George Stephenson - Father of the Railways?

2023 is the 175th anniversary of the death of English engineer George Stephenson. 2022 was the 200th anniversary of the start of engineering works for his Stockton & Darlington Tramway, the world's first passenger steam railway. He went on to survey and/or engineer most of steam railway lines built in northern England over the following 15 years, including the first five railways in the world to be built for locomotives. This led to his epithet 'Father of the railways'. Hunter Davies, his biographer, reckons he is "one of the greatest ever Britons". The British public seems to agree. They voted him 65th in the BBC's 100 Greatest Britons poll, one of only two civil engineers to make the list, along with Brunel. It is a good time to investigate whether his reputation and epithets are deserved, then to take a tour of the places he lived and worked.

George Stephenson's career

George Stephenson was born into a mine working family, all living in one room at Wylam near Newcastle. He started work, uneducated and illiterate, as soon as he was able. He became a steam engine operator at 17.  His career took off in 1811 when, aged 30, he was appointed enginewright at Killingworth Colliery. He built his first locomotive, 'Blücher', at the Killingworth Colliery engine shop in 1814. He went on to build 14 or 15 more locomotives over the next six years, including 'Killingworth Billy' (above), the most advanced locomotive of its day. In the meantime, he invented the 'Geordie' miners' safety lamp.

In 1819, Stephenson was appointed part-time chief engineer at Hetton Colliery Railway, for which he surveyed the route, selected the static engines, and provided the rails and the locomotives. In 1821, he was appointed chief engineer at the Stockton and Darlington Railway, for which he surveyed the route, built the line, and provided the locomotives. The S&DR opened in 1825. Meanwhile, he had been appointed chief engineer at the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway and the landmark Liverpool & Manchester Railway, for which he surveyed the route, built the line, and provided the locomotives. Both opened in 1830.

These were pioneering days for steam railways. Hetton was the first railway designed for locomotives, and the first to operate without animal power. Its locomotives were the first to have some sort of suspension. The S&DR was the first railway to use malleable iron edge rails and the first public steam railway to carry passengers. The Liverpool & Manchester was the first inter-city railway, the first to have a signalling system, the first to be double tracked, the first to issue tickets, and the first to have a timetable. They all used Stephenson's 4' 8½" gauge. These features became standard on most of the world's public railways.

Stephenson got the commission for the L&MR by famously winning the Rainhill Trials with his locomotive 'The Rocket'. The trials were a seminal moment in railway history, when steam locomotion moved into the mainstream. The press were there in force. It was actively publicised as a spectator event. It captured the public's imagination. The great and the good attended, including Wellington, Prime Minister at the time. George Stephenson was on the footplate, driving The Rocket. It was the only entrant that fulfilled the minimum performance criteria. All the others broke down. If it were not for The Rocket, the press, the public and the City might have turned negative on steam railways, the L&MR might have become a horse drawn railway, and steam railways might have been set back by ten years. 

Winning the Rainhill Trials, and the success of the S&DR and the L&MR, secured Stephenson's reputation. Investors clamoured to involve him in new railway projects. Stephenson surveyed and/or engineered dozens of new and repurposed railways before his retirement from active railway work in 1838.

In 1823, George Stephenson opened his locomotive workshop, Robert Stephenson & Co, jointly owned with Edward Pease and Thomas Richardson, lead promoters of the S&DR, and others. It was the first purpose-built locomotive factory in the world. Their locomotive now named 'Locomotion No. 1' was the first locomotive to run on the S&DR and the therefore the first to haul passengers. Some other early milestone locomotives were built there, not least The Rocket, and some key technological advances were devised there, like the blastpipe.

Engineers from all over the world visited the L&MR and Robert Stephenson & Co, hoping to learn how to build railways and locomotives. Many overseas customers purchased Stephenson locomotives, to be reverse engineered for the establishment of local locomotive production centres. They all adopted Stephenson's proven locomotive designs, valves, couplings, rails, points, gauge, brakes, surveying techniques, and so on.

At the end of his life, Stephenson founded the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and acted as its inaugural President. It is still the primary organisation representing mechanical engineers in Britain, with some 115,000 members and a healthy international presence in 140 countries.

