This week marks the 190th anniversary of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first steam powered railway in the world built to carry both goods and passengers.
Opened on Sept 15th 1830, the first stop in Liverpool was Edge Hill Engine Station, located at the end of a sandstone cutting, as shown below.
Passenger carriages were then hauled uphill through a short tunnel (short red line, Crown Street Tunnel) into Crown Street Station.
Goods were transferred to the the docks by a much longer tunnel (long red line, Wapping Tunnel).
The current Edge Hill station was built later (1836) with a tunnel to Lime Street and the Victoria & Waterloo tunnel down to a more northerly area of the docks.
All the tunnels were sloping so were rope-hauled, with gravity return because the steam locos of the time couldn’t do hills.
The ropes, which later became wire cables, were only retired when more powerful locos were developed.
The main passenger station, Crown Street Station, was demolished not long after it was built, but the terminus survived as a goods depot into the 1970s. Part of this area is now student housing and the rest is a park.
This means that the Engine Station - together with the Manchester terminus, must be the oldest surviving stations anywhere.
Anyway, the main aim of this outing was to have a look at the station in the cutting because it’s a curious place with no buildings as such, just troglodyte-like holes in the walls.
Indeed when I first walked past in 2017 there was someone living there, but they seem to have gone now.
Having explored other places in Liverpool made out of sandstone I thought there were probably going to be tunnels, and there were, even if I’m still a bit hazy about their function.
Of course if I had bothered to do any research I would have known about the engine station tunnels.
Pictures are from a couple of visits - one of these was at night but not for any particular reason, I just happened to be passing after dark.
The Crown Street and Wapping tunnels are also included because they’re part of the story and I’d never bothered to take photos before.
There’s a huge amount of information available online about this area which I won’t reproduce here, instead just add bits as we go along.
Some of the illustrations are taken from https://www.subbrit.org.uk/sites/liverpool-edge-hill-cutting/
View over the cutting. The rooms of the station had to be built in the walls on either side to allow space for the rail lines.
Romanticised wide-angle print of the end of the cutting (1831, from Bury’s ‘Coloured Views of The Liverpool and Manchester Railway).
The two chimneys at the end, dubbed the ‘Pillars of Hercules’, were for the smoke from steam-powered hauling engines.
The crenellations and base of the right hand chimney can still be seen in the back wall of a school which now overlooks the cutting.
The remains of the left chimney disappeared when the cutting was widened later on (1864).
Ground-level view of the north wall of the cutting looking west.
The entrance on the right was one of several stores, maybe for fuel.
The higher-up hole a bit further along is another empty space which goes back more than 10 meters and was apparently occupied by a water tank.
Beyond is the remains of an arch which originally housed the hauling engines, and beyond that boiler rooms and offices, as shown in this illustration taken from the subbrit link above.
An engraving of the arch, looking east out of the cutting (another one of Bury’s coloured prints).
While the arch was supposed to be a grand entrance portal, it was also a bottleneck and was demolished (1862) when more lines were needed due to the success of the railway.
Remains of the arch and stairs.
View from the other end, with station offices on the left.
Looking out of the largest hole, which once housed the biggest boiler.
Some of the rooms are connected at the rear by holes and a flue, which heads upwards through the wall in the direction of the north chimney before being blocked.
The boiler rooms have holes in their roofs which connect via chambers to another, higher tunnel, most easily accessed by an opening with steps further east.
This tunnel was apparently for carrying steam to engines located outside the cutting near the current Edge Hill station - the engines had to be moved when the arch was demolished, but the boilers stayed where they were.
It goes quite a long way, maybe about 200 meters, inside the northern wall of the cutting.
The next three pictures are heading west from the middle of the steam tunnel.
A phone of pic of where it ends.
The following two pictures are heading east from the middle, with sandstone blocks lying around on the floor, possibly supports for the steam pipe(s).
It finally ends in a pile of earth. It looks as if someone has been digging - I approve.
The south wall of the cutting also contains two boiler rooms for the engine in the south side of the arch, one of which now has a brick shed in it, and two rooms further along of unknown function.
Like the the rooms in the north wall, there are low-level flues joining the rooms, which lead in the direction of the other chimney, although these ones don’t extend very far west before hitting a brick wall.
