Lime Street Tunnel

1842 drawing of winding engine at Edge Hill station. Source of engraving: Encyclopedia Britannica

This is one of the earliest Liverpool Railway Tunnels.

This tunnel on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway ran from Edge Hill to Lime Street Railway Station. Lime Street replaced the less-convenient Crown Street Station.

The tunnel was 2,220 yards long (1 1/4 miles). There was a difference in elevation of 77 ft between the two stations, and trains were rope-hauled through the tunnel from Lime Street to Edge Hill Station using stationary steam engines.

General

Work started 23 May 1832; opened 15 August 1836

The Supervisor of the work was William Allcard

The Contractor was William Mackenzie

1833 'Railway Tunnel.— The making of the tunnel for the conveyance of passngers by the Railway from Lime-street, has been commenced, but no great progress has yet been made in the work. Two shafts only have been built, one in the yard of the Lunatic Asylum, in Ashton-street, and one in Crown-street.'

1869 'Everybody who has occasion to travel on the London and North-Western line will be delighted to hear that the stationary engine at Edge-hill will very shortly be done away with, and that, instead of having to be pulled up through "the bowels of the earth " by means of rope, passengers will be drawn by locomotive power from the moment a train leaves the Lime-street platform. Hitherto the carriages had either to be drawn by engine, or by horses — more frequently by the latter — to the mouth of the tunnel, where the rope was attached, and, after some delay, were drawn slowly and spasmodically up the incline ; the distance of something less than two miles occupying at least ten minutes. The same thing occurred with the down trains at Edge-hill. The locomotives were shunted on to siding, and the carriages were propelled to the entrance of the tunnel, where break-vans were attached, and then the descent was made in about the same time. This has always been a great drawback to the company, and a source of uneasiness and annoyance to passengers. The wonder is, that the substitution was not made long ago. The only difficulty to contend against was the accumulation in the tunnel of steam, smoke, and impure gases, but modern science pointed out a simple remedy; and, although late in the day, it is still gratifying to find that the company are about to take advantage of it. They have recently sunk a powerful fan in the centre of the tunnel, and, by means of it, created a current of air sufficient draw all the impurities towards a huge chimney built close at hand, thereby purifying the tunnel in a very few minutes after each train has passed through. Shafts have been sunk in Smithdown-road, and the chimney immediately adjoining is built up sufficiently high to carry all the impure vapours above the town. Some idea of the powerful current of air created by this fan may gathered from the fact that, although it is stationed about three-quarters of a mile from the signalman's box at the bottom of the tunnel, the lights in it are kept flickering all the time it is at work. The experiments that have already been made with it have proved highly successful; and it will be a comfort to know that in a very short time the distance between Liverpool and Edgehill will be made in about one-half the time it now occupies. Locomotives are at the present moment partially worked through the tunnel; and we understand that the reason that the old plan has not been entirely superseded is that the company have recently put down a new rope, which tbey desire to work as long as possible. While upon this subject, it may as well to suggest to the directors, who are generally very liberal in their management, the desirability of affixing temporary lights to the second and third as well as to the first-class carriages while passing up and down the tunnel. The works of the station proper are being reconstructed from designs Mr. Baker, M.I.C.E., the company's engineer-in-chief. The magnificent hotel in connection with the London and North-Western Railway Company, to which reference has already been made, will in all probability be completed next spring. ....'

