Sheffield & Rotherham Railway

These tokens have been described as medals to commemorate the opening of the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway line. The opening ceremony involved a single return train journey with a capacity of only 300 people whereas the tokens available go up to numbers in excess of 1100. The contemporary book describing the early days of the railway also makes no mention of a medal.

The below extract is reproduced from the "Engineer" pg 63, 19th July 1901 in a review of Railway Medals and Tokens by G.W. J. Porrer.

The advertisement opposite was published in the Sheffield Independent on Saturday 17 November 1838 regarding the operation of the railway. This confirms that from the beginning third class was known as third class, not "omnibus" and that the railway company had arranged for three omnibus services to operate from the stations. Two were from the Rotherham station to Doncaster and one was to supply the Sheffield station.

The Sheffield station was situated at Wicker, north of Sheffield town center. This service was required by the people of Sheffiled to access the railway station. The original operator, Thomas Percival, got into a dispute with the railway company over services for the North Midlands Railway passengers and drivers fighting for customers. This resulted in him being banned from the station in 1841.

It is probable that these tokens were issued for a Sheffield station to Glossop Road omnibus service following the dispute between Thomas Percival and the railway company, either by the company intending to run its own service or by a new operator.

Sheffield & Rotherham Railway
	Source	(Smith)
	Filename	SHR.001
	Value	0
	Add Desc.	Omnibus No.3 Check
	Size (mm)	27
	Manufacture	0 Copper
	Notes