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NOTTINGHAM PAST & PRESENT: NOTED BUILDINGS
MIDLAND STATION, Station Street, 1889
This view of the old Midland Station as it stood in Station Street will recall many happy memories. The line which connected Nottingham with Derby was opened on the 30th May, 1839 and the original station still stands incorporated with the goods offices on the west side of Carrington Street. When the line was extended to Lincoln a new station, the subject of this drawing, was erected; this was opened for traffic on the 22nd May, 1848 and remained in use with all its inconveniences, but with all its happy memories until the construction of the present Midland Station in Carrington Street in 1904.
One is so used to the word 'railway' that its origin is almost forgotten. Benjamin Outram was the first to make a metal trackway upon which to draw wheeled loads. He placed plates of metal upon sleepers and turned up their outward edges, and in the groove so formed he ran his wheels; later he found it more convenient to sink grooves in his metal plates and to provide his wheels with flanges; this system was called the 'Outram Way', and it became shortened into the modern name 'Tram Way'. An improvement of this method was eventually achieved when the plates were set on edge, and the flanged wheels were made to run along the upper edges of these plates or rails; this system was called the 'Edge Rail Way', and was quickly shortened into 'Rail Way'—hence our modern term.