NAKARAJAN

LONDON'S FIRST RAILWAYS The Forerunners of a Vast Network It was not until 1836—the year before Queen Victoria's accession—that the railway as we understand it first entered London. This was the initial section of the London and Greenwich Railway between Spa Road and Deptford ; and it was the first occasion on which the locomotive ran over a railway proper in the London district. There had, however, been earlier attempts to run a railway of one kind or another. Trevithick had, in 1808, operated one over a circular track forming part of the site of the present Euston Station. A public railway on which traction was by horses had also been opened for traffic in the Metropolitan area as early as 1803. This pioneer, the "Grand Surrey Iron Railway," took the place of a scheme to construct a canal between Wandsworth and Croydon. The River Wandle was then the busiest river of its size in Europe. There were nearly forty factories and mills on its banks, giv...