After the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1830 there was a pause as people marvelled at this new invention and wonder of the age before they realised its full potential. However the L&MR had not been quite the first public railway to use steam regularly to haul their passengers. The Canterbury & Whitstable Railway had beaten them to this distinction by opening in May 1830. However it was a local line and mainly transported goods.

In 1837, Princess Victoria ascended the British throne and became Queen Victoria. Thus began a glorious era that would make Britain great. The outstanding achievements of the Victorian era would be built on the solid foundation of industrial might supported by an efficient railway network.

Now the Railway Mania period dawned as new and more ambitious routes were proposed. Britain's first trunk or long distance railway line, the Grand Junction Railway was opened in 1837. It connected the industrial centre of Birmingham to the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Robert Stephenson, now no longer just a builder of steam locomotives but a great engineer like his father, built the London & Birmingham Railway. Its southern terminus at London Euston was marked by a triumphant and grand Doric Arch. When the London & Birmingham Railway was completed it linked with the Grand Junction Railway and that met the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. This was the beginning of a real railway system across Britain.

Soon every town wanted its own railway. George Stephenson had always held the vision of a great nationwide railway network. However he was responsible for one key thing that would make it all possible - a common track gauge.  Track gauge is the distance between the two rails that form the track. The early waggonways all had different gauges. At Killingworth Colliery, where George Stephenson had built his first locomotives the track gauge was 4ft 8.5 inches, so they were built to this gauge. Then he became engineer for the Stockton & Darlington Railway and he used the same track gauge there. All the railways he acted as advisor to also used that track gauge. All Stephenson built engines were built to that track gauge. Robert Stephenson used that track gauge for his two great projects: the London & Birmingham Railway and the Chester & Holyhead Railway. Joseph Locke, who had worked with the Stephensons' on the L&MR, also used that track gauge when he built the Grand Junction Railway.

However one great engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, decided to use a different "broad gauge" of 7ft 0.25 inches for his new Great Western Railway. He thought that using this wider gauge would mean a smoother, safer and faster ride. In many ways he was right. However he had come too late. Stephenson had got in first. In 1844 the Government's Royal Commission on Gauges degreed in favour of the "standard gauge" set by Stephenson and in future this would have to be used on all new railways. This spelt the end for Brunel's broad gauge. In May 1882 Brunel's broad gauge was torn up and replaced with the standard gauge. It was the end of Brunel's great dream.

With the Railway Mania passenger traffic boomed as people discovered travelling by rail was a pleasurable activity. Soon excursion trains were being run to take people to special events and activities. The zenith of the Railway Mania came in 1846 when 272 Acts of Parliament were passed authorising new railways. Henry Hudson, a draper from York, became known as the "Railway King" for his activities in buying up railway shares. He made a fortune doing this but unfortunately his activities proved to be fraudulant and his empire collapsed. However he did achieve one good thing which was starting the amalgamation of the hundreds of little railway companies into larger companies. For example in 1844 he amalgamated three small companies to form the Midland Railway. It was the future.

In 1846 the London & Birmingham Railway, Manchester & Birmingham Railway (which had already taken over the Liverpool & Manchester Railway) merged to form the massive London & North Western Railway (LNWR). This had a vast network of lines stretching from London to the Midlands and North West. Soon the LNWR took over the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway and then in 1848 it reached an agreement with the Caledonian Railway (Carlisle to Glasgow) to run through trains from London to Glasgow via its lines. This was the birth of the West Coast Main Line.

However soon the West Coast route to Scotland had a rival. In 1852 there was a partnership of the Great Northern Railway, North Eastern Railway and North British Railway that formed the East Coast route. The West Coast Main Line had its London terminus at London Euston, while the East Coast Main Line had its just a brief walk away at London Kings Cross. The rivalry between these two Anglo-Scottish routes would become legendary.

By the 1850s George Stephenson's vision of a national rail network was well underway. The railways were also changing the face of Britain and its people with its great tunnels, viaducts and stations. Also communication and travel opportunities for people were opening up. As a result people developed a feeling of belonging to one nation rather than just to their local community. News also travelled quickly across the country. Mail was first conveyed by rail on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway on the 11th November 1830. Soon special carriages in which mail could be sorted on the move were introduced on the Grand Junction Railway. Mail was not the only thing travelling by rail. Fish was once only eaten mainly by those people who lived on the coast. Now fish could be transported by rail quickly before it had the chance to go bad. As a result fish and chips became a popular meal for people across the country not just those in coastal areas.

Also the need for timetables caused time to change. Before people worked to their local time, which could differ by several minutes to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Now with the railways, GMT had to be used everywhere. "Railway Time" set the standard across the country.

In summer 1859 a sad convoy passed over the magnificent Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash. The great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was dying and this would be the only time he would see his great creation. By the autumn, Brunel was dead. Within a year both Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke would be gone as well. The railway pioneers were entering their final years. With their passing a final link with the birth of the railways would disappear forever. These great engineers had laid the foundations of Britain's great railway network and now this work was complete. We salute these railway pioneers.