ABSTRACT
By the beginning of 1839, when Robert Stephenson relinquished his position as engineer-in-chief of the London & Birmingham Railway, he had already gained a national reputation as a leading consulting engineer. This had been earned through a number of high-profile railway schemes with which he had become deeply involved, even whilst supervising the building of the Birmingham railway. Stephenson's ambitions would, not least, be critically judged by his professional contemporaries. His membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 1830 was important to him in providing the venue to meet and exchange views with them. With Stephenson's encouragement and advice, Thomas Harrison undertook much of the design and installation work, including three large ship-loading coal drops at South Shields. The project that had the biggest call on Stephenson's extra-mural time during the building of the London & Birmingham line was the London and Brighton route.
