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First Railway Owned Navigation


Heartland

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I was trying to recall recently which was the first railway owned Navigation. They seem to  be in the North West with contenders including the Manchester Bolton & Bury. But then there was the Sankey Brook which was purchased by the St Helens & Runcorn Gap Railway in 1845. This purchase helped both the railway and canal to get into respective profits after a period of fierce competition.

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Can't answer that, but turning the question around, there were earlier navigation owned railways. For example, while Blisworth Tunnel was still under construction, the rest of the canal was finished, so a horse drawn tramway took goods over the hill, with boats at each end between 1800 and 1805.

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There were many canals that operated railways, or rather tramways either as part of the through route or as feeders to the main system, the Coal Canal was authorised to build them in it's enabling act. However I don't think that's what Ray means so lets define the question a little better. 

 

The first railway company, that is one set up to build and run a railway, that bought out a company that's primary role was to operate a canal, and thus the canal became "railway owned"

 

I don't even reliably know how many canals were railway owned so sorting out which one was first is beyond me - I think I'm right in saying it was around one third of the system. 

 

 

 

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The Thames & Severn Canal was owned by the Great Western Railway from 1882 until it was acquired by Gloucestershire County Council in 1901.

Edited by IanM
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22 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

There were many canals that operated railways, or rather tramways either as part of the through route or as feeders to the main system, the Coal Canal was authorised to build them in it's enabling act. However I don't think that's what Ray means so lets define the question a little better. 

 

The first railway company, that is one set up to build and run a railway, that bought out a company that's primary role was to operate a canal, and thus the canal became "railway owned"

 

I don't even reliably know how many canals were railway owned so sorting out which one was first is beyond me - I think I'm right in saying it was around one third of the system. 

 

 

 

It was also a time of massive consolidation of railway companies. A company that bought out a competing canal might itself have soon been sold to, or combined with other railway companies to form a larger conglomerate, more than once over the decades of the mid 19th century. @Heartland has a date of 1845 for the earliest he is aware of, so at least there are only a couple of decades to search in where companies formed to build and run a railway existed, Even so, working out if there is an earlier one isn't trivial.

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44 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

 

The first railway company, that is one set up to build and run a railway, that bought out a company that's primary role was to operate a canal, and thus the canal became "railway owned"

 

There were also canals which were bought out by railway companies, so they could be converted to a railway. The first was probably the Croydon Canal, replaced by the London and Croydon Railway which obtained its Act of Parliament on 12 June 1836.

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1 hour ago, David Mack said:

 

There were also canals which were bought out by railway companies, so they could be converted to a railway. The first was probably the Croydon Canal, replaced by the London and Croydon Railway which obtained its Act of Parliament on 12 June 1836.

I was trying to think of an example of that - the Croydon is the obvious one but the Aberdeenshire also? Both would be before Heartland's date although in both cases the canal was closed rather than run by the railway company 

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2 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

Perhaps should also add "railway owned and operated" to the definition, the Somersetshire Coal Canal was bought by the GWR, but it was already disused and immediately abandoned 

Why did they bother? Were they intending to fill it in and build a new railway along its line?

I seem to recall that the Shropshire Union styled itself as a "Railway and Canal Company" but I'm not sure if they ever built or operated any railways.

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16 minutes ago, Athy said:

Why did they bother? Were they intending to fill it in and build a new railway along its line?

I seem to recall that the Shropshire Union styled itself as a "Railway and Canal Company" but I'm not sure if they ever built or operated any railways.

 

Did they not operate inclined planes and were not some of theirs tub boat canals with inclined planes. If so that might be where the railway bit came from.

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58 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

I was trying to think of an example of that - the Croydon is the obvious one but the Aberdeenshire also? Both would be before Heartland's date although in both cases the canal was closed rather than run by the railway company 


The Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley Railway was converted in the 1860s I believe by the canal company rather than by being bought out.

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Interesting link - doesn't answer Heartland's orginal question but still...

 

https://www.lmssociety.org.uk/topics/canals.shtml

 

1 hour ago, Captain Pegg said:


The Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley Railway was converted in the 1860s I believe by the canal company rather than by being bought out.

