Liverpool and Manchester Railway Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (LMR) was the world's first passenger railway operated by steam locomotives, also built to provide faster transport of raw materials and finished goods between the port of Liverpool and mills in Manchester in north-west England.Designed by George Stephenson and Joseph Locke, the 35-mile line was authorised by Parliament in 1826, at the second attempt, but construction was quite difficult, including the famous 4.75 mile crossing of Chat Moss.
Having found it impossible to drain the bog, Stephenson began constructing a large number of wooden and heather hurdles which were placed on the surface of the bog and sunk into it using stones and earth until they could provide a solid foundation - it was reported that at one point tipping went on solidly for weeks until such a foundation had been created. To this day the track across Chat Moss floats on the hurdles which Stephenson's men laid and if one stands near the lineside one can feel the ground move as a train passes. It is worthy of note that the line now supports locomotives twenty-five times the weight of the Rocket, which hauled the first experimental train over the moss in January 1830.
In 1829 there was still sufficient doubt as to whether the locomotives of the day would be powerful enough to operate the railway that the directors of the company prepared an alternate plan to use stationary steam engines and haul the trains between engines by rope. To determine whether and which locomotives would be suitable, the directors organised the Rainhill Trials.
The line opened on September 15, 1830 with termini at Liverpool Road, Manchester (the station is now part of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester) and Edge Hill, Liverpool. The festivities of the opening day were marred when William Huskisson, the popular Member of Parliament for Liverpool, misjudged the speed of the approaching locomotive Rocket and was run over, becoming the world's first railway passenger fatality. The somewhat subdued party returned to Liverpool, and the train was pelted by vandals from some bridges.
Notwithstanding the unfortunate start to its career, the LMR was very successful. Within a few weeks of opening the LMR had run its first excursion trains, carried the first mails, and was conveying road-rail containers for Pickfords; by the summer of 1831 the railway was carrying tens of thousands by special trains to Newton Races.
The tunnel from Lime Street to Edge Hill was fully completed in 1836 and when it opened carriages were separated from their engines and lowered to Lime Street station by gravity, their descent controlled by brakemen, and hauled back up to Edge Hill by rope from a stationary engine. The tunnel is approximately 1811 metres (1980 yards) long.
On 30 July 1842 work started to extend the line from Ordsall Lane to the new Manchester Victoria station. The extension was opened on 4 May 1844 and Liverpool Street closed.
Being the first railway many lessons had to be learnt from experience, but not many passengers were killed except by their own negligence. The LMR developed the practice of red signals for stop, green for caution and white for clear which spread by the early 1840s to other railways in Britain and the United States. The LMR was also responsible for the guage of four feet eight and a half inches that came to be used more or less universally.
In 1845 the LMR was absorbed by its principal business partner, the Grand Junction Railway; the following year the GJR formed part of the London and North Western Railway.
The original Liverpool and Manchester line still operates today as a secondary line between the two cities. For anyone wishing to travel on the LMR today, as of (2003) a stopping local service operates on the line between Manchester Victoria station and Liverpool Lime Street Station.
This is an Article on Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Liverpool and Manchester Railway Stations
(stations still open in bold)
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