With the change to locomotive haulage through the tunnel, it became essential to provide some means of ventilation for quickly clearing the tunnel of smoke and steam after the passage of each train. A large exhausting fan was designed by John Ramsbottom, located in a chamber near the mid-length of the tunnel, which drew air from the tunnel through a cross drift, discharging it up a tapering chimney. The fan was about 30 ft in diameter, and was made with straight radial vanes; it revolved on a horizontal shaft at about 34 rpm, within a brick casing, built concentric with the fan for the first half of the circumference, and afterwards expanding gradually for discharging into the base of the chimney. The engine driving the fan was started by a telegraph signal at each departure of a train from the Lime Street, and the fan kept running until the discharge became quite clear. The fan drew air in at both ends of the tunnel simultaneously. The fan allowed an uninterrupted passage through it, and the natural ventilation obtained by means of the large chimney was found sufficient for clearing the tunnel during the night and part of the day, without the fan being run. The natural ventilation was aided by the engine exhaust and the boiler discharging into the chimney.. The base of the chimney was about 35 ft from the bottom of the tunnel, and the chimney top was about 160 ft above the base. The internal diameter at the base was about 60 ft, and at the top about 23 ft. The horizontal engine bedplate was at ground level. The fan became redundant when the tunnel was opened out in the 1880s, but the chimney survived until the 1960s. The chimney was located on Smithdown Lane (presumably the circular structure shown here on the 25" 1905/1908 O.S. map, near the junction of Smithdown Lane and Blanche Street).

1884 'THE ENLARGEMENT OF EDGE-HILL TUNNEL.
One of the most important engineering projects yet undertaken by the London and North-western Railway Company in this neighbourhood has just reached an advanced stage in its development. The demands of gigantic and constantly increasing trafic long ago necessitated the commnencement of the carrying out of a plan by which the traffic between Lime-street station and Edgehill will be conducted on four sets of rails - two to be used for up and two for down trains. The cutting of an immense bed of red sandstone lying between the points indicated has been one of the formidable tasks confronting the engineers in the execution of this scheme.
The original intention when Lime-steet station was enlarged and the tunnel widened and converted into an open cutting up to a spot above Messrs. Cope's tobacco manufactory was to have a wider railroad track, which, as far as practicable, should be open to the sky. The conversion of the tunnel into an open cutting will have many advantages which will be apparent to the most superficial observer. With four sets of rails, two trains can be started from either end of the tunnel simultaneously, and thus considerable delay in the working of the traffic can be avoided. The fan now used for ventilating the tunnel can, when the work is completed, be dispensed with, and the present lighting of the trains will also be unnecessary. The drivers and guards of the numerous trains which arrive at and depart from Lime-street Station will, in addition, by the aid of natural light, be able to perform their work with greater, facility than heretofore.
At different periods the company acquired the property located above the tunnel, and numerous blocks of houses which were built on the rock to be cut were removed. To give one instance of the magnitude of the work, it may be stated that a church - St. Stephen's, at the corner of Crown-street and Mildred-street - has been taken down and carried to the opposite side of Crown-street, a distance of 60 or 70 yards, the old material being entirely used in the rebuilding of the structure.
Many thousands of tons of rock have been removed and utilised in the construction of works of various kinds at different stations on the company's vast system, and the arching of the old tunnel has been bared over a long distance. A second tunnel has been driven alongside the old one, starting at Brownlow-street and ending just outside Edgehill Station, with occasional breaks where the cutting is clear. There is also another tunnel on the opposite side, running downwards and parallel with the old one from Edgehill. The streets crossing the cutting are carried over by arched bridges.
At Moorgate-street the lines diverge to the right and left, and when the work is finished there will be island platforms at Edgehill station, where trains running on the four sets of rails can receive and discharge passengers.
During the last few weeks the arching of the old tunnel, and the pier of rock between it and the tunnel on the right hand, moving from Lime-street, has, for a distance of between 40 and 50 feet, been taken away near Moorgate-street. The rock in places has been cut to as great a depth as 85 feet, a thickness of not less than 30 feet being met with everywhere.
The railway company are carrying out the great enterprise themselves, and between 700 and 800 men are constantly employed on it. It is calculated that in about twelve months the whole of the arching of the old tunnel, except at places where it was impracticable on account of the intervention of streets, will have been removed.
The excavations in the vicinity of Smithdown-lane and Mason-street revealed the existence of a series of caverns made many years ago by a Mr. Williamson, a Liverpool philanthropist, who found labour for a large number of people in his day, in the getting out of the stone for building purposes. In most cases those places were filled with rubbish, and they seriously interfered with the regular work of opening up the cutting. The rock under Mason-street is honeycombed in all directions, many of the arched vaults being of considerable depth. The removal of the brickwork over the tunnel has, so far, been accomplished on Sundays, when few trains have been running, and thus the traffic has not been at all interrupted.
With a scheme of such magnitude it is difficult to say when the operations will be concluded, but it is anticipated that in eighteen months or two vears trains will be regularly run on the four sets of rails and the two additional platforms will have been constructed at Edgehill Station.'

