2,250 Yards. Wapping Tunnel - London and North Western Railway
Wapping Tunnel, or Edge Hill Tunnel, in Liverpool, runs from Edge Hill junction to the Liverpool south end docks. The tunnel was designed by George Stephenson for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and constructed between 1826 and 1829, to enable goods to be transported directly from Liverpool docks to Manchester.
The 1-in-48 gradient of the tunnel was too steep for the power of the steam locomotives of the day. A large stationary steam engine was installed at the Cavendish cutting (Edge Hill) in a chamber bored into the rock face in the cutting, near a decorative Moorish Arch spanning the cutting. Goods wagons were hauled by rope up from the Park Lane goods station at the south end docks. Locomotives tookover at the Edge Hill junction. The tunnel opened in 1830 and closed on 15 May 1972.
At some point, locomotives worked through the tunnel and cable haulage was abandoned.
The Edge Hill entrance is still open, but is not accessible to the public. Its portal is the middle of three tunnels at the western end of the Cavendish cutting. The right hand tunnel is the original 1829 tunnel into Crown Street Station, while the left hand tunnel is the later 1846 tunnel into the Crown Street goods yard.
Much of the above information is condensed from the Wikipedia entry.
A Moorish Arch was built over the line in the Edge Hill cutting. Stephenson used this to accommodate the two stationary engines which powered the incline. [Check this].
The Crown Street passenger terminus was closed in August 1836 and replaced by the larger and more central new terminus at Lime Street. This was reached by a new double track 1006 metre tunnel, using cable haulage. A new engine house was built at Edge Hill, steam being supplied from a boiler in the old Edge Hill cutting through a long tunnel excavated through the sandstone on the north side of the cutting; this was known as the ‘steam tunnel’; the boiler was housed in a chamber in the cutting wall. Goods and coal traffic continued to be handled at the old Crown Street station and a second wider tunnel into Crown Street was driven in about 1846. In the 1860’s the Edge Hill cutting was widened, forcing the demolition of the Moorish Arch.
From 1870, the line into Lime Street was locomotive hauled and a large chimney with an engine-driven fan was built on Smithdown Lane, near Edge Hill. Smoke in the tunnel remained a problem until the two track tunnel was opened up into a deep four track cutting with seven short lengths of tunnel remaining to support various roads and houses. At Edge Hill a further tunnel was opened in 1849, north of the Lime Street tunnel. See Waterloo Tunnel.
The above information is heavily condensed from here.[1]
Evidence of the tunnel can be seen above ground in the form of three stone and brick ventilation towers. One is in the landscaped area between Crown Street and Smithdown Lane, one is on Blackburne Place , and one is close to Grenville Street South. There were at least two others that were later demolished, one adjacent to Great George Street, and one by Myrtle Street. Some or all of these were late additions to the tunnel. The one at Blackburne Place, for example, is not shown on the 1890/3 25" O.S. map, but it does appear on the 1924/7 map, occupying the site of two houses.