Invention of the miner's safety lamp

Miner's safety lamp exhibition at the National Coal Mining Museum, Wakefield

Stephenson's only non-railway engineering achievement was to devise the first practical miner's safety lamp. A revision of his lamp was known as the 'Geordie lamp', in his honour. They are usually attributed to Sir Humphry Davy, one of the world's greatest scientists, but Stephenson was there first. He tested his first safety lamp at Killingworth Colliery on October 21st 1815, tested an improved version on November 3rd, and a final version on November 30th. It was put into immediate use in Northumberland's coal mines. Davy was a few weeks behind. He presented his design to the Royal Society on November 9th. It was tested at Hebburn Colliery on January 9th 1816, then rolled out through most of the UK outside Northumberland.

Geordie lamps at the Royal Institution

Neither Davy or Stephenson patented their device, so that the benefits could be enjoyed the world over for free. Stephenson received a £200 reward. Davy got a medal and £2,000 cash reward. Northumberland colliery owners thought this unfairly overlooked Stephenson's contribution. They paid him an additional £1,000 reward and published a glowing report on his work.

Davy was furious. He took the attitude that acknowledging someone as ignorant and uneducated as George Stephenson had devised an equivalent innovation to his own, trivialised his achievement and insulted his intellect. He accused Stephenson of stealing his idea and tried to bully Stephenson's sponsors into retracting their endorsement. He was skating on thin ice. Charles Brandling got affidavits from Nicholas Wood and John Moody, who had witnessed the trials, to confirm Stephenson's story.

Davy did not dispute that Stephenson presented and deployed his safety lamp first. Rather, he argued that Stephenson was not smart enough to have devised the Geordie lamp on his own. He seemed to think that Stephenson had effectively stolen his research on small-bore tubes, which is pretty unlikely considering that Stephenson could barely read and would not have understood an academic paper even if he could.

Stephenson's principle was that a flame would not pass through a narrow air inlet tube. His lamp allowed air and fire damp, if present, to enter the lamp and burn but the flame could not pass back through the inlet tubes to ignite the surrounding fire damp gas pockets. Davy's lamp worked on a similar principle. He implemented it with a cylindrical gauze jacket around the flame. Davy worked out his design scientifically. Stephenson worked out his designed by trial and error, exposing it to methane blowers undeground. It is no wonder that Davy was suspicious, given the odds-on chance that Stephenson would blow himself up, but Wood and Moody verified it is what happened.

Davy was clearly mistaken. Stephenson did independently devise the first portable safety lamp, but the argument for priority was irrelevant. Both lamps were only safe when they were in pristine condition and they both emitted too little light. Inevitably, they got damaged underground and miners modified them to emit more light, making them almost as dangerous as naked flames. Worse, mine owners used them to reopen pits that had previously been considered unworkable through fire damp. In practice, accidental mine deaths went up instead of down.

William Clanny devised the first safety lamp, albeit not portable. He kept improving his design, making it brighter and safer, until he made the first recognisable modern safety lamp in 1839. This is the model that was generally adopted around the world. He should take most of the credit for lives saved.

George Stephenson, mechanical engineer

George Stephenson's mechanical engineering reputation is based on some locomotive patents, his association with The Rocket, and a widespread belief that he invented the steam locomotive. We remember as children seeing The Rocket replica at the Science Museum labelled "George Stephenson's Rocket". The plaque above the door of his Dial Cottage reads: "George Stephenson, engineer, inventor of the steam locomotive, lived in this cottage 1805 to 1823". His patents suggest an involvement in some key steam railway advances, including edge rails, malleable iron wheel rims, locomotive suspension, direct cranks into wheel pins and wheel coupling rods. It is often assumed that he also invented the blastpipe, the multi-tubular boiler, and oblique mounted cylinders. There is a lot of confusion.

The easiest of the claims to address is that Stephenson did not invent the steam locomotive. That was indubitably Richard Trevithick, who built his first steam locomotive in 1802, when Stephenson was still operating mine winding gear. Trevithick's last locomotive, 'Catch Me Who Can', was built in 1808. It is interesting then to look at who made the key post-'Catch Me Who Can' locomotive and railway advances, and how many of them were made by George Stephenson.