This website includes a remarkable series photographs taken by the L&NWR during the widening work in the 1880s.. The original photographs are held in the Science Museum Crewe Collection. See here.

Between 1976 and 1980 the North Western Society for Industrial Archaeology and History carried out excavation work. Subsequently parts of the cutting containing the winding gear were filled with sand to protect them. The large winding wheel and one of the rope support wheels, along with an expansion joint from a steam pipe on Edge Hill Station were removed and stored at National Museums of Liverpool. The National Railway Museum in York also holds a return pulley wheel and bearing block from the rope haulage system.

In 1983 one of the 5 ft diameter horizontal wheels, still in situ, was unearthed at Lime Street Station. See photo and comments here. The photo shows the impressive size of the wheel and the surrounding masonry. The wheel and bearing pedestals were taken to the National Museums Liverpool Warehouse.

Aspects of the Machinery

1834 Advert: 'TO ENGINE BUILDERS. 'THE LIVERPOOL and MANCHESTER RAILWAY COMPANY are in WANT of TWO HIGH PRESSURE STEAM ENGINES, each of them of Power sufficient for the working of the Tunnel now constructing from Lime-street to the vicinity of Wavertree, and the plan must be such, that either one or both Engines may be attached to the working gear. The said Tunnel is about 2220 yards long, and the inclination is 1 yard in 90.
The Engine, at its ordinary rate of working, must be capable of drawing up this inclined plane, by means of an endless rope, 10 loaded Carriages, of the gross weight of 45 tons, at a speed of 15 miles per hour.
The Directors will be glad to receive Plans and Specifications of two Engines each of them equal to the above performance, with Tenders for the Building and Fixing the same, including the requisite Connecting Shafts, Wheels, and all other Gearing required for the complete working of the said Tunnel. The Builders to keep the Engines in repair for twelve months.
The Company will provide the Boilers, and the calculation of the Power of the Engines must be on a pressure of 40lbs. per inch in the Boiler. The Engine-houses will be built to suit the form of the Engines, for the building and setting up of which nine months will be allowed.
Applications may be made and further particulars obtained at the Railway-office, North John-street.
HENRY BOOTH, Treasurer.
Liverpool, 10th February, 1834.'

Edge Hill Station had two stationary engine houses, with high pressure side lever engines supplied by Mather, Dixon and Co to operate rope haulage for the carriages from Lime Street Station to Edge Hill Station. See 1840 description below. The illustration above shows a side elevation. Another drawing shows an end elevation, which shows that each winding machine had a pair of engines working a common shaft which drove a large, narrow flywheel through a clutch. The cranks were set at 90 degrees to each other in order to avoid the problem of starting on dead centre which afflicts single cylinder engines. The flywheel had a single groove for a rope. The cylinders, and the bearing pedestals for the side levers, were bolted to the sandstone bedrock, and tunnels were cut below to accommodate the crankshaft and the shafts which worked the valve gear and the governor (via bevel gears). The end elevation shows a floor, supported by iron beams, level with the top of the cylinder. There was a doorway at this level leading to a small ornate balcony above the station platform. The drawings do not show any air pumps or water pumps, although a pair of suitable bosses for driving such pumps is shown on the drawing. An 1848 illustration by A. F. Tait shows a view of Edge Hill with a locomotive ready to take out a train which has emerged from the tunnel. On both sides, alongside the locomotive, can be seen the engine houses, complete with the iron balconies.

Steam was originally supplied from boilers nearly 1/4 mile away! (see below). As drawn, the engines appear to be non-reversible, the trains returning by gravity. No provision for braking the haulage system is shown on the engine drawings. A drawing of the rope wheels for one of the Liverpool tunnel systems shows what appears to be a brake drum attached to the side of the largest wheel, although it is not clear whether this relates to the Lime Street or the Wapping tunnel system.

