The birth of the railways
By Paul Coslett
As the Walker Art Gallery opens an exhibition entitiled Art in the Age of Steam, find out how Liverpool gave birth to the passenger railway.
The romance of the early days of train travel is portrayed in a new exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery.
It’s fitting that the exhibition should be in Liverpool which was the birthplace of passenger rail when the first train ran between the city and Manchester in 1830.
The railway was conceived as a way of boosting the economy of both cities which were closely tied by the trade that passed through the port of Liverpool and on to Manchester.
The only other reliable connection between Liverpool and Manchester was by canal via the Mersey and Irwell Navigation and the Bridgewater Canal, a fact not lost on the canal owners who vehemently opposed the building of the new railway.
Raw textiles passed through Liverpool on the way to the factories of Manchester and the railway was designed to provide a cheaper form of transportation for the materials
Railway construction
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company was established in 1823 and over the next few years lobbied hard for parliamentary approval to build the line.
George Stephenson, an engineer from Northumberland, was appointed to construct the railway.
One of the biggest problems faced by Stephenson was the construction of the line across Chat Moss a treacherous area of bog west of Manchester.
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The line opened in 1830.
Work on Chat Moss was slow, it wasn’t possible to drain the area so Stephenson sunk foundations of heather and wood down in to the bog, sometimes for weeks until he was satisfied they were firm enough to run trains over.
The line was 35 miles in length and included 64 bridges and viaducts.
The Liverpool terminus of the line is now Lime Street Station but the original line stopped at Crown Street form where trains were pulled up to Edge Hill by rope.
A station in Liverpool city centre only became a reality with the opening of Lime Street in 1836.
Land for the station, built on an old cattle market, was purchased in 1833, the current station is the third to stand on the site.
As the line neared completion a competition was held for a design of locomotives to pull the carriages.
Taking place on a completed section of line at Rainhill, the Rainhill trials in October 1929, saw George Stephenson triumph with his engine, The Rocket.
Tragedy strikes
The railway opened on Wednesday, 15 September, 1830, in a lavish ceremony attended by the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington and assorted dignitaries.
Amongst the first passengers was Liverpool MP William Huskisson, who tragically would not complete the journey to Manchester.
While his train stopped at Parkside station near Newton-le-Willows, Huskisson left his carriage to speak to the Duke of Wellington.
As he was talking The Rocket approached along the parallel track, panicked and confused, Huskisson fell back in to the engine’s path.
He was rushed by train to the vicarage at Eccles where a few hours later he died - the world’s first railway passenger death.
Huskisson is commemorated by a tomb in St James Cemetery in the shadow of Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral and in a trackside memorial close to Parkside station.
Art in the Age of Steam is at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery until 10 August, 2008.
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