Wagon with unflanged wheels on 'L' section cast iron plate-way rails and stone mounting blocks at the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, mid-Wales

First, we should explain that the biggest problem with early locomotives was not the engines but the track, which is to say the rails, mounting blocks, fasteners, ballast and subgrade. When Richard Trevithick invented the locomotive in 1802, there were already hundreds of railways in Britain, all designed for horse drawn wagons. The vast majority used inexpensive short lengths of 'L' section rails known as 'plate-way' fastened to stone mounting blocks. They carried wagons with normal flangeless cart wheels (as above). The rails were made of cast iron, or had cast iron liners attached to wooden rails. Cast iron is brittle. Plate-way was strong enough to carry wagons, but prone to cracking under heavy loads or when shocked.

Wagonway with 'L' section cast iron plate-way rails and stone mounting blocks

It was a make or break problem for early locomotives. They needed enough traction between their wheels and rails to 'lift' their load from a standing start, and to haul it up a modest incline. The heavier the locomotive, the proportionally greater the traction, but the much greater the chance of cracking plate-way rails. As Trevithick discovered, if a locomotive was heavy enough to lift and haul a useful load, it was too heavy for plate-way.

Two factors exacerbated the problem. One was that vertical cylinders - as used on Trevithick's Can me who can and locomotives based on it - made a bouncy side-to-side rolling motion, which concentrated the destructive forces, thereby exacerbating rail breakages and dislodging stone mounting blocks. The other was that early locomotives could not raise enough steam to haul a cost effective load. They were a novelty rather than a business opportunity, more costly than horses, but less capable, less flexible and less reliable. Horses were expected to do the lion's share of the work. Even the famous Stockton & Darlington Railway was expected to be mainly hauled by horses, as can be seen on their stamp below.

William Jessop had invented edge rails for the Loughborough and Nanpantan Wagonway which opened in 1796. They were relatively robust compared to plate-way, better able to withstand the weight and jarring from locomotives. But they were expensive. The business case to use locomotives on existing wagonway tracks was marginal. Steam railway entrepreneurs could not justify extra costs, such as replacing existing plate-way rails with edge rails, let alone clearing and building new routes for locomotives. For their first 15 years, locomotives were forced to share whatever rails were being used for the horses, typically plate-way.

Trevithick never managed to build a business case for the widespread adoption of locomotives. He sold his locomotive patents in 1809, to concentrate on other uses of high pressure steam engines. If he had hung on for a couple of years, he might have died a rich man, because escalation of the Peninsula War in 1810 forced up the price of horse fodder enough to make locomotives relatively economic.

John Blenkinsop was the first to spot the opportunity. He commissioned Matthew Murray to design and build the twin-cylinder rack & pinion drive 'Salamanca' and 'Willington' locomotives for the Middleton Railway in 1812. William Hedley came next. He commissioned Thomas Waters to build 'Black Billy' - a Catch Me Who Can clone - for the Wylam Wagonway in 1813. Being single cylinder it was underpowered, so in 1814 Hedley co-oped Timothy Hackworth and Jonathan Forster to build two twin cylinder adaptations of it named 'Puffing Billy' and 'Wylam Dilly'. Around the same time, George Stephenson built 'Blücher' - a Willington clone without the rack & pinion drive - for the Killingworth Wagonway. All of these railways were existing wagonways. All of them intended to keep their horses, sharing the rails between horses and locomotives. In effect, the locomotives were an insurance policy to indemnify mine owners against further rises in the price of fodder.

All of these locomotives derived from Trevithick's. Murray licensed high-pressure engines from Trevithick, then improved Trevithick's locomotive design with twin cylinders and Blenkinsop's rack & pinion drive. Waters was recommended to Hedley by Trevithick, having previously been his agent in the north, so Black Billy was understandably based on Catch me Who Can. Blücher was based on Willingon which was based on Catch me Who Can. Trevithick visited Stephenson's home, where he later recalled playing with Robert Stephenson as a child. This means he must have been there in the early 1810s, before he left for South America. Presumably, he visited George Stephenson to advise on how Willingon might be improved.

The three pioneering railways had different types of rails: Middleton had Jessop's cast iron edge rails with a rack attached to one rail for rack & pinion drive; Wylam had cast iron plate-way; Killingworth had wooden edge rails with cast iron linings. None of them worked terribly well with locomotives. Wylam and Killingworth suffered regular broken rails and dislodged stone mounting blocks. Middleton had relatively few problems with its track, thanks to Jessop's edge rails and relatively light locomotives, but more problems with traction because the rack & pinion drive was prone to disengagement.

