Caledonian Railway
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The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a British railway company. It existed from 1845 to 1922 and was part of the grouping of the British railways on January 1, 1923 in the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). After the North British Railway , it had the second largest route network in Scotland with almost 1,800 kilometers . It stretched between the Scottish border at Carlisle and Aberdeen and mainly comprised routes in the densely populated Lowlands around Glasgow and Edinburgh , but also reached the southern Highlands with the route to Oban . The Scottish section of the West Coast Main Line , the main link between London and Glasgow, was also part of the network.
history
The Caledonian Railway Company was founded in 1845 by the Caledonian Railway Act . The purpose of the company was the construction and operation of the northern continuation of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, which had been under construction until Carlisle since 1844, and thus the creation of a direct connection between London and the two largest Scottish cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. The track alignment was Joseph Locke finally, after various discussions along by Thomas Telford -scale road over Beattock Summit in Moffat out. Locke had initially judged the gradients required there to be unsuitable for locomotive operation and recommended a tour around the course of the later route of the Glasgow and South Western Railway to Ayr . The company, however, insisted on the tour via Beattock, as this was the only way to easily reach both Glasgow and Edinburgh. The first section between Carlisle and Beattock was opened on September 10, 1847. The complete connection to Glasgow and Edinburgh was opened by the Caledonian Railway on February 15, 1848, with older lines of the companies Glasgow, Garnkirk & Coatbridge and Wishaw & Coltness , which had previously been bought up in 1846 and 1849, being used in the vicinity of Glasgow . The route to Edinburgh branched off in Carstairs from the connection to Glasgow. Furthermore, the Caledonian built a connection to the Scottish Central Railway at Castlecary , with which connections in the direction of Stirling and Perth were made possible.
In addition to the main route south, the Caledonian also pursued a policy of rounding off its network in the coal area south and east of Glasgow. In 1847 she took over the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway and was able to establish a connection to the port of Greenock on the south bank of the Firth of Clyde . This put it in competition with the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G & SWR), which had previously opened up Ayrshire alone. Both companies remained fierce competitors until they were merged into the LMS in 1923. On the north bank of the Clyde, the Caledonian fought similar competition with the North British Railway, both companies built parallel routes to Dumbarton . The G & SWR and the NBR partly worked together against the Caledonian. Nevertheless, the Caledonian was finally able to offer connections to the important ports in Ardrossan , Wemyss Bay and Gourock , partly as separate routes, partly by taking over the operation of the still nominally independent Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway . From 1889 steamers of the subsidiary Caledonian Steam Packet Company opened up the Firth of Clyde and the islands of the Scottish Sea from these ports .
From 1849 the Caledonian tried to take over the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway , which owned the oldest and fastest route between the two cities. If successful, it would have obtained a de facto monopoly in Scotland. In 1865, however, the North British managed to acquire the Edinburgh and Glasgow. In response, the Caledonian built today's Shotts Line , which opened in 1869 , with which they could also offer a fast direct connection between the two largest Scottish cities after their previous connection via Carstairs had lagged behind. In contrast, the Caledonian succeeded in taking over the Scottish Central Railway in 1865 and the Scottish North Eastern Railway a year later , which enabled them to offer a continuous connection from Glasgow via Perth to Aberdeen . The Callander and Oban Railway , founded in 1865, remained nominally independent, but was operated by the Caledonian. With the destination Oban reached in 1880, the Caledonian was therefore able to open up parts of the Highlands and offer connections to the Hebrides .
Similar to the Firth of Clyde, the Caledonian and the NBR fought fierce competition in Edinburgh. Both companies opened up Leith, the port of Edinburgh, with several lines. After the NBR had a prestigious station in the best inner city location with the Edinburgh Waverley station, the Caledonian followed suit with the Edinburgh Princes Street station , which opened in 1870 .
In Glasgow, the Caledonian succeeded in 1879, after years of rejection by the Admiralty , who wanted to keep the river navigable for their sailing ships, to build a bridge over the Clyde and to put the new, centrally located Glasgow Central station into operation. Previously, the Caledonian trains from the south ended either at Bridge Street station south of the Clyde or at Glasgow Buchanan Street station to the north, which can only be reached by detour .
The main line of the Caledonian Railway between Carlisle and Glasgow or Edinburgh was the scene of the worst railway accident in British history in 1915, the Quintinshill railway accident , which left 230 dead and 246 injured.
As part of the implementation of the Railways Act 1921 , the Caledonian went on January 1, 1923 in the new London, Midland and Scottish Railway . Among other things, it brought 1,070 locomotives, 3,040 passenger cars and 51,536 freight cars into the new company. The route network of the Caledonian in the last year of independence amounted to 1114 miles , the equivalent of about 1793 kilometers.
coat of arms
Although the Caledonian was mostly founded by English capital, it knew how to present itself as the Scottish national railway. This was due the selected color Caledonian Blue in which the blue of the located Saltire the Flag of Scotland oriented, as is the Scottish Order of the Thistle borrowed motto "Nemo me impune lacessit" (Nobody irritates me with impunity). The coat of arms of the Caledonian therefore led the soaring lion ("Lion rampant") borrowed from the coat of arms of Scotland . As far as is known, despite the use of this coat of arms, which was actually reserved for the monarch, there were no legal consequences for society by the Lord Lyon King of Arms .
"Caledonian" chimney
Named after the Caledonian Railway, a particular chimney shape is used for steam locomotives. An essential external feature is a brim on the chimney edge, on the other hand the internal technology of the blowpipe does not differ significantly from other designs and was also used , for example, in Kylchap suction systems. This design, first introduced by the Caledonian, was adopted by various European and American railway companies, and the brim was partially clad with brass . In the German-speaking area, the Bavarian S 3/6 is especially known for its "Caledonian" crust. At the instigation of the head of design, Friedrich Witte, and Henschel senior engineer Bruno Riedel , this design , which was essentially developed for aesthetic reasons, was also used in the new locomotives of the Deutsche Bundesbahn from 1950.
literature
- John Thomas: A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Volume 6 Scotland. The Lowlands and the Borders . David & Charles, Newton Abbot 1971, ISBN 0-7153-5408-6 .
Web links
- Caledonian Railway Association (English)
- The Caledonian Railway at railscot (English)
- Map of the route network from 1913
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Caledonian Railway Association: Company ( Memento of the original dated December 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 22, 2014.
- ^ Railbrit.co.uk: Glasgow Central Station , accessed December 22, 2014.
- ^ Wolfgang Messerschmidt: Milestones in locomotive technology. Transpress Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-344-70843-0 , p. 39.
- ^ Alfred Gottwaldt : Wittes new construction locomotives. The last steam locomotives of the Deutsche Bundesbahn and their creators 1949–1977. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-88255-772-5 , pp. 74, 76.
