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
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.'[1]
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, 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.'[2]
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[3] 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.
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.[4]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Gore's Liverpool General Advertiser - Thursday 24 January 1833
- ↑ Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser - Friday 14 February 1834
- ↑ [1] The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th edition, Volume 20
- ↑ [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