Victoria's Railway King

by Geoffrey Scargill

ISBN: 9781526792778

Published: 2021-05-30

The accomplishments, and initiatives, both social and economic, of Edward Watkin are almost too many to relate. Though generally known for his large-scale railway projects, becoming chairman of nine different British railway companies as well as developing railways in Canada, the USA, Greece, India and the Belgian Congo, he was also responsible for a stream of remarkable projects in the nineteenth century which helped shape people's lives inside and outside Britain.As well as holding senior positions with the London and North Western Railway, the Worcester and Hereford Railway and the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway, Watkin became president of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. He was also director of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railways, as well as the Athens-Piraeus Railway.Watkin was also the driving force in the creation of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway's 'London Extension' - the Great Central Main Line down to Marylebone in London....