Meanwhile, the YNMR had been doing well, paying a ten per cent dividend at a time of recession, but the North Midland, over which much of its traffic proceeded, was suffering. Hudson headed a committee enquiring into the affairs of this company, and within a week proposed a dramatic reduction in expenses, cutting these from £44,000 weekly to £27,000. This decisive action saved the company, but its neighbours, the Midland Counties and the Birmingham & Derby Junction, were also suffering difficulties. With remarkable clarity of purpose, Hudson proposed a merger of all three companies, one that would achieve still further savings, with the new Midland Railway formed in September 1843.

Hudson forecast that the railway bubble was about to burst and that many of the new and proposed lines would turn out to be unviable, but staunchly maintaining that ‘…the public would rather (the railways) be in the hands of companies than… government’. Hudson was asked by the directors of the other railway companies to head resistance to Gladstone’s Bill, and so it was that when the parliamentary process was complete, the Railway Act 1844 saw most of the troublesome and unwelcome clauses of the original bill omitted.

On 18 June 1844, the 39 miles of the Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway opened. The railway journey from York to London had taken ten hours in 1837, but by 1844 the much longer journey from Gateshead to London took just eight hours, a clear indication of progress. Hudson became Conservative MP for Sunderland in 1845, largely because his railway ambitions could be helped by a seat in the House of Commons. While he did much to improve the town’s docks, he was also driven by a desire to sabotage the plans for a direct line between York and London, which later became the Great Northern Railway, and in 1846 this drew him into taking over the Eastern Counties Railway. Hudson won over the ECR shareholders by trebling dividends and it soon became clear that he was paying dividends out of capital: unacceptable but a fairly commonplace practice at the time. This raised questions amongst those concerned with his other companies, and it was soon found that the same practice was being applied, so that by the end of 1849, he was forced to resign all of his chairmanships. By this time, the Great Northern route was open and pragmatic to the end, Hudson decided to use the new route and abandoned his own plans to extend the Eastern Counties line, with the result that simultaneously, Hudson was under pressure from angry Midland Railway shareholders who objected to the diversion of traffic away from their route and on to the more direct route.

Had the railway boom continued, Hudson could have avoided the problems that beset him over paying dividends out of capital. It was not to be. Claim after claim was lodged against Hudson, who continued to the end to attract warm local support in both Sunderland and Whitby, as the inhabitants of both towns saw him as a local benefactor. Initially, Hudson was able to fight off the threat of bankruptcy by selling his extensive estates, which he had acquired to leave to his sons, and afterwards because as a sitting MP he could not be arrested for bankruptcy. When he lost his parliamentary seat, he was forced to flee to France, and spent many years in and out of exile.

Hughes, George, 1865-1945

Apprenticed to F W Webb at Crewe on the London & North Western Railway in 1882, he joined the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1895, where he was principal assistant for carriages and wagons before being appointed works manager at Horwich in 1899, and then chief mechanical engineer from 1904 until 1921. At the LYR, he was one of the pioneers of fire tube superheaters, along with the Great Western’s Churchward, which he introduced on 0-60s in 1906 and to 4-4-0s in 1908, which were also fitted with long-lap, long-travel piston valves. While his four-cylinder 4-6-0s introduced in 1908 were initially costly, fuel consumption improved by 25 per cent once rebuilt with super-heated boilers and long-lap valves. Amongst his other locomotives were 0-8-0 goods engines and 2-4-2 tanks.

When the LYR and LNWR merged in 1922, he became CME, and was the first CME of the London, Midland & Scottish in 1923, staying until 1925. Inheriting a large fleet of smaller locomotives from the Midland Railway, he immediately identified a need for 4-6-2 Pacific express passenger locomotives and 2-8-2 goods engines, but financial constraints meant that construction could not go ahead. Even after retirement, 245 of his 2-6-0 mixed traffic locomotives were built for the LMS.

Huish, Mark, 1808-1867

After service in the East India Company’s army, he returned home and was appointed secretary to the Glasgow Paisley & Greenock Railway in 1837, before joining the Grand Junction Railway as secretary and general manager in 1841, retaining this position after the merger with the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1845. He was largely responsible for the merger with the London & Birmingham Railway to form the London & North Western Railway in 1846, of which he also became GM.

