Sheffield and Rotherham Railway

The North Midland Railway was being promoted but its route was planned to go through Rotherham and by-pass Sheffield, so the S&RR was built as a connecting line.However the coal owner, the Duke of Norfolk, seems to have been reluctant to continue his business on that basis, and he stopped the supply, provoking a considerable riot in Sheffield.A Sheffield and Manchester Railway was proposed in 1830, engineered by George Stephenson; Four counterbalanced inclined planes would be needed.The scheme involved passenger trains being hauled up by heavier limestone wagons descending; there would be a passing loop inside a tunnel.[1] A project design was quickly prepared: much work had already been done in surveying the land between Rotherham and Sheffield, in connection with earlier schemes for a canal.[note 1][1] When the details of the proposed line were published, a hundred and twenty inhabitants of Rotherham headed by their vicar petitioned against the bill, because they thought the canal and the turnpike furnished sufficient accommodation between the two towns, and because they dreaded an incursion of the idle, drunken, and dissolute portion of the Sheffield people as a consequence of increasing the facilities of transit.[1][4] The line was of standard gauge, using fish-bellied cast iron rails mostly on stone blocks, with some untreated larch sleepers.[5] Stations were at Sheffield, Grimesthorpe Bridge, Brightside, Blackburn Forge, Holmes, and Rotherham, but only the two end termini were open on the first days.[6] A ceremonial opening of the single-track main line of the S&RR took place on 31 October 1838, although earthworks were unfinished and the second track had not been laid.The first train on that day conveyed Earl Fitzwilliam and other guests to Rotherham; a breakfast followed by celebratory speeches took place at the Court House.[6][7][1][4][8] Industrial activity in Sheffield created a considerable demand for coal and other minerals, and a branch line from the Greasbrough Canal to Holmes, serving local collieries, was opened on 7 August 1839.[1][9][6] On 11 May 1840 the North Midland Railway opened its line from Derby to its own Rotherham station, named Masborough.[11][12] An early attempt at marketing tourism was made: "An omnibus would run from Sheffield Station on the arrival of each train (fare 4d)... through the heart of the town... to within a few minutes' walk of the beautiful Botanic Gardens.Mr and Mrs Vickers were the only passengers as far as Derby, where they were joined by George Stephenson and Michael Longridge, a producer of wrought iron rails.The journey was apparently successful, but the London and Birmingham Railway demanded the sum of £10 as a penalty for running over their line without giving the necessary 14 days' notice.Moreover, at the time the SA&MR were supporting a Chesterfield line competing with the NMR, and the S&RR proposition was declined.[20] On 9 September 1854 the SYR opened a more direct connection with the S&RR; it ran from Barnsley by reversal at Wombwell, and was referred to as the Chapeltown branch, or more colourfully the Blackburn Valley Line.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.