'Edge Hill being in 1830 a residential suburb, the boilers and chimney were required to be placed about a quarter of a mile distant from the engine, to which the steam was conveyed through a cast-iron main of 10-inch bore, along a culvert driven through the red sandstone rock. Here during July, 1836, Mr. Woods made observations which showed that the condensation in the long steam main caused the loss of half the fuel burnt.'. See Edward Woods.

John Grantham's Description of the Machinery

John Grantham was responsible for the design and construction of the engines, and presented a Paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1842

The drum wheel was 21 ft diameter and revolved at 22 rpm when pulling a train at 15 mph.

The rope was of the best Russian hemp, in three strands, patent shroud laid, the inner strand being composed of 40 yarns of white hemp, overlaid by 40 yarns of hemp, saturated with tar. The circumference was 6", and the length when new was 4800 yards. In the first few weeks it stretched by 10%, after which it remained unchanged under the tension imposed. It weighed 8.4 tons, and cost f2. 8s. per cwt. (i.e. £403 2s. for the rope). It was reckoned that a new rope would last well for three years, after which it would be renewed by splicing in a short portion each time, so as to reduce the amount of stretching.

The rope was guided by no less than 474 grooved pulleys, 14 inches diameter, and by 6 sheaves 5 feet diameter.

The inclined plane was 2370 yards long 1 1/3 miles), and the tunnel 2220 yards long. The average weight of the trains was 55 tons, and took 6 minutes to ascend. The steam pressure, initially at 50-60 psi, gradually fell to about 30 psi in the reservoir during the operation. The mention of a reservoir is interesting: Grantham stated that 'Several experiments were made to determine the relative amounts of pressure in the boiler and the steam reservoir, and the quantity of steam which was condensed in a certain time. The results were, that when the engine was standing still, the difference of pressure was about 3 lbs., and when working with a load it was as much as 13 lbs. The quantity of steam condensed was on an average about 156 gallons per hour.' Subsequently, a set of locomotive-type tubular boilers was installed close to the engines. As a result the consumption of gas coke was reduced to about 15 tons per week, about half that of the previous boilers. Note that the reference to condensation above presumably relates to condensation in the steam supply system, as Grantham confirms that the engines were non-condensing, and notes the operating advantages obtaining with non-condensing engines for this application.

'This communication is accompanied by four detailed drawings of the engines and machinery, and by a model of Mr. Grantham’s apparatus for regulating the admission of steam to the valves.' Unfortunately the drawings are not available. R. H. G. Thomas, in his excellent 1980 account of the L&MR provided extracts from Grantham's Paper and also included a contemporary drawing of the pulleys and tightening carriage at Edge Hill. It may be that this relates to the machinery for the Wapping Tunnel, rather than Lime Street tunnel: the drawing shows all the wheels having 'H' section spokes, whereas the photograph of the return wheel unearthed at Lime Street in 1983 shows cruciform section spokes. Further, Whishaw's account (see below) states that the large wheel had a single groove, whereas the one in the drawing has three grooves.

1840 Description of Machinery

From 'The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland, Practically Described and Illustrated' by Francis Whishaw, 1840

Edge Hill Station: ‘The buildings, which are here placed on each side of the line, are of uniform elevation, and consist of two engine houses for the fixed engines, each 34 feet in length and 24 feet in width; a dwelling, which is occupied by W. Ralph, who attends the engines; a booking-office and waiting-room in one; a lamp-shop, and also a porter’s lodge and dwelling. The length of the building on each side is upwards of 200 feet; but, excepting the engine-houses, which are situate at the east end, the width is only 18 feet.

‘The intermediate space at this station is 4 feet 10 inches, and the side spaces each 1 foot 8½ inches. The stone platforms in front of the buildings are upwards of 19 feet in width, except where the engine-houses project; here the width is reduced to 13 feet.

