West Coast Main Line special: the spine of the nation

Even before completion of the world’s first inter-city railway between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830, promoters already had their eye on a much bigger prize.

The 112-mile London & Birmingham Railway, finally authorised in 1833 with share capital of £2,500,000, was the world’s biggest and most ambitious civil engineering scheme.

It captured the public imagination in a way that few other schemes could match.