Sheffield and Rotherham Railway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the early nineteenth century, when news broke of the building of the North Midland Railway, it was clear that George Stephenson would follow the gentle gradient of the Rivers Rother and Don, bypassing Sheffield. This must have been at least part of the motivation behind the building of the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway, which ran from Sheffield Wicker railway station to Rotherham Westgate Station.
Much work had already been done in surveying the land between Rotherham and Sheffield with plans being put forward for a canal linking Tinsley to Sheffield earlier in the century. This was originally planned to follow a route to the north of the River Don to a basin in (or near) Saville Street. Plans were changed when it was realised that this route would preclude coal from the Duke of Norfolk's estate from directly reaching the waterway and a new route to the south of the river used. The railway was aligned approximately north north east so that it also followed a gentle gradient, making use of the same route as was planned for the canal. It opened in October 1838, crossing the path of the future North Midland near Masborough, the latter arriving there nearly two years later in 1840. A branch was included to link the railway to the North Midland in a northerly direction from Sheffield at Rotherham Masborough Station. A path to the south was installed in 1869.
On 7th August 1839 the railway opened a branch from its main line at Holmes to the head of the Greasbrough Canal, where it connected with the colliery wagonways of Earl Fitzwilliam.
It seems to have been built by mainly local expertise. The first director was George Wilton Chambers, a coal master, and its secretary was Thomas Pearson, a civil engineer and also a coalmaster. Two of the engineers were John Stephenson (not known to be a relation of George) who introduced scientific methods into earthwork construction and the excavation of deep cuttings, and Isaac Dodds whose "talent for invention was highly respected in his day", which included the job of designing the railway's first engine The Cutler.
Whether this locomotive was built by him, or whether the railway itself built any, is unclear, though Dodds left in 1842 to sert up in business on his own. Certainly, at that time, demand may have been outstripping supply. One engine, the 2-2-2 Agilis was supplied in 1839 by Fenton, Murray and Jackson, who provided another Rotherham, built under subcontract by Bingley and Company of Leeds. Another, the Sheffield, said to be the first to have been built in that city, was provided in 1840 by Davy Brothers.
When the Midland Railway was formed, the Sheffield and Rotherham was its first acquisition in 1845. In 1870 it built a line from Chesterfield through Sheffield, which rejoined the old line at Masborough. The majority of the line is still in use today.
