Press Office
Railway treasure or red herring?
A famous drawing widely accepted as evidence for the world’s first passenger railway is in fact a twentieth-century forgery, a leading expert is arguing.
Science Museum curator John Liffen is exposing the pivotal ‘Rowlandson drawing’ as a fake – a discovery which will radically alter historians’ understanding of the oldest passenger railway in the world.
The drawing lies at the heart of Britain’s National Collection, held by the National Museum of Science and Industry which includes the National Railway Museum and the Science Museum.
In the summer of 1808, a full 25 years before Stephenson’s Rocket steamed to success in the famous Rainhill Trials of Liverpool, entrepreneur Richard Trevithick was wowing the London crowds with his own steam-powered locomotive.
Somewhere close to what is now University College London, Trevithick built a small circular or elliptical railway to house a prototype steam engine of his own design. Named Catch me who can, the locomotive hauled one or more carriages for the benefit of fare-paying passengers – making it the world’s first passenger railway.
But beyond these bare facts, very little is known about this revolutionary demonstration. Two centuries years later, historians still struggle to piece together the evidence and answer key questions: where exactly was the railway built, and what did Trevithick’s remarkable invention actually look like?
Aside from a couple of remarks in Trevithick’s personal correspondence, the only source of evidence for answering these questions is a famous drawing supposedly by Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827). On the basis of three original versions of this drawing – itself a suspicious fact – most historians now believe that the railway was located somewhere in the Euston Square, Torrington Square or Bloomsbury area.
But this account is not without its difficulties. Rowlandson’s widely reproduced sketch bears an incorrect date, 1809, and is includes buildings that probably did not exist in London until even later, including the tower of St Mary’s church, Eversholt Street, not built until 1826. There are also traces of woodpulp in the paper used, which also suggests a later date of origin.
To solve the problem, Science Museum curator of communications John Liffen decided to reassemble the pieces of the puzzle from the start. He consulted estate maps, street plans and land ownership records from the early 19th century, and searched local archives for a more reliable source.
His conclusion is that the ‘authentic’ Rowlandson drawing is a forgery, dating from the first decade of the twentieth century, and based on earlier imaginary representations of the scene. Far from being the sole surviving source of a defining moment in steam history, its value in understanding Trevithick’s railway is minimal.
But in the Guildhall Library, City of London, John has identified an obscure wash drawing which he now believes is a contemporary source for the design of the locomotive, a source which confirms historians’ suspicions about the design of the locomotive based on a surviving admission ticket. John’s research has also established – definitively, he believes – the real location of the elusive railway.
John said:
“This is a major discovery. These runs round the small demonstration railway in September 1808 were the first time in the world that fare-paying passengers were hauled by a steam railway locomotive. It has historical resonances far beyond the interests of railway specialists.”
Jim Rees, Curator of Rail Vehicles at the National Railway Museum added:
“John Liffen’s work has not only confirmed the falsehood of the Rowlandson prints that has been suspected since the 1930s, it has also pinpointed the exact location of the circular exhibition railway.
“The most important discovery by far is the hitherto unseen pen and wash illustration of the Catch me who can locomotive, a genuine and contemporary 1808 view of Trevithick’s work. Now we know more about the world’s first passenger locomotive than ever before.
“We have knocked down the Rowlandson icon, but replaced with a better one; the most important early railway discovery for fifty years.”
25 June 2008