 

I'm noticing a tendency for these topics to very quickly head for "edge of the Kingdom" canals! Flash Locks, obscure lift bridges and now canals converting themselves to railways, all in out of the way places....

Edited by magpie patrick
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2 hours ago, Athy said:

Why did they bother? Were they intending to fill it in and build a new railway along its line?

 

 In part yes, but it also solved a local problem that was becoming a political issue - what to do with the canal. In buying it and abandoning it they removed all grounds of objection to their scheme and even curried a little favour with the locals

 

2 hours ago, Athy said:

Why did they bother? Were they intending to fill it in and build a new railway along its line?

I seem to recall that the Shropshire Union styled itself as a "Railway and Canal Company" but I'm not sure if they ever built or operated any railways.

 

Technically the SU became the "Shropsire Union Railways and Canal Company", but the pedant in me delights that they actually had several canals but only one railway! Fairly quickly they ended up in an arrangement with the LNWR

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A cursory look through the appendices of the Canals of the British Isles series gives the following list (in date order) -0 these are canals and river navigations that were (1) bought or leased by railways and (2) then operated as navigations by the railway company 

 

This list  would suggest the Huddersfield narrow Canal was the first - that said the ownerships get complex in some cases, The SSYN in particular is difficult to unravel as the Don navigation seems to have taken others over and then leased them to railway companies in a rather piecemeal fashion

 

The East of England Volume doesn't give dates in the appendices - it probably does in the text

 

Huddersfield Narrow 1844  
Huddersfield Broad 1845  
St Helens 1845  
Ashby 1846  
BCN 1846  
Macclesfield 1846  
Stourbridge Extension 1846  
Trent and Mersey 1846  
Manchester Bolton and Bury 1846 Canal company had already become a railway company
Chesterfield 1847  
Shropshire Union 1847  
Ripon (and Ure) 1847  
Pocklington 1848  
Ashton 1848  
Glastonbury 1849  
SSYN 1850  
Market Weighton 1850  
Cromford  1852  
Kennet and Avon 1852  
Grand Western 1854  
Grantham 1854  
Nottingham 1855  
Derwent 1855  
Stratford 1856  
Upper Avon 1859  
Stover 1862  
Ulverston 1862  
Newcastle UL 1865  
Bridgwater and Taunton  1866  
Hereford and Gloucester 1870  
Swansea 1873  
Trewyddfa 1873  
Brecon and Abergavenny 1880  
Monmouth 1880 Canal company had already become a railway company
Norwich and Lowestoft    
Witham    
Fossdyke    
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The 1883 Report from the Select Committee on Canals has a significant amount of information in the minutes section, with the Board of Trade Returns under the 1888 Railway & Canal Traffic Act being divided into non-railway owned, and railway owned canals, and could probably be seen as the definitive list.

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22 hours ago, Athy said:

Why did they bother? Were they intending to fill it in and build a new railway along its line?

I seem to recall that the Shropshire Union styled itself as a "Railway and Canal Company" but I'm not sure if they ever built or operated any railways.

 

The Shropshire Union company built the Shrewsbury to Stafford railway line.

 

22 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Did they not operate inclined planes and were not some of theirs tub boat canals with inclined planes. If so that might be where the railway bit came from.

 

Although the difference between a tramway and a railway is a little semantic the general distinction is that a railway enables trains to be locomotive hauled throughout their journey. That's what made the Stockton & Darlington the world's first railway as opposed to another tramway, although it wasn't actually worked exclusively by locomotives upon opening. 

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14 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

 

The Shropshire Union company built the Shrewsbury to Stafford railway line.

 

 

Although the difference between a tramway and a railway is a little semantic the general distinction is that a railway enables trains to be locomotive hauled throughout their journey. That's what made the Stockton & Darlington the world's first railway as opposed to another tramway, although it wasn't actually worked exclusively by locomotives upon opening. 

Thanks for that information.

