Lime Street Tunnel
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
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.'[1]
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[2] 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 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.
Supervisor of the work was William Allcard
Contractor was William Mackenzie