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Thompson, Benjamin, Blackett, T. O., and Studholme, I.
A Plan and Section of an intended Iron Railway or Tram Road from the town and county of Newcastle upon Tyne to the canal basin near to the city of Carlisle in the county of Cumberland with certain branches therefrom.
Publisher: Engelmann, Graf, Coindet & Co, [Newcastle];
Date of Publication: 1828
Stock Code: 14604
Large, rolled lithographic plan printed in sections on paper which form a cohesive, single plan approximately 5,045 x 552mm in length. The map covers the course of the railway from Newcastle to Carlisle, marking district boundaries, land plots and principal buildings. Original hand-colouring showing sections of the railway, with elevation graphed below plan. Title cartouche to centre. Light soiling and spots of ink to plan, nicks and minor tears to edges, two intersecting tape repairs approximately 200mm to verso of one section only. A well-preserved copy of a rare and impressive plan. Benjamin Thompson’s survey plan of the first railway to cross Britain, and the third to be built after the Stockton-Darlington (1825) and Liverpool-Manchester (1830). At the time of the opening of England’s first public steam-powered railway from Stockton to Darlington there began the plan for a project of national significance: the connection of England’s seas by rail. This great project, completed in tandem by the Leeds-Hull and Newcastle-Carlisle railways, had ‘historical significance which [Stockton-Darlington] could scarcely claim’ (Tomlinson 191). Originally planned as a horse-drawn wagon way, the line was first proposed in 1825, with two rival plans by George Stephenson and mining engineer and pit owner Benjamin Thompson. It was Thompson’s plan, which was a quarter of a mile longer than Stephenson’s, that would ultimately be approved by parliament in the session of April 1828. In the following months, Thomas Oswald Blackett and John Studholme surveyed the Newcastle and Carlisle ends of the finalised plan respectively. This hand-coloured lithographic map records the plan as it appeared in this later form. The scheme was not without its problems, issues with the levels and the obstruction of the project by certain landowners meant construction did not begin until March 1830. A superb piece of early railwayana. £4000.00