Building the Stationary Engine House, Camden Town, 26 April 1837.

Wash drawing by John Cooke Bourne, from a collection of views of the construction of the London & Birmingham Railway (LBR). In 1833 Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) was appointed chief engineer of the LBR, the first railway into London. Beginning at Curzon Street Station, Birmingham, and finishing at Euston Station, London, the 112 mile long line took 20,000 men nearly five years to build, at a cost of five and a half million pounds. Two stationary winding engines were used to draw trains out of Euston Station to Camden. The engines, in use till 1844, were housed in a vaulted structure seen here under construction. The locomotive depot is shown in the background.