TWO explosions and the deaths of three railways workers in Bromsgrove sparked off a train of thought which led a young engineer to form the worldwide Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

It was the mid 19th century and the height of a frantic rush to build engines for the new railways when 26-year-old Irishman James McConnell was appointed as superintendent of the locomotive works in Bromsgrove.

His appointment followed the death of William Creuze, scalded to death when a boiler blew up on a banking engine he was using to get to the Malt Shovel halfway up the Lickey Incline. His death followed that of Thomas Scaife and Joseph Rutherford, railway workers killed in a boiler explosion.

All three are buried in St Godwald's, near the railway line in Bromsgrove, and their deaths shocked the community. McConnell took up residence in a house at the end of the platform at Bromsgrove railway station with a brief to build a banking engine capable of helping steam trains up the two-mile Lickey Incline.

The 1 in 37 slope - the steepest on mainline railways - had been created because of the costs of building track around the hill but it was proving a deadly problem.

In those times, there were no professional qualifications in mechanical engineering. There were no laws either - they didn't even have any standardised screw threads.

Despite these difficulties, McConnell carried out a stream of innovative work in his six year tenure which culminated in him building in Bromsgrove the world's first saddle tank locomotive, the Gt Britain.

The grief hanging over the railway community also prompted McConnell to try and raise standards. He was joined at the trackside on the Lickey Incline in a meeting captured on the new plaque unveiled this week at Bromsgrove Railway Station by "Rocket" man George Stephenson and fellow engineer Archibald Slate.

It was there, in the summer of 1846, that the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was first thought of. As rain began to fall, they sheltered in a plate layer's hut and continued their discussion at McConnell's house, with no idea that their organisation would grow to the 80,000 worldwide members it has today.

The house is no longer there, having been pulled down in 1980, but the balcony and bootscrapers are kept at Bromsgrove Museum and there are some remaining steps by the track that the eminent men would have used as they walked and talked.

It was the last year of Stephenson's life but his reputation added weight to the idea and on January 27, 1847, the Institution known as The Mechanicals was officially launched in Birmingham. We take it for granted these days that the machines we use will work safely and efficiently - and the high standards were set out on the side of the railway line in Bromsgrove.