Three strategies were tried to mitigate the track problem: 1) To reduce rail brittleness; 2) To reduce the shock being transmitted to the rails; 3) To make locomotives lighter without reducing their haulage capacity. The first of these just meant making rails stronger and longer. The second was achieved by adding shock absorbers, making the engine run more smoothly, or directing the shock away from the rails. The third was achieved by improving boiler efficiency, spreading the load, or improving traction. Catch Me Who Can's running gear had two pairs of cast iron drive wheels linked by a cog. Improvements came by increasing the number of drive wheels, improving the link between the drive wheels, or by increasing the coefficient of friction between drive wheels and the rails.

Here then is the list of the important post-Catch Me Who Can advances:

1812  Rack and pinion drive (first used on Salamanca), to improve traction Blenkinsop
1812 Double-acting twin cylinders (Salamanca), to reduce bounce and roll Murray
1812 Malleable iron wheel rims (Salamanca), to reduce wheel damage and increase traction Murray
1812 More than two axels (Salamanca), albeit only three, to spread the load Murray
1812 Locomotive bogie (patent), to spread the load, first used by Hedley in 1815 on Puffing Billy Chapman
1813 Roughened wheel rims to improve adhesion
 (patent)
Hedley
1814 Chain link to second drive axel (Blücher), to increase traction G. Stephenson
1815 Extra axels (five on Puffing Billy) to spread the load Hedley
1816 'Steam spring' shock absorber (Wellington), to reduce rail shock (patent) G. Stephenson & Dodds
1816 Coupling rods (patent) between drive wheels (Killingworth Billy), to improve traction G. Stephenson & Dodds
1816 Drive rods (patent) between piston end and ball & socket joint on the drive wheel (Wellington), to reduce bounce and roll G. Stephenson & Dodds
1816 Half-lap edge rail joint (patent), to stabilise rails and to reduce shear forces on mounting blocks, first used at Hetton G. Stephenson & Losh
1820 Malleable iron edge rails (patent), first used on the S&DR Birkenshaw
1826 Inclined cylinders (Experiment), to direct the shock away from the rails and improve the ride Hackworth
1827 Leaf spring suspension (Lancashire Witch), to reduce rail shock R. Stephenson
1827 Blastpipe (Royal George), to improve boiler efficiency Hackworth
1829 Efficient multi-tubular boiler (The Rocket), to improve boiler efficiency R. Stephenson
1830 Long firebox (Northumbrian), to improve boiler efficiency R. Stephenson
1830 Near horizontal cylinders (Northumbrian), to direct shock away from rails and improve the ride R. Stephenson

So, George Stephenson devised the chain axel link, the 'steam spring' shock absorber, the drive rod, the coupling rod, and the half-lap edge rail joint. The chain axel link failed. The 'steam spring' was soon discarded, proving to be unreliable and only marginally effective. The half-lap joint was superceded within four years by Birkenshaw's malleable iron edge rail. So, George Stephenson's only lasting mechanical engineering advances were the drive rod and the coupling rod, used on virtually every steam locomotive that followed. They were an improvement over Trevithick's cog linkage, though hardly revolutionary.

We have to mention the two mechanical engineering achievements most closely associated with George Stephenson: 'Standard Gauge', used by virtually every railway in the world, and The Rocket.

It is usually said that George Stephenson designed The Rocket in conjunction with his son Robert. It seems implausible to us that George's input was anything more than cosmetic. He was never a great or innovative mechanical engineer in the first place. His Killingworth Billy was the most advanced locomotive in the world when it was built, but it was mainly culled from the best bits of Catch Me Who CanWillington and Puffing Billy. Stephenson's only original contribution was its coupling rods. Moreover, George had spent ten years civil engineering before the Rainhill Trials, paying scant attention to his locomotives. Robert returned from South America in 1827 to find that Stephenson's locomotives were technologically obselete, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. If George could not devise mechanical enginering innovations to save his company, it is difficult to imagine what he could bring to The Rocket. Robert on the other hand was a brilliant mechanical engineer. He designed innovative state-of-the-art locomotives before he went to South America and after he returned. We are convinced that he designed all the important parts of The Rocket.

