The developing relations between science, technology and the railways

While it is very clear that the railway industry from the very beginning owed an immense debt to the disciplines of civil and mechanical engineering, it is far less obvious that the sciences as such had any major contributions to make. This is partly because of a common confusion as to the nature of science and technology and of their relationship together, but chiefly it arises from the fact that very little historical research has been carried out on the topic. Nevertheless some broad outlines of the problem have now become clear. One important element in the situation is the very distinctive kind of response made by the railway industry in its early days and far beyond. Its tendency to be derivative, empirical, interlocking, labour-intensive and acutely aware of public attitudes lasted long into the twentieth century and profoundly affected its development. So also did the way it responded to constraints associated with cost, environment and what can only be called ideology. The one science that unquestionably made a major contribution was chemistry, from the first halting attempts to assess the quality of boiler feed water, through the establishment of laboratories by many of the pre-grouping companies, to the most recent and diverse studies at Derby and elsewhere. It was the first of what may properly be called ‘the railway sciences’.