it was already being used in the collieries which it served, and naturally enough his son, Robert Stephenson, followed suit. That all seemed a long way from the Bristol to London railway that Brunel was designing. He dismissed the northern 'coal wagon' gauge in favour of a wider one at 7 feet and a quarter inch (2.1 metres) as he felt this would be 'more commensurate with the mass and velocity to be attained'. One of his early proposals had been that the railway carriages would be contained within the wheels rather than sitting above them, although this was never put into practice.
It has been suggested that Brunel chose a different gauge for the sake of being different from his rivals, but whether or not this is true the 'broad gauge', as it became known, was ratified by the GWR Board in 1835. The GWR would pioneer its own way and it was going to be magnificent. Brunel also had his own method of supporting the rails using longitudinal timber sleepers running the whole of their length, joined by cross sleepers at 15 feet (4.6 metre) intervals and anchored by beech piles driven into the ground. Once trains actually started running on these tracks it was discovered that the rigidity of the piling resulted in an extremely bumpy ride as the sections between them flexed up and down. Consequently, the piles were pulled up or driven down clear of the track.
Over the next ten years, from 1835 to 1845, the various railway networks spread their spidery fingers across the map of Britain. The GWR extended westward beyond Bristol and the new lines connecting to it, with Brunel as their engineer, were also built to the broad gauge. It is sometimes overlooked that Brunel was not alone in adopting a 'non-standard' gauge. About a hundred miles of the London & North Western Railway had been constructed to a gauge of 5 feet (1.5 metres), some Scottish lines had been laid with 4 feet 6 inch (1.3 metre) and 5 feet 6 inch (1.7 metre) gauges, and the Surrey Iron Railway was of 4 feet (1.2 metre) gauge. Opinions varied on the merits of the various gauges, both in terms of performance and the desirability of standardisation but matters only came to a head when different gauges met head on. This happened for the first time at Gloucester where the Midland Railway met an extension of the GWR. Brunel's solution was the transit shed which had broad gauge track entering on one side of a central platform and the 'standard gauge', as it was already being referred to, on the other. All passengers, their luggage and goods had to be laboriously transferred from one train to the other. This resulted in pandemonium, as described by The Illustrated London News:
It was found at Gloucester that to trans-ship the contents of one wagon full of miscellaneous merchandise to another, from one Gauge to another, takes about an hour; with all the force of porters you can put to work on it In the hurry the bricks are miscounted, the slates chipped at the edges, the cheeses cracked, the ripe fruit and vegetables crushed and spoiled; the chairs, furniture, oil cakes, cast-iron pots, grates and ovens all more or less broken... Whereas, if there had not been any interruption of gauge, the whole train would in all probability have been at its destination long before the transfer of the last article, and without any damage or delay.
The government called for a Royal Commission to look into the matter. Forty-four witnesses gave evidence on behalf of the standard gauge, while the broad gauge was defended by only four, including Brunel and Gooch. Trials between the two factions were conducted with trains travelling between Didcot and London, and the broad gauge came out on top. But with considerably more miles of standard gauge than broad, the Commissioners recommended that for the sake of uniformity the 4 feet 8.5 inches (1.42 metres) should be declared the gauge for all public railways. In 1846, the Gauge Act dictated that all new lines had to conform to the standard gauge, unless they were extensions to the existing broad gauge network. Although the use of mixed gauge lines kept the broad gauge trains working for another fifty years, but this had many drawbacks not least of which was the cost, and gradually the broad gauge lines were converted to standard. In 1892 the remaining 415 miles (668 km) of broad gauge, between London and Penzance, were converted in an extraordinary show of organisation lasting thirty-one hours over the weekend of 21-22 May.
For many the broad gauge represents a lost opportunity. A Punch cartoon portrayed the ghost of Brunel passing among the navvies as they carried out their work. Entitled 'The Burial of the Broad Gauge' it bade farewell with the words, 'Good-bye, poor old Broad Gauge, God bless you.'
Brunel and locomotives
It is a curious fact that Brunel's genius did not extend to the design of locomotives. When it came to placing the orders for the first locomotives he imposed a set of specifications upon the builders that could only result in an inferior performance. A speed of 30 mph (48 km/h) was to be considered the 'standard velocity', and at that rate the piston speed should not exceed 280 feet per minute, whereas 500 feet per minute was not at all unusual on the standard gauge locomotives already in service. Consequently, the first examples built to his requirements and delivered in early 1838, featured excessively large driving wheels powered by undersized boilers. They proved to be underpowered and unreliable, and in the ensuing furore Brunel's reputation and his job were on the line. L. T. C. Rolt, Brunel's most celebrated biographer, didn't pull any punches when he summed up the situation:
For the motive power troubles which beset the Great Western in its earliest days Brunel was far more culpable; indeed it is safe to say that these first locomotives represent the most inexplicable blunder in his whole engineering career.
