Liverpool to Manchester (LMR) home

The Liverpool & Manchester was the world's first completely steam-operated railway built to serve passengers as well as a goods service and it opened on the September 15 1830

After many years of fighting stiff opposition the line was authorised on May 5 1826. The chief engineer was George Stephenson who had to overcome numerous engineering difficulties in order to build the line. A site was chosen at Crown Street for the western passenger terminus that was acceptable to the city authorities who were nervous at that time about allowing a railway to pass into the centre of the city

Although Crown Street was chosen for the passenger terminus it was not the western extremity of the line, that being at Wapping, adjacent to the Liverpool Docks

Locomotives did not work into Crown Street, the limit for them being within the Edge Hill cutting at the eastern end of the Crown Street tunnel. Passenger trains were worked from the Edge Hill cutting by cable and they departed from Crown Street using gravity with a brakeman controlling the speed

The L&M was a success from the start and it was soon carrying 100,000 passengers per year but Crown Street had very quickly become inadequate for the numbers using the line and it was clear that something would have to be done

In 1832 the L&M obtained an Act to build a line from Edge Hill to Lime Street on the edge of the town centre. Construction of the new line, which also required extensive tunnelling, began in 1833 and it opened to passenger services on August 15 1836

When the line first opened in September 1830 no details exist of the initial intermediate stops such as Collins Green and Weaste and fares for intermediate stops had not been settled implying that initially there might not have been any stops

The earliest known company timetable is issued in March 1831 but this did not show times at intermediate stops but did list stops in fare tables

There were many early changes of stopping place and name so the early history of intermediate stops is patchy. At first trains stops at, for example, level crossings where the gatekeeper issued tickets; a room in his cottage was available as a shelter. Many of the stations consisted of little more than a basic cottage. In 1841 platforms and nameboards were added to stations lacking them

Liverpool to Manchester (LMR) (1830 - )

Liverpool to Manchester (LMR)
(1830 - )