Lime Street Tunnel

Winding engine at Edge Hill station. Source of engraving: Encyclopedia Britannica?

Tunnel 2,230 yards long on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway running from Edge Hill to a new station Lime Street Railway Station

Work started 23 May 1832; opened 15 August 1836

Supervisor of the work was William Allcard

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.'

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 Feiruary, 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 illustration. Another drawing shows and end elevation, which shows that each winding machine had a pair of engines working a common shaft with cranks set at 90 degrees, driving a large, narrow flywheel through a clutch. The flywheel had a single groove for a cable. Steam was originally supplied from boilers nearly 1/4 mile away! The engines appear to be non-reversible, the trains returning by gravity. No provision for braking is shown on the drawings. In 1870 locomotives working the trains replaced the cable-hauled system.

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.'

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.<ref>[2] Liverpool’s Lost Railway Heritage by Angela Connelly and Michael Hebbert, MARC Discussion Paper, March 2011. Manchester Architecture Research Centre, University of Manchester. ISBN: 978-1-907120-99-2

See Also

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Sources of Information

• [3] Subterrania Britannica: Liverpool Edge Hill Cutting