Fortunately salvation came in two forms. Firstly, the GWR got its hands on North Star, a 2-2-2 locomotive built by the Robert Stephenson Company in Newcastle. North Star had been intended for a railroad company in New Orleans which went out of business before the locomotive could be shipped out to them. It was converted from the American 5 feet 6 inch (1.7 metre) gauge to Brunel's broad gauge and it was North Star that hauled the GWR's inaugural train on 31 May 1838. Secondly, a brilliant young engineer named Daniel Gooch joined the company as Locomotive Superintendent. Gooch's superior skills as a mechanical engineer must have rankled with Brunel at first, but over the years they became close friends. Brunel's great broad gauge experiment cost the GWR dearly.
Sunday 22 May 1892, the task of converting the 171 miles of railway between Exeter and Penzance from broad to standard gauge was nearing completion. This photograph shows work in progress at Plymouth Millbay station. A standard gauge locomotive has appeared to test the new track, which remains the Brunel-designed longitudinal baulk road. The train service which had been broad gauge until it was suspended on Friday 20 May, restarted on the standard gauge on Monday 23 May. Photograph in the Robinson collection, Great Western Trust.
Following the gauge conversion in 1892 the engineering works at Swindon became a graveyard for the unwanted broad gauge locomotives waiting to be scrapped.
The North Star and Iron Duke escaped this fate for a while, but in 1906 they too were scrapped because they occupied too much space in the workshops. Only North Star's 7 feet (2.1 metre) driving wheels were kept and these formed the basis of a replica built to mark the GWR's centenary in 1935; it now resides in the GWR Steam Museum in Swindon. Other replicas have been built including an Iron Duke, which is, at the time of writing, on display at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway at Toddington. There is also the Fire Fly, a working replica based at the GWR Society's centre in Didcot. The only genuine broad gauge loco to survive is a small vertical engine known as Tiny which is at Buckfastleigh in Devon. However, the greatest and most enduring monument to the broad gauge is Brunel's magnificent railway line which runs from London to Bristol.
The End of Broad Gauge
Friday 20 May 1892, the Great Western Railway’s last through broad gauge train to Penzance, ‘The Cornishman’, left Paddington station at 10.15 am (this photograph). The locomotive used for the first part of the journey was ‘Great Western’ and the train was taken from Plymouth to Penzance by locomotives 3557 and 1256, reaching Penzance at 9 pm. On board were a GWR director, the Hon C E Edgcumbe, and General Manager Henry Lambert.
The despatch of the train was supervised by District Superintendent Hart and Chief Inspector Craig with three of his colleagues and it left to cheers from staff and members of the public. Large crowds to see the train were on stations en route including Swindon, Bristol, Exeter, Newton Abbot and Plymouth.
The last broad gauge train to leave Paddington was the 5.00 p.m. train to Plymouth hauled as far as Bristol by 4-2-2 locomotive ‘Bulkeley’ which returned from Bristol to Paddington with the up Mail train. The last broad gauge train had left Penzance at 9.45 pm on Friday 20 May. There was another special stopping train from Penzance at 10.00 pm reaching Exeter at 5 am. It was carrying Inspector Scantlebury who was distributing certificates and instructions to those along the route supervising the work of removing the broad rolling stock and track over the weekend.
Thus, the final abolition of the broad gauge took place in the West of England on Saturday and Sunday 21 and 22 May. At that time mixed gauge was already available between Paddington and Exeter, in the Plymouth area, between Truro and Penzance and on certain branch lines. There were also a few new branches which had been built as standard gauge. The route mileage which had to be converted was 171 of which 42 miles were double track. The men who had been drafted in to do the work stayed in waiting rooms, goods sheds and tents. They were fed with a mixture of oatmeal, water and sugar. No alcohol was provided or allowed. Each of the 4,200 platelayers involved was presented with a two-ounce pouch of Wills tobacco by GWR director Sir William Henry Wills.
At the end of the broad gauge era there were 111 GWR locomotives and 21 South Devon Railway locomotives which were capable of conversion to standard gauge. The GWR had 426 broad gauge coaches which were capable of being converted, and 129 which were not. The cost of the change from 'Broad Gauge' to 'Standard Gauge' was in the region of £800,000 (around £85,000,000 at today’s (2024) values).