George Stephenson unquestionably established Standard Gauge, but more through chance than judgement. Wagonway rails were set at roughly 4' 8" gauge because it was the width of a horse's harness. Early locomotives had to run on wagonway rails, so they inherited the wagonway's gauge. The reason that Stephenson chose to add the extra half inch is lost in the mists of time, probably something to do with the switch from plate-way to edge rails, but it is incidental. A foot or more extra gauge was needed to significantly improve locomotive performance, a fact not lost on Brunel who set the Great Western's  'Wide Gauge' at 7 foot. Had Wide Gauge been universally adopted, it would have given us faster trains, more passengers, less pollution, smoother rides and hardly any derailments. True, it would have needed more land and wider tunnels, but land and labour were cheap and plentiful in those days. Standard Gauge just locked the world into a suboptimal standard.

It is not that George Stephenson was a poor mechanical engineer. He had a wealth of practical experience. He had a natural empathy with steam engines. He had an unusual talent for identifying faults in steam engines and fixing them. It was this skill that got him the job as Killingworth enginewright, the gateway to all his subsequent achievements. He also had a gift for spotting good engineering ideas and no fear of adopting them early. Nor was he greedy or precious about his own inventions: he chose to use malleable iron edge rails on the S&DR, even though he had a business interest in half-lap cast iron rails. These are valuable practical skills, but they do not make him a great engineer.

George Stephenson, civil engineer and businessman

In 1819, George Stephenson got his first civil engineering commission, to survey and build Hetton Colliery Railway, then the biggest colliery in the world. He could only work on it part-time because he still had a full-time job as enginewright at Killingworth Colliery. Brother Robert was appointed resident engineer. The line was not terribly successful in the early years, due to a combination of cost cutting by the owners, the uncertainties of pioneering, and George's inexperience. He got sacked, but not before he had won the commission to survey and engineer the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

Remains of Gaunless Bridge @ Locomotion Museum

George and son Robert worked together on the S&DR. They surveyed the route, engineered the line, designed the lenticular iron truss bridge over the River Gaunless (above), and eventually provided the locomotives out of Robert Stephenson & Co. This workshop was founded by George Stephenson in 1823 with backing from the S&DR shareholders. It was initially managed by Robert, still only 21. He left for Columbia later that year. George appointed James Kennedy then Timothy Hackworth to run the factory, while he concentrated on surveying and civil engineering.

In 1824, George Stephenson won the commission to survey and build the landmark Liverpool & Manchester Railway. His route plan survives, now at the Science Museum (above), albeit seldom on display.

Sankey Viaduct, the world's first railway viaduct, near Newton-Le-Willows

The L&MR was a serious civil engineering challenge with 63 bridges, steep slopes at the Wapping and Crown Street Tunnels, a deep cutting at Olive Mount, the nine-arch Sankey Viaduct (above), a skew arch bridge at Rainhill and a swamp crossing at Chat Moss. The latter was previously thought to have been impossible. It is usually said that Stephenson designed the viaduct, tunnels, bridges and causeway, but his lack of theoretical and mathematical skills make it unlikely. We guess that the challenging engineering designs and their implementation were performed by his team of brilliant resident engineers: Jesse Hartley for the bridges, Joseph Locke for the Chat Moss floating causeway, Charles Vignoles and Joseph Locke for the tunnels, and Thomas Gooch for Sankey Viaduct.

While the L&MR was being built, George Stephenson was involved as surveyor and/or engineer on the Bowes (cable) Railway, the Bolton & Leigh, and the Canterbury & Whitstable. By the time the L&MR opened in 1830, Stephenson had civil engineered, in part or in whole, the first five newly constructed steam railway lines in the world. He was much better at it by then and had earned as much locomotive railway civil engineering experience as everyone else combined.

Stephenson had a safety-first approach to surveying routes, realizing that early locomotives could not raise enough steam to haul a useful load up a slope greater than 1 in 330. His routes featured lots of meandering to circumvent steeper slopes, and 'inclined planes', whereby static engines hauled locomotives and their carriages up steep slopes with cables. He also invented the 'Dandy wagon', which carried a horse that could be unloaded to augment the locomotive on steeper slopes.

In the early days, other railway engineers adopted Stephenson's civil engineering approach. By the Rainhill Trials in 1830, not least by the efforts of his son, locomotives could raise much more steam. George Stephenson's protege Joseph Locke realised this would allow them to climb steeper slopes, with room for further improvement. Locke went independent, recommending more direct routes. Railway promoters liked the cost saving, faster construction and reduced travelling time. Other railway engineers, including Robert Stephenson, soon adopted Locke's approach.

