this was a magnificent two-storey stone building designed by Francis Thompson. The North Midland also built a cluster of workers' houses of which the present Midland Terrace, Railway Terrace and Calvert Street remain preserved as a conservation area. These are thought to be the oldest railway workers' houses in the world, these were saved from demolition in the 1970s by local architect Derek Latham and was one of the early projects completed by the Derbyshire Historic Building Trust. At each end was a hotel. The Midland Hotel, for first class passengers, is said to be the first provincial railway hotel following on after that at Euston in London. The Brunswick Inn was for second class passengers and railway workers. The saying went that patrons of the first chatted about hunting and shooting, of the other, shunting and hooting. The first public departure from a temporary platform was on 4 June 1839 when a Midland Counties train ran to Nottingham (the inaugural run having taken place from Nottingham on the 30th). The first train to Birmingham departed on 12 August in the same year, from another temporary platform further south. The Tri Junct Station finally opened when the North Midland line was completed to Rotherham Masborough on 11 May 1840, reaching Leeds seven weeks later. The station's official name was Derby Station. Midland Railway In 1844 all three railways amalgamated to become the Midland Railway, with headquarters at Derby station. Joseph Paxton, a director of the railway, produced his first sketch for the Crystal Palace during a board meeting there. The North Midland repair shop and two locomotive sheds formed the Midland's main locomotive works. In 1846 a north facing spur (Derby North Junction) was added from the Midland Counties line. In 1867 a loop was added to the south, allowing through running for trains from London. The original section was closed in 1969. The junction to the south is called London Road. In 1857, the Midland Railway experimentally laid the first rails made of steel rather than cast iron at Derby station, made by the metallurgist Robert Forester Mushet. They were laid down at a particularly heavily used part of the station approach where the iron rails had to be renewed at least every six months, and occasionally every three. Six years later, in 1863, the rail seemed as perfect as ever, although some 700 trains had passed over it