MDR Rail Specification

[AndyB]

Ian Dinmore of the Rail Archive Website has kindly allowed me to share a copy of this document which gives the original tender for the rails to be supplied for the construction of the railway. The RAW website is a very good source for railway company documents.

http://www.railarchive.org.uk/

Andy

[King123]

I ve seen this document of this on that website before just recently. A copy for the railway would be brilliant but even better if you could get hold of the real thing, even better But I very much doubt it to be realistic !

[4008]

That's incredible Andy!

[jael]

I'll see if I can find the photo of a letter I took at the National Archives in Kew. It's from the M&D to the company making the rails in Wales. It is asking for the delivery to be postponed as they were not building as fast as anticipated and in any case they hadn't any money.

[AndyB]

I'll see if I can find the photo of a letter I took at the National Archives in Kew. It's from the M&D to the company making the rails in Wales. It is asking for the delivery to be postponed as they were not building as fast as anticipated and in any case they hadn't any money.

That sounds interesting John, would be good to know the name of the supplier.

Andy

[jael]

Andy - it's a photograph of a (carbon?) copy of a letter from a correspondence book that's nearly 200 years old and consequently not very easy to read but it looks like:

Dated 17th January 1848 Malton to:
F.R. Scudamore,
Sec.
Rhymney Iron Comp.
7 ???? Pountney Hill
London.

[jael]

It's a not very good photograph of a (carbon??) copy out of a correspondence book that's nearly 200 years old - consequently not that easy to read. It's something I did maybe 20 years ago when I didn't have a very good camera.

Its dated Malton, January 17th 1848 and addressed to:

F.R. Scudamore,
Rhymney Iron Comp.
7 ????? Pountney Hill
London.

[jael]

I replied once and it then seemed to disappear - hence a rewrite!

[AndyB]

I found this in The Graces Guide listing, MDR rails would have been short wrought iron lengths


Rhymney Iron Company

Early 19th century: The Rhymney Iron Co was founded by some Bristol merchants trading as the Union Co to exploit a seam of iron ore found at the top of the valley.

1803 Richard Crawshay purchased the Rhymney iron works and, as a wedding present, made his son-in-law Benjamin Hall (1777-1817) a partner.
c.1817 Mr. Hall sold the works and collieries of Rhymney to Mr. Crawshay Bailey for the sum of £73,000 but for some reason the deal was never completed[1]. William Crawshay of London may have been involved later.
1825 Sold to a joint stock company Forman and Co formed by William Forman from the Hall family.
1836 The company was established.
1851 One source[3] states that Mr. Hutchings, nephew of Sir John Guest, who had learnt ironmaking at Dowlais, was appointed chairman. However, Guest's nephew was Edwin John Hutchins, and he served as chairman for over 20 years.
1866 One and only locomotive built.
1871 The company was registered on 24 March, as limited.
1874 Company name changed to Rhymney Iron Company Limited
1875 Hutchings retired.

At first, the main product of the Rhymney Ironworks was wrought iron rails. They started producing steel rails in 1876, and the following year it was estimated they would be able to manufacture five hundred tons of steel rails each week. At this time the company was recorded as owning eight hundred houses, shops and a brewery.


1884 Ceased making wrought iron.
1891 Ceased with steel production when it wasn't a profitable venture anymore. The furnaces and plant were dismantled in the same year but the company continued to exist as a coal mining enterprise.

Andy