George Stephenson's civil engineering abilities improved but were never more than modest. According to Smiles, the Institution of Civil Engineers thought so little of his abilities that they asked him to send "a probationary essay as proof of his capacity as an engineer" when he applied for membership, despite him having surveyed or engineered more new locomotive railway lines than anyone in the world. Among his many inadequacies, were a complete lack of financial, mathematical and theorical acumen, one reason why he always erred on the side of caution. His cost estimates proved to be wildly inaccurate. He was inarticulate, and a poor manager with a spikey character and huge chip on his shoulder. Edward Pease and Nicholas Wood remained close friends and the Grand Allies continued to support him, but he managed to fall out with useful associates like Locke and Vignoles.

Stephenson's character weaknesses nearly derailed the deployment of steam locomotives indefinitely. In the mid-1820s, there was a fundamental disagreement among entrepreneurs and politicans about the relative merits of locomotives versus static engines, the latter hauling wagons with cables or chains. George Stephenson was the main advocate for locomotives, but he could not portray his agument coherrently. Static engines were winning the battle, until Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke turned the tide with their 1828 joint paper "Observations on the Comparative Merits of Locomotives and Fixed Engines".

Despite his inadquacies, George Stephenson was inundated with work after 1830. Railway promoters recognised that his involvement in their projects would speed their Bill through Parliament and guarantee investors would stump up enough cash. The rest of George's professional life became a whirl of projects, often with ten or more running simultaneously. Samuel Smiles reproduced his diary from August, 1838, when he was winding down to retirement. He had director meetings or surveys for the South Union Railway, the Manchester and Leeds, the Chester and Birkenhead, the Chester and Crewe, the Maryport and Carlisle, the Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Ayr, the Edinburgh and Dunbar, the Brandling Junction, the Great North of England, and the York and North Midland.

George Stephenson retired a wealthy man. It might seem unlikely for someone devoid of business acumen and numeracy, but he used inside knowledge from his projects to invest early in promising ventures. Sometimes this was in the railway project itself, other times it was in mines to exploit mineral deposits that had been discovered during surveys for railway routes. He bought the land and/or mineral rights cheaply because no one else knew its value. It seems a little seedy these days but insider trading was standard practice then, seen as a perk of the job.

Insider trading aside, George's business acumen was dismal. He never understood accounts. His cost estimates were sometimes out by a factor of ten. Politicians and rival engineers mocked his childish business plans. Money leaked out of his factories through incompetence and theft. He was difficult to work for, both stubborn and unreasonable. Luckily, as with many of George's other affairs, Robert was smart enough to drag his father out of trouble.

In summary, George Stephenson was a successful investor and became a competent civil engineer without ever being outstanding. He was involved in dozens of railways without any engineering calamities, which is a testament to his prudence, his ability to assess qualities in his subordinates and to delegate. He left one of the Victorian era's most prestigious and successful businesses and an extraordinary engineering legacy throughout northern England.

George Stephenson's greatness and momentousness

So, does George Stephenson deserve the epithets 'Father of the railways' or 'Father of the locomotive'? Clearly not the latter. That honour belongs to Richard Trevithick. Stephenson has a better claim to be 'Father of the railways', insofar as he surveyed or engineered the first five newly built locomotive railway lines in the world, and dozens of others, but hundreds of railways had been around for 150 years before he was born, in the form of horse drawn wagonways. If the 'Father of the railways' epithet belongs to anyone, it is Huntingdon Beaumont, who pioneered wagonways.

Stephenson has a better claim on the more specific epithet 'Father of the steam railways', but even this is questionable. Initially, at least, he was just a contractor. He would have got nowhere without his patron, Edward Pease. Christian Wolmar suggests that a better epithet for Stephenson would be 'Midwife of the railways'. He is right. Edward Pease was the real 'Father of the steam railways'. His objective was to make Durham's coal mines the biggest and most efficient in Britain. Locomotives were one component to achieve that goal. He appointed Stephenson to make it happen. It is true that Pease's enthusiasm for railways was partly inspired by Stephenson's vision of a nationwide network of interlinked lines but, in our opinion, that is not enough to take the title away.