Friday 20 May 1892, the Great Western Railway’s last through broad gauge train to Penzance, ‘The Cornishman’, left Paddington station at 10.15 am (this photograph). The locomotive used for the first part of the journey was ‘Great Western’ and the train was taken from Plymouth to Penzance by locomotives 3557 and 1256, reaching Penzance at 9 pm. On board were a GWR director, the Hon C E Edgcumbe, and General Manager Henry Lambert.
The despatch of the train was supervised by District Superintendent Hart and Chief Inspector Craig with three of his colleagues and it left to cheers from staff and members of the public. Large crowds to see the train were on stations en route including Swindon, Bristol, Exeter, Newton Abbot and Plymouth.
The last broad gauge train to leave Paddington was the 5.00 p.m. train to Plymouth hauled as far as Bristol by 4-2-2 locomotive ‘Bulkeley’ which returned from Bristol to Paddington with the up Mail train. The last broad gauge train had left Penzance at 9.45 pm on Friday 20 May. There was another special stopping train from Penzance at 10.00 pm reaching Exeter at 5 am. It was carrying Inspector Scantlebury who was distributing certificates and instructions to those along the route supervising the work of removing the broad rolling stock and track over the weekend.
Thus, the final abolition of the broad gauge took place in the West of England on Saturday and Sunday 21 and 22 May. At that time mixed gauge was already available between Paddington and Exeter, in the Plymouth area, between Truro and Penzance and on certain branch lines. There were also a few new branches which had been built as standard gauge. The route mileage which had to be converted was 171 of which 42 miles were double track. The men who had been drafted in to do the work stayed in waiting rooms, goods sheds and tents. They were fed with a mixture of oatmeal, water and sugar. No alcohol was provided or allowed. Each of the 4,200 platelayers involved was presented with a two-ounce pouch of Wills tobacco by GWR director Sir William Henry Wills.
At the end of the broad gauge era there were 111 GWR locomotives and 21 South Devon Railway locomotives which were capable of conversion to standard gauge. The GWR had 426 broad gauge coaches which were capable of being converted, and 129 which were not. The cost of the change from 'Broad Gauge' to 'Standard Gauge' was in the region of £800,000 (around £85,000,000 at today’s (2024) values).
Legacy
Railways became the main means of transport, to move people and freight. By 1845 over 30 million people travelled by rail on 2,400 miles of track. People could travel to London from Bristol on Brunel’s railway, do a day’s work, and return to Bristol on the same day, utterly exhausted just like today! Brunel helped to improve the railways with several engineering projects at this time. Businesses became national instead of just local, and an excellent example of this is the strawberry line, which joined Cheddar, just south of Bristol, where strawberries are grown to Brunel’s main line, which transported the fresh strawberries to market in London. Impossible before Brunel’s railway opened. Another example is the rhubarb triangle in Yorkshire, where up to 20 tons of rhubarb was picked a day, mostly for the London market. Londoners had never been so regular, and their pots and pans so shiny!
Railway engines became more powerful and by 1890 trains were hauling 50 wagons weighing 50 tons each. Trams became popular in the 1800’s drawn by horses, and then electric trams which started in the 1880’s; so the daily drudge of commuting was born. Bristol was the first city to have electric trams. Workers also used railways to go on holiday, and for the first time, holidays to the seaside became fashionable. Thomas Cook offered his first holidays to the Temperance society in 1837, offering holidays by rail, initially in Britain, then in Europe and ultimately the world.
Railways became the main means of transport, to move people and freight. By 1845 over 30 million people travelled by rail on 2,400 miles of track. People could travel to London from Bristol on Brunel’s railway, do a day’s work, and return to Bristol on the same day, utterly exhausted just like today! Brunel helped to improve the railways with several engineering projects at this time. Businesses became national instead of just local, and an excellent example of this is the strawberry line, which joined Cheddar, just south of Bristol, where strawberries are grown to Brunel’s main line, which transported the fresh strawberries to market in London. Impossible before Brunel’s railway opened. Another example is the rhubarb triangle in Yorkshire, where up to 20 tons of rhubarb was picked a day, mostly for the London market. Londoners had never been so regular, and their pots and pans so shiny!
Railway engines became more powerful and by 1890 trains were hauling 50 wagons weighing 50 tons each. Trams became popular in the 1800’s drawn by horses, and then electric trams which started in the 1880’s; so the daily drudge of commuting was born. Bristol was the first city to have electric trams. Workers also used railways to go on holiday, and for the first time, holidays to the seaside became fashionable. Thomas Cook offered his first holidays to the Temperance society in 1837, offering holidays by rail, initially in Britain, then in Europe and ultimately the world.
