Conference - History of early mainline railways

Wedesday 2 March - York

Part of the Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History's season of Research Workshops.  The workshop is funded by the National Railway Museum and will take place from 2pm prompt in the Morton Suite of the Conference Centre of the National Railway Museum, York.

Following the success of the International Early Railways Conferences in stimulating research on the period before the common-user, 'mainline' railway, this afternoon workshop will explore possibilities for encouraging a similar initiative for the next stage of the history of railway development. This is provisionally defined as the time between the opening of the first mainlines (such as the Liverpool and Manchester in the UK) and the comparative maturing of the industry (again, in the UK) in the last third of the nineteenth century.

The afternoon will consist of two pairs of short position papers, each pair followed by discussion from the floor. Papers will be available in advance for downloading from the website. The papers will cover: Management and business structures; Finance and economy; Technology; Cultural impact and social change.

For more information contact the committee at Institute of Railway Studies, Department of History, University of York, Heslington, York, North Yorkshire YO10 5DD, tel 01904 432981/621261, email bs16@york.ac.uk.