George Stephenson's greatness is hugely overstated. He was voted 65th in the 100 Greatest Britons list, but only because most people think he invented the steam locomotive. In reality, he was never more than a journeyman civil engineer or mechanical engineer, whose only lasting innovation was the humble coupling rod. In our opinion, he is nowhere near Britain's greatest mechanical or civil engineer, but he might still be among the most momentous.

Our idea of momentousness means lasting benefit. Of course, he left dozens of railway lines that are still in use. He chose, albeit arbitrarily, the 4' 8½" Standard Gauge that has been adopted for railways throughout the world. He founded Robert Stephenson & Co, which devised many important locomotives advances and became the model for successful locomotive design and construction. It also grew into a valuable business that raised Britain's international profile and (for better or worse) supported the Empire. Momentousness includes intangible achievements, including chains of influence down the generations. Here too, George rates highly. It was his vision that persuaded Edward Pease to back the S&DR and the L&MR, thereby establishing the model for successful railways. He founded the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He mentored some of the most important Victorian railway civil engineers, including Joseph Locke, Thomas Gooch, and above all, his son Robert.

We factor chains of influence into our momentness rankings. There is an argument then that George Stephenson should take the credit for all Robert Stephenson's achievements because Robert would not have achieved anything if he had not been born. But we have an extra rule which is that parenthood does not count, because parents would otherwise always outrank their children, which discredits the child's achievements.

No matter how spikey his character nor how modest his talents, George Stephenson is one of Britain's most momentous civil engineers. In our opinion, Smeaton and Jessop are in a league of their own. George is in the chasing pack along with Brindley, Telford, Rennie, Brunel, son Robert, and Bazelgette. We will give our reasoning in an associated blog about Britain's Most Momentous Civil Engineers. For now we will just declare that George Stephenson comes fifth.

George Stephenson tour

Stephenson was born in High Street House (above), a cottage near Wylam on the banks of the River Tyne. It looks comfortable and spacious today but four Stephenson children and their parents lived in just one room in this cottage until George was eight. It is a World Heritage Site owned by the National Trust, but that has not stopped it being closed due to falling visitor numbers. It is rumoured to be reopening in 2021 but was closed when we were last there. Note that it is only accessible by a 1km walk, but it is an interesting walk that follows the route of the Wylam Wagonway which inspired Stephenson's interest in railways.

The plaque reads: "This tablet was erected by the - Institution of Mechanical Engineers - of which he was the first president - and by the North East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders - Unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne - Councillor Arthur M Lambert M.C. - 8 June 1929 - The year of the centenary of the success of The Rocket at Rainhill".

As a youth, George worked at a string of collieries, including Black Callerton, Dewley Burn, Mid Mill Winning, Throckley Bridge and Water Row, none of which survive, although there is a plaque (above) marking the location at Black Callerton. While George was working at Mid Mill Winning, the family - now with six children - moved nearby into a single room, no longer there, in Jolly's Close. George got his first skilled job as brakesman, operating and maintaining the winding gear at Dolly Pit, Black Callerton. He had lodgings at Lough House, which survives in part on the B5324, although it is set back from the road. After getting married, he moved with new wife Francis to a house at Willington Quay. The house is no longer there either but the street was named after him.

Stephenson's big break was to be appointed brakesman at West Moor Colliery. The colliery has gone, but his home at the time, Dial Cottage (above), survives. It is on the B1505 in Forest Hall, inconguously surrounded by modern housing. 

The sundial above the door was constructed by George and Robert. According to Smiles, Robert worked out the graduations on it by hand. It now bears a plaque inscribed: "GEORGE STEPHENSON, ENGINEER, INVENTOR OF THE LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE LIVED IN THIS COTTAGE FROM 1805 TO 1823; HIS FIRST LOCOMOTIVE (BLUCHER) WAS BUILT AT THE ADJACENT COLLIERY WAGON SHOPS, AND ON JULY 25TH 1814 WAS PLACED ON THE WAGONWAY WHICH CROSSES THE ROAD AT THE EAST END OF THE COTTAGE." It is wrong about Stephenson inventing the locomotive engine, but accurate otherwise. As it says, the workshop where Stephenson constructed his early locomotives for the Killingworth Colliery was adjacent to the cottage.

