The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway was an era in
the history of the world. From the moment that great undertaking
was complete, there could no longer be any doubt about the utility
and desirability of railways, and all opposition died away almost
at once. New lines began immediately to be laid out, and in an
incredibly short time the face of England was scarred by the main
trunks in that network of iron roads with which its whole surface
is now so closely covered. The enormous development of the railway
system benefited the Stephenson family in more than one way.
Robert Stephenson became the engineer of the vast series of lines
now known as the London and North Western; and the increased demand
for locomotives caused George Stephenson's small factory at
Newcastle to blossom out suddenly into an immense and flourishing
manufacturing concern.

The rest of George Stephenson's life is one long story of unbroken
success. In 1831, the year after the opening of the Liverpool and
Manchester line, George, being now fifty, began to think of
settling down in a more permanent home. His son Robert, who was
surveying the Leicester and Swannington railway, observed on an
estate called Snibston, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, what to his
experienced geological eye looked like the probable indications of
coal beneath the surface. He wrote to his father about it, and as
the estate was at the time for sale, George, now a comparatively
wealthy man, bought it up on his son's recommendation. He also
pitched his home close by at Alton Grange, and began to sink shafts
in search of coal. He found it in due time; and thus, in addition
to his Newcastle works, he became a flourishing colliery
proprietor. It is pleasing to note that Stephenson, unlike too
many other self-made men, always treated his workmen with the