[6][7] In 1842 Brogden secured contracts with the Manchester and Leeds Railway to build a viaduct between the existing station at Oldham Road and Hunts Bank.
[9] He obtained contracts with the East Lancashire Railway to build from Stubbins to Accrington in 1845 and Blackburn to Hapton in 1846 (jointly with Smith and Pearce).
Brogden was joined in his business by his four eldest sons: John, Alexander, Henry and James as they reached the age of majority.
[15] In the late 1840s the Brogdens became interested in iron ore mining in the Furness area of North Lancashire (now Cumbria).
In 1850 the second largest haematite ore deposit in British history was discovered by Schneider and Co. at Park, on the Duddon shore in Furness.
George Stephenson had planned a West Coast main Line to cross the mouth of Morecambe Bay and this would have linked Furness with the developing national rail network.
It could only be connected to the main network by local efforts and these would involve crossing Morecambe Bay, with its notorious tidal quicksands.
Thus Burlington's fellow directors saved him and his family from losing a great prize and prevented the Brogdens from gaining it.
[21] However, as the expensive work proceeded Brogdens ran short of money and had to ask the Furness Railway for financial assistance.
[25] Brogdens were struggling financially and in 1858 approached the Furness for another loan but declined to accept the stringent conditions demanded.
[31] When the horse-drawn Dyffryn Llynvi and Porthcawl Railway was replaced by the steam-hauled broad gauge Llynvi Valley Railway in 1861, the prospects of the Tondu and Maesteg areas improved and in 1863 Brogdens obtained a new lease of the Tywith [32] [33] [34] lands in the Llynfi valley, from which they raised coal and iron in large quantities.
On 17 April 1890 a meeting was held at the pit head, attended by about 700 colliers, at which George was presented with an illuminated address and described as the proprietor.
[citation needed] At the end of January 1865 James Brogden acquired 32 acres (130,000 m2) of land adjoining the dock on behalf of the firm.
However, when the firm was dissolved, Mrs James Brogden acquired the land and she and her husband established on it the nucleus of modern Porthcawl.
[44] When John Brogden senior died in December 1869, Alexander assumed his father's position as head of the firm and came to Tondu to take control.
[45] In December 1871 the fortunes of the Brogdens began to change when the firm made an agreement with the neighbouring Llynvi Coal and Iron Company Ltd which owned a large integrated ironworks at Maesteg, six miles (10 km) north of Tondu.
The Vice-Chancellor, Sir James Bacon, ruled in favour of the Llynvi Coal and Iron Co. and the Brogdens had to face a very large demand for compensation or an expensive appeal.
In the immediate aftermath of the strike Alexander Brogden was so highly regarded by his workforce in Maesteg that, for a time, it was suggested that the planned town hall in the valley should be named in his honour.
By 1874 however, after a brief period of prosperity, profits slumped as the Tondu and Llynvi works faced competition from cheaper producers abroad and, more importantly, from cheap Bessemer steel.
They owned the Bwllfa Colliery in the Aberdare Valley (see above) and since the beginning of 1870 had supplied coal weekly to the Metropolitan Railway at favourable prices.
A case was tried at the Surrey Spring Assizes (1873), The Court of Common Pleas and the House of Lords (1877), each of which held for the Metropolitan.
[48] The Mont Cenis Pass Railway between France and Italy was promoted and construction overseen by a partnership consisting of Alexander Brogden, The Duke of Sutherland, Sir James Hudson, Thomas Brassey, The Duke of Vallombrosa, Lord Abinger, Sir Robert Dallas, Edward Blount, Jervoise Smith, Thomas Crampton, W B Buddicom, J B Fell, and James Brunlees.
[49] Although the railway was successful in technical and service terms, it is doubtful whether the shareholders got any of their money back and Brogdens had invested a lot.
Vogel travelled to London to negotiate loans and concluded an agreement with Brogdens to construct railways and provide plant to the value of £500,000.
He also negotiated a much larger alternative contract, subject to Parliamentary approval, which would give the colony £4,000,000 of railways and 10,000 immigrants in return for transferring 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2) of land to the contractors.
In October 1871 the New Zealand Parliament rejected the larger contract but allowed the ministry to negotiate an extension to the smaller one.
For this reason the colony's Agent-General in London, Dr. Isaac Featherston directed staff to support the Brogden programme.
During the period 1870–1875, political power gradually transferred from the Provinces to the central government, partly because of the railway question.
[citation needed] In the Netherlands Brogdens held the concession to construct about 50 miles (80 km) of railway – the Tilburg and Nijmegen in North Brabant and Gelderland, which formed part of the Dutch South Eastern Railway Company (DSERC) and a new direct route from London to Berlin via Flushing (Vlissingen).
The new company, initially led by Colonel John T. North, the 'Nitrate King', produced iron at the Tondu site until 1896 before concentrating on the booming coal trade in the Llynfi and Ogmore valleys.