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
HeadquartersLiverpool
LocaleLancashire
Dates of operation1830–1845
SuccessorGrand Junction Railway
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length31 miles (50 km)
Liverpool and
Manchester Railway
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)
Wavertree Lane
Broad Green
Roby
Huyton
Colliery line
Huyton Quarry
Rainhill
Lea Green
St Helens Junction
Collins Green
Sankey Viaduct over
Sankey Brook & Sankey Canal
Earlestown
Newton Bridge
Parkside
(original)
Parkside
(new)
Kenyon cutting
Kenyon Junction
Bury Lane
Flow Moss
Chat Moss embankment
Astley
Lamb's Cottage
Barton Moss
Patricroft
Eccles
Gortons Buildings
Cross Lane
Ordsall Lane
River Irwell
Liverpool Road
Victoria

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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