Liverpool and Manchester Railway

“ In 1825 he was appointed principal engineer of the Liverpool & Manchester railroad, which employed him during the next four years. Canals connected the two towns, Liverpool and Manchester, but it was believed that the carrying trade would support this new railway if it could be made to work. The people were told by the newspapers that locomotives would prevent cows from grazing and hens from laying. The poisoned air from the locomotives would kill birds as they passed over them, and render the preservation of pheasants and foxes no longer possible. ”

“ There can be no doubt that the railways had for long years greatly overcharged their Liverpool traffic. The rate of 12s 6d per ton for Manchester goods for the thirty-two miles' carriage from Manchester to Liverpool was a gross overcharge. I had headed deputation after deputation to the London and North-Western Railway to represent this; Mr. Moon (afterwards Sir Richard Moon) always received us with much civility, but nothing was done. The Dock Board had the remedy in their own hands; they could have bought the Bridgewater Canal, and made a competitive route ”

“ Can steam power, then, be used to produce this rapid motion? One hundred thousand persons that have passed from Liverpool to Manchester in less than two hours since September last, can answer this question in the affirmative.
Another great advantage of the railway over the common road is the much greater safety that it offers. The above number of passengers have been conveyed with scarcely an accident. Is there a line of turnpike-road in the kingdom that can make the same boast, where an equal number of passengers have travelled? ”

“ Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1830.—Left Manchester at ten o’clock by the railroad for Liverpool. We enter upon it by a staircase through the office from the street at present, but there will, I suppose, be an open entrance, by-and-bye; they have built extensive warehouses adjoining. We were two hours and a half going to Liverpool (about thirty-two miles) , and I must think the advantages have been a good deal overrated, for, prejudice apart, I think most people will allow that expedition is the only real advantage gained; the road itself is ugly, though curious and wonderful as a work of art. ”

“ While the history of the railway dates back far beyond the nineteenth century, yet the railway, as we know it to-day, is essentially a product of this century. It dates, in fact, from England in 1830, when the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, 31 miles long, was opened, and was operated from the beginning by steam locomotives. The Stockton & Darlington Railway, 37 miles, was opened in 1825, but this line was intended only for private coal traffic, while the other line was built for general passenger and freight service, and for the use and benefit of the public. ”

“ But the circumstance which, so far as respects passengers, must give railways, as compared with canals, an advantage which cannot be considered as less than fatal to the latter, is the fact, that the great speed and cheapness of transit attainable upon a railway by the aid of steam-power will always secure to such lines not only a monopoly of the travelling, but will increase the actual amount of that source of profit in an enormous proportion, as has been already made manifest between Liverpool and Manchester. ”

“ The man himself, however, is an object of a good deal more curiosity to us, than he was to those among whom he lived and moved. A living glimpse at him now is worth dwelling upon, and is the best possible preface to any account of his great day of life triumph. Just such a glimpse of the man has been given to us at the moment when at last all difficulties had been overcome—when the Manchester and Liverpool railroad was completed ”

“ There are abundant service expresses running in an even four hours between that city and both Manchester, 184 miles, and Liverpool, 193 miles. Competition is supposed to have forced this service. Competition is forever supposed to be forcing service. Yet on the non-competitive Great Western railway I rode, but a few months ago, from London to Bath, 104 miles, in an even two hours, while across the Channel, I had ridden, but a few weeks before that, over the war-struck Eastern railway of France ninety miles from Paris to Rheims in just sixty seconds less than an even two hours. ”

“ A new city has arisen out of the old one and the running expenses are lower than ever. Sheffield, the centre of the cutlery industry, is well worth studying for a day, for its activity, the surrounding scenery, and the effect of foreign competition upon its staple trade.
Manchester is familiar as the mother of the cotton trade. Its fortune was made by its spinning and weaving enterprises, by its quick utilization of the steam-engine and the inventions of mechanical genius. The first working railway was that which ran between Manchester and Liverpool in 1830. ”

“ An Act of Parliament ‘for making a Railway from Kingston-upon-Hull to Selby’ was then obtained, and the work of constructing the new railway was pushed forward rapidly.
This, the first terminal railway to be constructed in the 247Riding, was expected to bring with it great advantages. By it Hull would be linked to Manchester, and Manchester was already linked to Liverpool. Thus there would be direct railway communication across England from the North Sea to the Irish Sea. ”

“ Under these circumstances the drivers took the shortest course open to them. Having taken in their water, they pushed on as fast as they could to a crossing at a short distance from Liverpool. They backed into the other line of rail, and thus returned to Manchester to pick up their trains.
In the meantime the vague rumour of some great disaster had reached Liverpool. Thousands of persons, many of whom had friends and relatives in the excursion trains, were congregated on the bridges and at the railway station, anxious to learn news of their friends and relatives. ”