The Pilkington and Stanford Railway

The Pilkington and Stanford Railway (P&SR) is a Railway company that offers services on the Pilkington and Stanford Mainline, the Linfield Way and Several other branch lines. The Company relies on imported NZR stock on it's routes. The first trains ran in 1840 over the 20 miles between Stanford and Bamberworth. The line reaching Pilkington in 1843 and Linfield in 1845.

History
In 1654 the Highways and Byways act passed through both houses of parliament. This made major roads the direct responsibility of the government. This brought massive improvements to the country’s roads and several coach companies began to be set up. The most prominent of which, The Pilkington and Stanford Stagecoach company, gained a quick monopoly on all passenger and mail transport between the two rapidly growing cities.

In 1835 LtCol Sir G Inger went on a trip within Europe, he saw the many new railways and knew that his homeland needed one. In June 1836 he gathered maps and started to walk the country paths and roads between Pilkington and Stanford. He planned the country’s first railway that connect Pilkington, Bamberworth and Stanford. He first started sourcing funding for his new company the Stanford, Bamberworth and Pilkington metal road. He gained an act of Parliament that allowed him to buy land for the “metal road”. After buying a little too much land in the rather expensive areas of central Stanford his company went bust in April 1838.

The Pilkington and Stanford Stagecoach company saw the effects of railways in Europe and knew the railway was going to put them out of business unless they modernised themselves. They bought Inger’s company and retained most of the staff including Inger as chief engineer. Construction finally started in August 1838 at the Stanford end. Construction was halted until May 1839 whilst the plans for the bridge over the River Stan were deliberated over and changed to accommodate the requests of the Port of Stanford Authority who constantly needed adaptations to the design. Once construction had restarted the line snaked it’s way out of the city to reach Bamberworth in February 1840.

The first trains ran on the line on 2nd March 1840. The passenger carriages were either repurposed Stagecoaches or open topped wagons. The railway itself owned 3 vertical boiler 0-4-0s designed by Inger and two 2-2-2 Patentee type locomotives imported from the UK at the expense of £929 7s 4d. The first day of running didn’t go without any mishaps. One of Inger’s vertical boiler engines, No.2, possibly because of a design flaw, had it’s regulator jam open on the approach to the bridge over the Stan. The sudden burst of acceleration broke the coupling between the engine and it’s carriages. The Crew were forced to jump clear of the engine as it reportedly crossed the 1000ft bridge in 25 seconds meaning it was travelling an average of 27mph. The cylinder case broke as the engine left the bridge causing the connecting rod to jam in the wheels and caused the engine to derail. All of the Inger built locos were overhauled and No.2 itself was deemed unfixable and cannibalised for parts.

The railway continued it’s expansion and the first train ran on the line between Pilkington and Stanford in 1842. The journey time in 1842 was 6 hours and 12 minutes with water stops at Bamberworth and Stanchester. This was a drastic improvement from the 2-and-a-half-day journey by coach.

In 1865 the line was extended along the Linfield way to reach the coast and link Linfield-on Sea to the cities. The line was Highly Popular and the Linfield Flyer became a well used holiday route. The railway’s ventures into the mountainous regions north West of Pilkington were caught short in 1867 with the death of LtCol Sir G Inger at the age of 70. His plans were still used when the line was restarted in 1890 and continued further in 1906.

Locomotive production was still mainly performed by the P&SR up into the late 19th Century with popular Engines such as the E3 and D22. This gradually ground to a halt as importing better engines became cheaper. The most famous imported Steam engine was the NZR class AB or as it was classed on the P&SR, the A232. These locomotives saw extensive use along with their larger counterparts the NZR K or B242. The B242 remained in service until the end of mainline steam on the P&SR in 1971.

1911 saw the first major modernisation of the infrastructure of the P&SR. The mainline from Stanford to Delway Park was doubled up with an extra set of suburban tracks to stop the interference of the far more frequent suburban trains and the faster services on the mainline.

The P&SR had some competition within the capital as several companies had branched their way into the city. The most prominent was the Stanford, Leighbury and Stanmouth Railway. This ran trains to the popular seaside town of Stanmouth, drawing away some of the traffic for the further afield Linfield. The SL&SR Electrified it’s mainline in 1923 allowing it to boast of cleaner journeys for the gentle folk.

After seeing the success of the electrified SL&SR the P&SR set out to electrify some of their suburban lines out of Stanford. In 1925 the suburban tracks to Delway Park were electrified with 650v DC third rails. Most suburban services became third rail powered with the mainline eventually gaining 25kv AC overhead wires. The Linfield Way was similarly electrified with overhead lines in 1947.

In the mid-50s the P&SR started to receive NZR DA (DC3+3) and DG (DD3+3) type locomotives which began to take over many roles on the non-electrified lines. By 1968 the only steam engines still in service were a handful of departmental A232s and 4 B242s for use on the Linfield Express and the Nerwick Flyer.

The first generation diesels came to the end of their service lives in the 90s with the DC3+3s being preserved or scrapped and the DD3+3s having their engines replaced with electric motors and pantographs to use the extensive overhead electrical systems. This class became known as the EC3+3/1

It was around this time that the NZR DX (DF3+3) type locomotives came in to replace all non electric locomotives.

The P&SR Filmographic board
The P&SR set up it's own film studio to create informative films and advertisements for the railway.

One of the more popular films they made is this film from 1932, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joTVyjPH8Qw

Today
Currently the P&SR relies on NZR DX type locomotives for most mainline duties as well as Several types of EMUs for suburban services.

The Intercity routes of today are:

Stanford-Pilkington

Stanford-Elveham Pilkington-Linfield

Bamberworth-Ingby (Run by class 150/2)

In game
The P&SR was started shortly after the introduction of the custom rooms to Rolling line. The first map to be uploaded was East Pilkington on the 28/8/18.

There are a total of 16 maps in the current collection. The most popular being the Stan Valley Railway with 360 Subscribers (as of 30/1/21). The most recent is the Stanford Railway Museum, uploaded 15/3/21.

East Pilkington https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1495790771

Stanford Railway Museum https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2425863689