Crown Street Tunnel

Entrance of the Railway at Edge Hill, from T. A. Bury's Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1831.
1829 Crown Street tunnel on right, Wapping tunnel in centre. The tunnel on the left was apparently cut for symmetry, and used for storage, but was enlarged in the 1840s for access to Crown Street yard on left.
Public domain image. See here for usage conditions

A tunnel built for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to serve Liverpool Crown Street Station

Passenger trains were worked from the Edge Hill cutting by cable through the tunnel. Departing trains from Crown Street station ran under gravity with a brakeman controlling the speed.

1826 Work started on constructing the tunnel, which was completed by 1829.

In 1829 the following advertisement was placed: 'PUBLIC ADMITTANCE TO THE RAILWAY TUNNEL. THE TUNNEL of the LIVERPOOL and MANCHESTER RAILWAY, ILLUMINATED with GAS LIGHTS, will be OPENED to the INSPECTION of the PUBLIC, This day (FRIDAY) the 31st instant, between the Hours of Twelve and Five in the Afternoon. Admittance, ONE SHILLING. Children under Twelve Years of Age, accompanied by their Parents or Friends, will be admitted Gratis.
By order of the Directors.
Board Room, July, 1829.
Entrance through the Archway, Crown-street, Crabtree-lane.'

1836. With the opening of the new Liverpool Lime Street station, Crown Street station closed to passengers.

The Crown Street site became a goods facility.

1849 A double-track tunnel was built from the Edge Hill cutting to Crown Street; its eastern end was to the south of the original Crown Street and the Wapping tunnel portals. The new tunnel was shorter than the original as its western portal opened out into a cutting. The opening of the new tunnel allowed locomotives to run to Crown Street for the first time. The original tunnel with its cable and gravity-working continued to be used.

See here for an urban explorer's remarkable series of recent photographs of the cutting at the former Edge Hill Engine Station and of the tunnels and surviving infrastructure. This infrastructure includes furnace flues, steam pipe tunnels, dwellings, offices, and boiler rooms cut into the sandstone cliffs. The flues for the winding engines' boilers originally led to a pair of tall, ornate chimneys set above the tunnels' portals. The top of the wall above the portals was castellated, as can be seen in the image above. The urban exploration link includes a useful sketch and recent photographs showing the surviving remains of one of the chimney bases and of the castellated wall. This information greatly helps in interpreting the salient features of this neglected, litter-strewn, historically important location.

Some of the images in the above link are drawn from the excellent Subterranea Britannica website [here . See here for a plan of the Edge Hill cutting (Industrial Archaeology Review Volume II/1 - Autumn 1977). This shows the location of the boiler houses and the routes of the flues and the steam pipe tunnel.

1840 Description of Machinery

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

OLD TUNNEL-STATION ENGINES, LIVERPOOL. ‘The old engine-station, which is at the top of the Wapping and bottom of the Crown Street tunnels, is about 68 yards in length and 22 yards wide, independent of the recesses formed in the red sandstone rock on either side for the boilers, stable, &c.

‘The whole of the firing of the engines to work the Wapping and Crown Street tunnels, as well as the engines at Edgehill, is concentrated at this station. There are no fewer than eight large boilers erected for the use of the several fixed engines; two of which may be considered as extra spare boilers, to be used in case of repairs to any of the others. Some of these boilers are multi-tubular, having 3-inch tubes; and others have return fire-tubes. The usual working pressure is 40 lbs. on the square inch. Coke is mixed with the coal for the Wapping engine.

‘The engine-houses are situate on either side of the Moorish arch, and are 29 feet 5 inches apart, each 35 feet in length, and 18 feet in width externally. The engines have each 24-inch cylinders and 6-feet stroke; the usual pressure is stated to be 35 lbs., the working beam is 13 feet 4 inches long, and the fly-wheel 20 feet in diameter.

‘For the Crown Street tunnel, the rope is wound on a roll 3 feet wide in the clear and 3 feet 4 inches in diameter; and for the Wapping tunnel an endless rope is used, with a tightening-carriage, as described for the Edgehill engines; and there are two 5-feet wheels placed in the same line and between the large wheel and the tightening-carriage. The rope passes twice round the large wheel, twice round the first 5-feet wheel, the centre of which is 11 feet from that of the large wheel, and once round the second 5-feet wheel. The well is 40 yards deep, and the bore below 60 yards additional. The counter-weight consists of a plate-iron bucket, which holds 2½ tons of scrap-iron, and is 3 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep. There is also a small pumping-engine at this station, with a 12-inch cylinder and 3½ feet stroke.

‘There are four men to attend these engines; the engine-men receive 30s. a week each, and the firemen 20s. The working hours are from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with an allowance of two hours for meals.

‘From twelve to eighteen trains, of about twelve laden wagons each, are drawn up through the Crown Street tunnel daily. When the train reaches the top of the Crown Street tunnel Incline, the end of the rope is brought back by a small four-wheeled carriage, called a pilot, drawn by one horse; an operation which occupies about five minutes.’

See Also

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Sources of Information

• [3] Disused stations