Railwaymen have cause to get steamed up

Press, 28 March 1980, Page 13

Railwaymen have cause to get steamed up

From

in London

KEN COATES

Railway buffs are getting steam up to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the opening of the world’s first inter-city railway line — the Liverpool to Manchester. It was on September 15, 1830, that Robert Stephenson’s famous “Rocket” and a cavalcade of seven

other engines travelled from Crown Street, Liverpool. The speed, just 10 miles an hour, astonished everyone, including an unwary president of the Board of Trade, who unhappily stepped in front of the “Rocket” and was run down and killed. The famous locomotive worked on the run from 1830 to 1836, then went to a colliery near Carlisle to haul coal wagons until 1844. It was then placed in London’s Science Museum where its remains are still on show todav.

Although the “Rocket” will stay in its final resting place, three working replicas of three early engines that took part in the preceding Rainhill trials — the “Sans Pareil," “Novelty,” and “Rocket” — will take part in a reenactment.

This is planned for May 24, 25. and 26 on the original Rainhill trial course in which the “Rocket” won the 500 pound prize. Each replica will pull three coaches, built in 1930 as replicas of 1830 coaches which still looked very much like horsedrawn coaches in design. Steam train enthusiasts will be in seventh heaven — there will be a cavalcade of trains, including 30 steam engines. It will be representative of 150 years of inter-city travel and will include today’s high speed trains. Engineering apprentices and trainees at Rushton Diesels, Ltd, near Rainhill, are renovating the oldest working steam engine in the world, called “Lion.”

It was built in 1838 at Leeds for the Liverpool to Manchester Railway and was saved from being scrapped in 1927 after nearly 60 years as a stationary dockside pumping engine.

Stands for 50,000 spectators will be built along the trials course and

British Rail is planning special trains from all over the country. One of the most unusual entries in the original Rainhill trials was "cyclopede," worked by two horses walking on a moving belt, and a replica has been constructed. According to the Liver-

pool “Courier” of October 7, 1829, it achieved “five miles an hour with about 50 people clinging around the waggon.’”’But it is not planned to have the replica working with horses — even in 1829 it was considered dangerous, although there were no accidents.

Four stations are being renovated: at Edge Hill, in Liverpool, British Rail has demolished late nineteenth century additions to restore it as nearly as possible to its 1830 s state. Rainhill, Earlestown, and Liverpool Road station — the Manchester terminus in 1830 — as well as the famous Skew Bridge at Rainhill, have all been sandblasted to restore them to their original colour.

A “rail trail” from Edge Hill to nearby Wapping Cutting is to be opened next month. Wapping Cutting was the original terminus for the steam engines, but the first passenger terminus was at Crown Street, a mile up a steeply inclined tunnel.

The freight terminus was down a second steep tunnel to the docks. The incline was too great for locomotives so George Stephenson used ropes and pullies, driven by a stationary steam engine, to haul passengers to Crown Street. Gravity was used for downhill journeys.

Archaeologists have excavated the original rope works which can be seen on the “rail trail.” Tunnel entrances have been un« covered, as have ths remains of an elaborate Moorish arch — the prestigious disguise for the stationary engines which drove the system.

A few miles down the line, from Rainhill towards Manchester, a mock Tudor waiting room at Earlestown has been restored and renovated by out-of-work youngsters on a community industry scheme.

The 35-mile Liverpool- j Manchester line was a|| feat of engineering which f astonished the world. It ,j went through solid rock ■/ and over a treacherous I' peat bog for 12 miles, where rails were laid on a floating mattress of brushwood.

Stephenson's dogged de* termination and engineer* 1 ing brilliance achieved a tremendous breakthrough in transport technology; it I; is to be celebrated in style.