 

You raise an interesting point. I'm not sure that I agree with you're definition, but I am struggling to think of a better one. Perhaps "lightly built railway", along the, er, lines of what legally became known as a Light Railway after the Act of (from memory) 1897. Here's a rather pleasing light railway which was one of dozens in France which called themselves "Tramways".

tramway Correze.jpg

Edited by Athy
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17 minutes ago, Athy said:

Thanks for that information.

 

You raise an interesting point. I'm not sure that I agree with you're definition, but I am struggling to think of a better one. Perhaps "lightly built railway", along the, er, lines of what legally became known as a Light Railway after the Act of (from memory) 1897. Here's a rather pleasing light railway which was one of dozens in France which called themselves "Tramways".

tramway Correze.jpg

 

The definition I quoted is the one used to identify the Stockton & Darlington as the world's first railway hence it is relevant to the period under discussion.

 

Over time different criteria have come into play, such as track gauge, axle loading, crashworthiness of vehicles and segregation of public space from operational land. Some of which distinguish tramways, others light railways, and some both.

 

However GB's national "heavy" rail network contains one railway that operates under the provisions of a Light Railway Order, that being the Central Wales line from Pantyffynnon to Craven Arms.

 

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The S&D may have been the first public railway, but was preceded by other private lines that used steam locomotives for traction throughout their journeys and were commercially successful. The earliest seems to have been the Middleton Colliery that first used  some  rack-adhesion locomotives designed by Blenkinsop in August 1812. They were a complete commercial success, being cheaper to operate than the horse traction previously employed.  The following year, Blackett and Hedley's "Puffing Billy"  sucessfully used ordinary adhesion on the line ftom Middleton Colliery to a wharf in Leeds, avoiding the need for a rack, and was also cheaper than  horses

Edited by Ronaldo47
typos
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20 hours ago, Athy said:

Thanks for that information.

 

You raise an interesting point. I'm not sure that I agree with you're definition, but I am struggling to think of a better one. Perhaps "lightly built railway", along the, er, lines of what legally became known as a Light Railway after the Act of (from memory) 1897. Here's a rather pleasing light railway which was one of dozens in France which called themselves "Tramways".

tramway Correze.jpg

 

You don't need to go to France to find them like that Athy, don't forget Wisbech and Upwell Tramway.

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2 minutes ago, buccaneer66 said:

 

You don't need to go to France to find them like that Athy, don't forget Wisbech and Upwell Tramway.

How could I? I pass remains of it a couple of times a week!

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Thats why I qouted that one I could also have said Rye & Camber tramway and quite a few others, but it does show that the difference between railway & tramway is rather blurred.

 

But we digress another canal to add to the list is the Liskeard and Looe canal who built there own railway alongside the canal in 1860 because the was so good, both being later purchased by the GWR.

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Certainly some interesting responses and the Croydon Canal does seem to be the first where a railway company took an existing navigation over and used  the route to make a railway. The Huddersfield may be the first where a new railway was made alongside it and the canal kept open. Eventually the Huddersfield Canal passed to the London & North Western Railway as did the Sankey.

 

The Huddersfield Canal was sold to the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway Co in 1844

The Manchester, Bolton and Bury canal became a railway company from 1831 and amalgamated with the Manchester and Leeds railway in 1846 and this is a distinction from a railway company buying the canal or navigation. They also made the railway close to the navigation.

 

As stated the Sankey navigation purchase was to the mutual benefit if the railway company and as a consequence of the combined trading prospects of the railway and canal the profits made enabled  the railway to be improved and extension railways constructed.

 

it is not clear if the Ravenhead Canal to Thatto Heath remained independent, through to closure in 1898 as was suggested by messr Hadfield and Biddle.

 

The BCN was never railway owned. The arrangement act with the London & Birmingham Railway enabled share dividends to be maintained for BCN shareholders and that arrangement was continued through to 1947, but the BCN remained independent, all be it influenced and controlled by future railway companies (LNWR/LMS). There is a difference and from January 1948 passed to the DIWE whilst railway owned canals went to the Railway Executive only to be transferred in most cases to the DIWE later.

 

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