Early Development of the Railways
In 1804 Richard Trevithick demonstrated that a mobile steam engine powered by coal could run on a permanent way of iron. With so many horses enlisted in the Napoleonic wars, horse power was becoming more expensive. North of Newcastle upon Tyne a mining engineer called George Stephenson experimented with steam power. If coal could be fed to a mobile steam engine to replace the horse's pulling power the problem would be solved. Stephenson was successful and, in 1825, constructed the Stockton to Darlington railway to move coal in quantity. By 1830 Stephenson had gone on to build the first passenger railways to service the large industrial towns of Manchester and Liverpool with a new engine designed by his son Robert. It was called Rocket.

Hudson, Leeman and York's great railway story
Having received a large inheritance George Hudson, a young draper from York, decided to invest in the new North Midland Railway. The venture was a success and Hudson began plans to bring cheap coal to York by railway to help York catch up with the industrial boom towns of West Yorkshire. By chance Hudson met George Stephenson and persuaded him that a railway from York to the coalfields near Selby would be profitable. The first railway connecting York to the Leeds and Selby line was opened in 1839 and by 1841, York was linked all the way to London. Hudson pressed on with more speculation, opening the line from York to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1844 and, by then owning over 1,000 miles of track, he gained the title 'The Railway King'. Eventually, however, the bubble burst, profits fell and investigations began into Hudson's misuse of shareholders' money. He was forced to resign from his companies and in 1866 found himself in the debtors prison now occupied by York Castle Museum.

In spite of Hudson's decline York was by now established as an important railway city. The formation of the North Eastern Railway company in 1854, led by George Leeman, Hudson's arch-rival and political enemy, furthered York's rail links by cutting the journey time to London to 5 hours. By now the railways had become a major employer in York, in 1880 the railway engineering and carriage works in Holgate employed up to 5,500 staff. During the twentieth century, the UK's national railway network was re-organised three times. However, railways remain an important contributor to the local economy both as an employer and provider of services. The long railway tradition has laid the foundations for the modern industry in the city to thrive.