‘The fixed engines, to work the Liverpool incline through the tunnel, are placed in the buildings already mentioned. These engines, which are in every respect similar to each other, were erected by Messrs. Mather, Dixon, and Co., and present a good specimen of the work carried out at their establishment. The precaution of having two engines, in order to prevent a stoppage in the efficient working of this part of the line, in case of either being out of repair, is attended with considerable advantages, and is decidedly economical. The engines have each 25-inch cylinders and 6-feet stroke, and are worked ordinarily with a pressure of 40 lbs. on the square inch; the usual number of strokes in a minute is about twenty-six. The working beam is 18 feet in length. The external dimensions of cylinders are 6 feet 9 inches in height and 30 inches in diameter.

‘The system of wheels for working the endless rope is arranged in vaults beneath the level of the railway. Arched passages afford convenient access to the several wheels, pipes and machinery. The main shaft, on which is fixed the large rope-sheave, runs across from one engine to the other, and by means of a proper coupling [a clutch], the machinery is easily put in motion by either engine, as may be required. The large rope-sheeve [sheave] is about 19-feet diameter; the rim is formed with a groove about 10 inches in depth to receive the 6-inch rope; the thickness at junction with the arms is 6¼ inches, and its external depth 12½ inches. The bed for the endless rope to run on is formed of five small ropes placed close together [at the bottom of the groove in the flywheel rim]. The arms are eight in number, and each 2½ inches thick. The rope is in contact with half of the wheel at a time; and from the upper portion of the circumference passes out by a covered channel to the small sheaves fixed in the middle of one line of way. Over these sheeves, which are fixed at intervals of about 8 yards, it runs down through the tunnel to the Lime Street station, and passing half round a horizontal wheel fixed underground, returns over the other line of sheeves back to the Edgehill station, where it passes round two 5-feet horizontal wheels placed in a recess below the surface of the way, in order to alter its direction. From these wheels it continues over sheeves on one side of a covered passage to a horizontal wheel of 4 feet diameter, which turns on the centre of the tightening-carriage. Passing half round this latter wheel, it is produced over a 5-feet vertical wheel to the groove of the large wheel; thus forming an endless rope. Opposite to the station-buildings, the rope-channel is covered with a movable board, 13 inches wide and ¾ of an inch in thickness, let into grooves cut in the stone curb on either side. This channel is 10 inches wide and 8½ inches deep, is built of brick, and paved with the same material.

‘To the front of the tightening carriage, which runs on four small wheels on a pair of rails, one of which is placed on either side of the covered passage, a rope is attached, having a counter weight suspended at its other extremity in a well of about 60 feet depth, the weight being suspended in water. At the top of the well the rope passes over a large pulley of 4½ feet diameter. The tightening-carriage is of great use in keeping the rope stretched to its proper length, which varies considerably according to the state of the atmosphere. The signal for starting the engine is given by means of a pneumatic telegraph. These engines are supplied with steam from boilers fixed at the old tunnel station [Crown Street?], the steam pipe being carried in a small tunnel 5 feet wide and 5 feet high, so that it can be readily got at for repairs.’

NOTE: The 1849 O.S. map shows a large round chimney occupying part of the southern platform at Edge Hill, indicating a new boiler installation.

Communication

With the winding engine driver being located 1 1/4 miles away from operating staff at Lime Street Station, some form of instant communication was vital. This need had been catered for in the older tunnesls by a bell worked by a wire. The wire was prone to breaking. The Lime Street tunnel was provided by a 'pneumatic telegraph', in the form of a whistle tube. Assistance was provided to produce the necessary pressure and volume for both Lime Street and the Camden Town (London) tunnel, namely using a small air-filled, water-sealed 'gasometer', whose upper cylinder (bell) was held in the raised position by hook, until released by the policeman (signaller) to blow the whistle.

In 1841 William Fothergill Cooke was offered facilities to experiment with his electric telegraph in the Lime Street tunnel..

See Also

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Sources of Information

• [6] Subterrania Britannica: Liverpool Edge Hill Cutting