Robert Stephenson & Co opened in June 1823. It was based in Forth Street, near Newcastle Central Station. Parts of the works survive at 20 South Street, restored by the Robert Stephenson Trust. Many famous locomotives were built here, including Locomotion No.1 (1825), Rocket (1829), Northumbrian (1830), Planet (1830) and Patentee (1833). Many standard features of later locomotives were developed here too, including the blastpipe, the multi-tubular boiler, the Stephenson firebox, and some time later, the Stephenson's Link Motion.

Stephenson moved to 34 Upper Parliament Street in Liverpool (with the blue bins) during the construction of the L&MR. His house is still there with a black plaque next to the door.

In 1830, Stephenson moved to Alton Grange in Leicestershire, to be close to the Leicester and Swannington Railway, for which he was Chief Engineer. For most of this time he lived in what is now Alton House on Alton Hill. It is just about visible from the road.

There are some gaps in Stephenson's living arrangements above because he typically stayed in nearby hotels or lodgings when he was running a project. There must be dozens of them, but the Golden Lion Hotel in Maryport, Cumbria (above) is only one we know for sure that is still open.

In 1838, Stephenson retired to Tapton House, Chesterfield. It is now in a public park owned by the University. His house (above) is clearly visible, although closed to the public.

George Stephenson lived in Tapton House until his death. He is buried nearby in a tomb inside Holy Trinity Church on Newbold Road.

'Killingworth Billy' was long thought to have been built by Robert Stephenson in the mid-1820s, but is now thought to have been built by George Stephenson in 1816. If so, it is the only surviving locomotive designed and built by George Stephenson, probably in the workshop behind Dial Cottage. It is on public display at the Stephenson Steam Railway in North Tyneside (above).

The remains of George Stephenson's Gaunless Bridge and Timothy Hackworth's landmark Locomotion No. 1 are at the Locomotion Museum in Shildon. The town was home to Timothy Hackworth - his house bears a plaque - and the important Soho Engine Works, upon which Locomotion now stands.

Here is the MB2 parked at the Head of Steam museum in Darlington. Its interest is mainly in its Victorian ticket office and Victorian public toilets, but it does have the sofa upon which Stephenson and Pease planned the S&DR.

Stephenson has a fair number of plaques, including on his homes at Wylam, Dial Cottage, 34 Upper Parliament Street and Tapton House, as well as on the Brazino restaurant in Water Row, Chesterfield Station and Eccles Station.

Our favourite George Stephenson statue (above) is outside Chesterfield Station. He has a plaque inside.

The grandest, best known and most appropriately located George Stephenson statue (above) is in Westgate Road, Newcastle.

There is a section on safety lamps in the basement exhibition hall of the Royal Institution, including a shelf dedicated to Stephenson's lamps.


The Stephenson Trail

We thought we would end our tour by walking The Stephenson Trail. You can download it here. It roughly follows the route of the Hetton Colliery Railway to the wharf beside the River Wear in Sunderland.

Parts of the Trail are lovely countryside, but it is long and completely lacking Stephenson memorabilia. Vestiges of the Hetton Colliery Railway appear regularly, sometimes through fields, sometimes through housing estates (below). No one would know. We saw no sign posts or information stands along the entire route. We spoke to some locals who told us that they had no idea that one of the world's most famous railways went past their front door.

We got excited when we read that the Trail passes the house where Robert Stephenson once lived, only to find that it was George's brother, also Robert, that lived there. It is in The Lyons Cottages, bearing a blue plaque to explain the details.

There is a 150m limestone ridge between Hetton and the Wear. It was the biggest engineering challenge on the route. Stephenson chose to make the climb with an inclined plane, pulling the carts up the hill with a static steam engine on the top of Warden Law. We searched around but could find no evidence of it.

There was a tunnel going through what is now Riverside Park to the coal wharfs beside the Wear. Apparently the southern end of the tunnel is still there but it was late in the day and we could not find it. We are going back in December 2021 to renew our search in better light. An impression of the majesty of the wharf can be seen from the structures that remain (above).

If you take the Trail, do not miss the wonderful St Peters Church just over the river. It was once home to the Venerable Bede. The footprint of Bede's monastery has recently been laid out on the ground with the story of his life story etched into the paving stones. Momentous Britain loves stained glass, so it was fun to visit the National Glass Museum next door too.