I didn’t notice holes in the roofs leading to a higher level tunnel on this side.
Opened on Sept 15th 1830, the first stop in Liverpool was Edge Hill Engine Station, located at the end of a sandstone cutting, as shown below.
Passenger carriages were then hauled uphill through a short tunnel (short red line, Crown Street Tunnel) into Crown Street Station.
Goods were transferred to the the docks by a much longer tunnel (long red line, Wapping Tunnel).
The current Edge Hill station was built later (1836) with a tunnel to Lime Street and the Victoria & Waterloo tunnel down to a more northerly area of the docks.
All the tunnels were sloping so were rope-hauled, with gravity return because the steam locos of the time couldn’t do hills.
The ropes, which later became wire cables, were only retired when more powerful locos were developed.
The main passenger station, Crown Street Station, was demolished not long after it was built, but the terminus survived as a goods depot into the 1970s. Part of this area is now student housing and the rest is a park.
This means that the Engine Station - together with the Manchester terminus, must be the oldest surviving stations anywhere.
Anyway, the main aim of this outing was to have a look at the station in the cutting because it’s a curious place with no buildings as such, just troglodyte-like holes in the walls.
Indeed when I first walked past in 2017 there was someone living there, but they seem to have gone now.
Having explored other places in Liverpool made out of sandstone I thought there were probably going to be tunnels, and there were, even if I’m still a bit hazy about their function.
Of course if I had bothered to do any research I would have known about the engine station tunnels.
Pictures are from a couple of visits - one of these was at night but not for any particular reason, I just happened to be passing after dark.
The Crown Street and Wapping tunnels are also included because they’re part of the story and I’d never bothered to take photos before.
There’s a huge amount of information available online about this area which I won’t reproduce here, instead just add bits as we go along.
Some of the illustrations are taken from https://www.subbrit.org.uk/sites/liverpool-edge-hill-cutting/
View over the cutting. The rooms of the station had to be built in the walls on either side to allow space for the rail lines.
Romanticised wide-angle print of the end of the cutting (1831, from Bury’s ‘Coloured Views of The Liverpool and Manchester Railway).
The two chimneys at the end, dubbed the ‘Pillars of Hercules’, were for the smoke from steam-powered hauling engines.
The crenellations and base of the right hand chimney can still be seen in the back wall of a school which now overlooks the cutting.
The remains of the left chimney disappeared when the cutting was widened later on (1864).
Ground-level view of the north wall of the cutting looking west.
The entrance on the right was one of several stores, maybe for fuel.
The higher-up hole a bit further along is another empty space which goes back more than 10 meters and was apparently occupied by a water tank.
Beyond is the remains of an arch which originally housed the hauling engines, and beyond that boiler rooms and offices, as shown in this illustration taken from the subbrit link above.
An engraving of the arch, looking east out of the cutting (another one of Bury’s coloured prints).
While the arch was supposed to be a grand entrance portal, it was also a bottleneck and was demolished (1862) when more lines were needed due to the success of the railway.
Remains of the arch and stairs.
View from the other end, with station offices on the left.
Looking out of the largest hole, which once housed the biggest boiler.
Some of the rooms are connected at the rear by holes and a flue, which heads upwards through the wall in the direction of the north chimney before being blocked.
The boiler rooms have holes in their roofs which connect via chambers to another, higher tunnel, most easily accessed by an opening with steps further east.
This tunnel was apparently for carrying steam to engines located outside the cutting near the current Edge Hill station - the engines had to be moved when the arch was demolished, but the boilers stayed where they were.
It goes quite a long way, maybe about 200 meters, inside the northern wall of the cutting.
The next three pictures are heading west from the middle of the steam tunnel.
A phone of pic of where it ends.
The following two pictures are heading east from the middle, with sandstone blocks lying around on the floor, possibly supports for the steam pipe(s).
It finally ends in a pile of earth. It looks as if someone has been digging - I approve.
The south wall of the cutting also contains two boiler rooms for the engine in the south side of the arch, one of which now has a brick shed in it, and two rooms further along of unknown function.
Like the the rooms in the north wall, there are low-level flues joining the rooms, which lead in the direction of the other chimney, although these ones don’t extend very far west before hitting a brick wall.
I didn’t notice holes in the roofs leading to a higher level tunnel on this side.
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