It was Huish who established some of the early railway cartels, sometimes known as the ‘Euston Square Confederacy’, which allocated traffic between the major companies from 1850, but he was also active in debates about safety, financial management, traffic management and telegraphic communication. He was to resign in 1858 after his agreements had collapsed the previous year. He retired to the Isle of Wight, where he became a director of the Isle of Wight Railway, and also became part-time chairman of the Clifton Suspension Bridge Company and the Electric & International Telegraph Company. He was also sought after as an arbitrator in inter-company railway disputes and gave evidence to the Royal Commission on Railways in 1866,

Hull

Unlike Southampton, which owes its importance as port to the railways, Hull was already an important port attracting traffic from a large area to the east of the Pennines. By the late eighteenth century, the port was already inadequate and three further docks were built between 1778 and 1829. The railway first reached Hull in 1840, when the Hull & Selby (see Leeds & Selby) ran along the banks of the Humber to its terminus at Manor House, close to the docks. Further lines were sent into the town, with the next being the York & North Midland Railway’s line to Bridlington in 1846, which leased the Hull & Selby before itself becoming part of the North Eastern Railway. Paragon Station opened in 1848, closer to the city centre, while Manor House became a goods station. The docks were further extended in 1850, with a railway connection into the new Victoria Dock.

By this time, Hull also had a railway connection from the south, but by ferry, when the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire railway, predecessor of the Great Central, provided a service across the Humber from New Holland. As with the London & South Western at Southampton, the NER’s monopoly made it unpopular in Hull, but a rival emerged in 1885 in the form of the Hull & Barnsley Railway, but before long both companies collaborated in the building of the King George V Dock, and amalgamated almost on the eve of grouping in 1922.

Little changed after grouping, but postnationalisation the railway network around and in the town was rationalised, starting in 1955 and accelerated after Beeching with the closure of many branch lines, while the Victoria Dock branch closed in 1968. Freight traffic dropped between the wars with increased competition from road haulage, but after nationalisation, this dropped still further, the situation made more difficult by the loss of fish traffic which at one time required eleven fast goods trains daily. Through trains remained to cities in the north, but services to London were slashed dramatically until after privatisation and the appearance of an open access operator, Hull Trains.

Hull & Barnsley Railway

More correctly, the Hull Barnsley and West Riding Junction Railway & Dock Company, was authorised in 1880 as a deliberate attempt to break the monopoly held by the North Eastern Railway and the Hull Dock Company, and enjoyed the backing of Hull Corporation. The 53 mile long line opened in 1885 at the same time as the associated Alexandra Dock, having overcome both engineering and financial difficulties, running from Hull’s Cannon Street Station to join the Midland Railway at Cudworth, two miles from Barnsley. In an attempt to avoid level crossings, it ran on an embankment near Hull and used thirty-four bridges, while further west, there were severe gradients as it crossed the Yorkshire Wolds, with 1 in 100 westbound and 1 in 150 eastbound, compared with the easier gradients of the NER along the Humber.

The excellent facilities of the Alexandra Dock enabled the line to make a significant impact, and after initial competition on freight rates, the situation eased so that during the 1890s, the relationship with the NER became close and the two companies jointly built the King George V Dock, which opened in 1914. Both companies merged in 1922, and the NER then passed into the London & North Eastern Railway the following year. Despite the sharp downturn in coal traffic after the miners’ strike, the line and the docks continued to handle export coal traffic throughout the 1930s, but failed to survive the post-war years, with passenger traffic ending in 1955 and through freight in 1958, except for some local freight to Little Weighton until 1964. Nevertheless, part of the line serves Drax power station and the high level section still carries freight to Saltend and Hull’s eastern docks.

Hull & Selby Railway – see Leeds & Selby Railway

Humber Commercial Railway & Dock

Opened between Ulceby and Immingham Docks in 1910 and leased by the Great Central Railway, it was opened throughout in 1912, when it also acquired the Barton & Immingham Light Railway, also leased to the GCR. The entire operation passed to the London & North Eastern Railway in 1923.

Hurcomb, Cyril William/Baron Hurcomb of Campden Hill, 1883-1975

After a career in the Civil Service, including the Post Office and Ministry of Shipping, as well as being Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport between 1927 and 1937, and Director-General of the Ministry of War Transport from 1941 to 1947, he became the first chairman of the British Transport Commission in 1947, ready for nationalisation of the railways, canals and much of road transport the following year. Although the mind behind the nationalisation programme implemented in 1948, he was opposed to the nationalisation of all inland transport. His strength lay in administration, his weakness in a failure to communicate well and fully appreciate operational matters. He was also a strong believer in centralised control, which did little to endear him to the executives set up to administer the railways, docks, canals and London Transport, for example, and also subservient to politicians.