Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Liverpool and Manchester Railway

A lithograph of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway crossing the Bridgewater Canal at Patricroft, by A. B. Clayton.
Overview
Headquarters	Liverpool
Locale	Lancashire
Dates of operation	1830–1845
Successor	Grand Junction Railway
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length	31 miles (50 km)

v t e Liverpool and Manchester Railway
Legend
1830–1845
Liverpool Crown Street Crown Street Tunnel & incline Wapping goods later Park Lane goods Wapping Tunnel & incline Lime Street Lime Street Tunnel & incline Edge Hill (original) Edge Hill (new) Edge Hill railway works Wavertree Lane Olive Mount cutting Broad Green Roby Huyton Colliery line Huyton Quarry Rainhill Skew Bridge Rainhill Lea Green St Helens & Runcorn Gap Rly St Helens Junction Collins Green Sankey Viaduct over Sankey Brook & Sankey Canal Earlestown Warrington & Newton Rly Newton Bridge Parkside (original) Wigan Branch Railway Parkside (new) Kenyon cutting Kenyon Junction Kenyon & Leigh Junction Rly Bury Lane Flow Moss Chat Moss embankment Astley Lamb's Cottage Barton Moss Bridgewater Canal Patricroft Eccles Gortons Buildings Cross Lane Ordsall Lane River Irwell Liverpool Road Victoria Lancashire & Yorkshire Rly Manchester Line & stations shown as of 1845

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway^[1][2][3] (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world.^[4][i] It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England.^[4] It was also the first railway to rely exclusively on locomotives driven by steam power, with no horse-drawn traffic permitted at any time; the first to be entirely double track throughout its length; the first to have a true signalling system; the first to be fully timetabled; and the first to carry mail.^[5]

Trains were hauled by company steam locomotives between the two towns, though private wagons and carriages were allowed. Cable haulage of freight trains was down the steeply-graded 1.26-mile (2.03 km) Wapping Tunnel to Liverpool Docks from Edge Hill junction. The railway was primarily built to provide faster transport of raw materials, finished goods, and passengers between the Port of Liverpool and the cotton mills and factories of Manchester and surrounding towns.

Designed and built by George Stephenson, the line was financially successful, and influenced the development of railways across Britain in the 1830s. In 1845 the railway was absorbed by its principal business partner, the Grand Junction Railway (GJR), which in turn amalgamated the following year with the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway to form the London and North Western Railway.^[6]

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