RAILWAYS IN FRANCE

On the Continent the building of railways came later than in Britain, with most initiative coming from the new Kingdom of Belgium, which started a line 10.6 miles (17km) long between Brussels and Malines in 1835. Within 12 years 388 miles (625km) of lines had been laid to Northern France, Lille, Douai, Liege, Maestricht, Cologne and Dusseldorf. These first used Stephenson locomotives imported from England, until an Englishman, John Cockerill established a locomotive factory near Liege in 1835.

Progress in France was slow until the opening of the short line from Paris to St. Germain and Versailles in 1837 demonstrated the enormous demand from the public for travel by train. The French Government, supported by King Louis Phillipe, established long-distance lines radiating from Paris, a major incentive being the ability to speed up military mobilisation and to move troops to deal with uprisings; these lines reached Orleans 1840, Le Havre 1847, Strasbourg 1849, and Lyon, 1851. By 1855 there were over 2,485 miles (4,000km) of lines, but by size and population this left France behind England, Germany and Belgium in the uptake of the railway.

In the opening years most lines used imported English locomotives, except for a few built by Marc Seguin; by 1842, of the 146 locomotives in use 88 were still English-made, but in the next ten years a number of French factories started to manufacture well-engineered locomotives, particularly designed to operate on their longer routes, and cope with severe gradients in the mountains.