Title

Construction of the Kilsby Tunnel on the London & Birmingham Railway, 8 July 1839. Artist: John Cooke Bourne

Caption

Construction of the Kilsby Tunnel on the London & Birmingham Railway, 8 July 1837 (1839). Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) was appointed chief engineer of the London & Birmingham Railway (LBR), the first railway into London. Running between Curzon Street Station, Birmingham, and Euston Station, London, the 112 mile long line took 20,000 men nearly five years to build, at a cost of five and a half million pounds. The excavation of the tunnel at Kilsby, Northamptonshire was one of the greatest engineering challenges on the LBR, due to problems with quicksand. The LBR opened on 17 September 1838. From Drawings of the London and Birmingham Railway by J Bourne, 1839.
Oxford Science Archive

Date

1839

Credit line

Photo12/Heritage Images

Reference

HRM19B64_146

Model release

No

License type

Rights managed

Available size

30,1Mb (3,9Mb) / 10,0in x 11,6in / 3014 x 3490 (300dpi)

Keywords

transport transportation animal England event animals horses horse light construction tunnel railway color colour underground century railway track civil engineering shaft industrial revolution 19th century nineteenth century Northamptonshire Oxford Science Archive Kilsby Tunnel London & Birmingham Railway railway tunnel TGN Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson L&BR LBR John Cooke Bourne Bourne John Cooke Robert Stephenson