796 



RAILWAYS 



railroad emerges into a spacious area forty feet be- 

 low the surluce ol the ground, cut out of the solid 

 n k. Fn>m this area there returns a small tunnel, 

 2!<O yards in length, fifteen feet wide and twelve 

 fret high, parallel with the large one, but inclining 

 upwards in the opposite direction, and terminating 

 in the company's premises, in Crown street, at the 

 eastern boundary of Liverpool ; this is the princi- 

 pal station for the railway coaches, and the depot 

 for coals for the supply of the higher districts of the 

 town. In September, 1831, the company resolved 

 to construct a new tunnel in order to be able to 

 dispense with the omnibuses, which are employed 

 to convey passengers from the town to the station 

 on the railroad from which the carriages for pas- 

 sengers start. The new tunnel is to be one and a 

 third mile in length, twenty-five feet high, twenty- 

 two feet wide, and to have an inclination of one foot 

 in 106. The roof is to be coated with Roman ce- 

 ment. The time which will be employed in con- 

 veying passengers through this tunnel will be three 

 minutes. The expense is estimated at less than 

 100,000. Proceeding eastward from the tun- 

 nels, the road passes through a Moorish archway, 

 which connects the two engine-houses, and forms 

 the grand entrance to the Liverpool stations. The 

 traveller is now upon the open road to Manchester ; 

 the line of the railway is perfectly level, and slightly 

 curved. Crossing Wavertree-iane, the railway 

 descends for five and a half miles, at the rate of 

 four feet per mile. The road, a little beyond Waver- 

 tree-lane, is carried through a deep marl cutting, 

 under several massive stone arch-ways, thrown 

 across the excavation to form the requisite com- 

 munications between the opposite sides of the rail- 

 road. Beyond the marl cutting is the great rock 

 excavation through Olive mount, about half a 

 mile to the north of the village of Wavertree. Here 

 the traveller passes through a deep and narrow 

 ravine, seventy feet below the surface of the ground, 

 over which are thrown several bridges ; the road 

 winds gently to the south-east. Emerging from the 

 Olive mount cutting, he approaches the Roby em- 

 liankment, which stretches across the valley for 

 about two miles, varying in height from fifteen to 

 forty-five feet, and in breadth, at the base, from sixty 

 to 135 feet. The railroad next crosses the Huyton 

 turnpike, and proceeds, in a slightly curved direc- 

 tion, to the bottom of the inclined plane at Whiston, 

 J>etween seven and eight miles from the company's 

 station in Liverpool. This plane rises three eighths 

 of an inch in a yard. It is a mile and a half long, 

 in a straight line ; the inclination is hardly percep- 

 tible, except by the decrease in the speed of the 

 carriages. At the top of the Whiston plane, the 

 road for nearly two miles is exactly level. About 

 half a mile from the top of the inclined plane, the 

 turnpike road from Liverpool to Manchester cross- 

 es the line of the railroad in an acute angle of thirty- 

 four degrees, by a stone bridge built on the diagon- 

 al principle, each stone being cut to a particular 

 angle, to fit into a particular place. The span of 

 the arch measured at the face is fifty-four feet, while 

 the width of the railway underneath, measured from 

 wall to wall, is only thirty feet each face of the 

 arch extending diagonally forty-five feet beyond the 

 Mjuare. Passing over the summit level at Rainhill, 

 the traveller arrives at the Sutton inclined plane, 

 which descends in the opposite direction, and is 

 similar, in extent and inclination, to the Whiston 

 plane, the top level being eighty-two feet above 

 the base of each plane. Parr Moss is the next ob- 

 ject of attention. This moss is about twenty feet 

 deep ; the materials forming the railroad, as they 

 v/ere deposited, saiik to the bottom, and now form 



an embankment in reality twenty-five feet liitili, 

 though only four or five feet above the surface of 

 the moss. Over Sankey valley and canal, the rail- 

 way is carried along a magnificent viaduct of nine 

 arches, each fifty feet span, built principally of brick 

 with stone facings ; the height from the top of the 

 parapets to the water in the canal being seventy 

 feet, and the width of the railway between the par- 

 apets, twenty-five feet. The approach to this struc 

 ture is along a stupendous embankment, formed 

 principally of clay. A few miles beyond Newton 

 is the great Kenyon excavation, from which about 

 800,000 cubic yards of clay and sand were dug. 

 Near the end of this cutting, the Kenyon and Leigh 

 junction railway joins the Liverpool and Manches- 

 ter railroad by two branches pointing to the two 

 towns respectively. The former railroad joins the 

 Bolton and Leigh railroad, and thus forms the con- 

 necting link between Bolton, Liverpool and Man- 

 chester. 



From the Kenyon excavation, the Liverpool 

 and Manchester railroad passes over the Brosely 

 embankment, Bury lane, and the small river 

 Glazebrook, to Chat Moss. This moss was so fluid 

 that a rod of iron would sink into it by its own 

 gravity. It comprises an area of about twelve 

 square miles, varying in depth from ten to thirty- 

 five feet. Beyond Chat Moss, the road traverses 

 the Barton embankment, crossing the low lands for 

 about a mile between the moss and the Worsely 

 canal, over which it is carried by a neat stone 

 bridge. The immediate approach to Manchester 

 is through a portion of Salfbrd. Over the river 

 Irwell, the railway is carried by a handsome stone 

 bridge, consisting of two arches, each fifty-eight feet 

 span, and then over a series of arches to the com- 

 pany's station in Water street and Liverpool road 

 in Manchester. This railroad consists of two tracks 

 of rails, and is thirty-two miles in length. The 

 whole number of bridges is twenty-five, and the 

 number of large culverts, thirty-six. The rails are 

 edge rails. It was constructed in four years, and 

 opened Sep. 15, 1830. This road is constructed on 

 the most approved principles. On the clay and 

 stone, on which the road is formed, a layer-two feet 

 thick, of broken rock and sand, is deposited, one 

 foot below the sleepers, and one foot distributed 

 between them. The sleepers, or blocks on which 

 the rails of the road rest, are composed of hard free- 

 stone, from Peel, in Lancashire, on the excavated 

 part of the road (about eighteen out of the thirty- 

 two miles) ; while, on the raised embankments and 

 the mosses, the rails are supported by sleepers of 

 oak or larch. The stone blocks are about two feet 

 over, and about a foot and a half thick ; for the 

 reception of the iron chairs, two holes are drilled 

 in each block, and filled up with hard oak pins ; 

 the chairs are then fastened on by two large spikes 

 driven through them into the oak ; which process 

 is found to be so effectual, that it is almost impossi- 

 ble to separate a chair from a sleeper when thus 

 fastened. 



The following statement, contrasting the antici-' 

 pations of the projectors, with the actual results as 

 shown to the end of 1835, exhibits the manner and 

 degree in which the experience thus acquired 

 may be made useful by parties embarking in simi- 

 lar projects. It is collected from the evidence 

 given before parliament in 1825 and 1826, previous 

 to the passing of the act of incorporation ; and 

 from the half-yearly reports of the directors of the 

 company, upon which the dividends have been 

 declared by the proprietors : 



