How do you design and build something which has never been done before?
A daunting enough challenge in the 21st century but even more so just thirty years into the 19th century.
And this is the railway story for the day, when an enterprising group of Manchester businessmen set about creating a cheap and quick way of transporting goods from Liverpool to Manchester and back again.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway did it by both looking back and forwards and in the process made some delightful history.
Who today would float a competition to see which form of traction would be used on the railway and open the contest to everyone from professional engineers to eccentric amateurs?
This was the Rainhill Trials conducted in the October of 1829 with a prize of £500 and the possibility that the winner would make transport history.
And this was a major civil engineering project which called on the knowledge, skills and workforce which had built our canal network and it was the canals which offered a way of storing goods which would be coming in and out of the station complex on a daily basis.
Canal warehouse design had been perfected during the last half of the 18th century.
The main features of the design were a series of loading points called loop holes on each floor and access points for barges to move directly into the building. Similar loopholes were situated on the roadside of the warehouse. This enabled goods to be moved from one side to another. One of the best of these is sited opposite Dukes 92 and has recently been renovated.
The original 1830 warehouse used a combination of loopholes and arches designed to allow wagons to be pushed into the building. After the great fire in 1866, which destroyed the two newer warehouses, this practice was stopped. It is still possible to see where the lines ran into the building. Turntables existed to turn and push wagons into the warehouse. Maps of the period show these turntables all over the site. The last one was only torn up in the late 90s.
All along the rail side it is possible to see changes that have been made to the original design. One of the arches has been enlarged and one of the loopholes adapted. It is possible to see some of the early winding gear above one of the loopholes, and the different brickwork above other loopholes can see the evidence for where others once were.
And now of course the warehouse along with the station is part of the museum.
Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2002
And this is the railway story for the day, when an enterprising group of Manchester businessmen set about creating a cheap and quick way of transporting goods from Liverpool to Manchester and back again.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway did it by both looking back and forwards and in the process made some delightful history.
Who today would float a competition to see which form of traction would be used on the railway and open the contest to everyone from professional engineers to eccentric amateurs?
This was the Rainhill Trials conducted in the October of 1829 with a prize of £500 and the possibility that the winner would make transport history.
Canal warehouse design had been perfected during the last half of the 18th century.
The main features of the design were a series of loading points called loop holes on each floor and access points for barges to move directly into the building. Similar loopholes were situated on the roadside of the warehouse. This enabled goods to be moved from one side to another. One of the best of these is sited opposite Dukes 92 and has recently been renovated.
All along the rail side it is possible to see changes that have been made to the original design. One of the arches has been enlarged and one of the loopholes adapted. It is possible to see some of the early winding gear above one of the loopholes, and the different brickwork above other loopholes can see the evidence for where others once were.
And now of course the warehouse along with the station is part of the museum.
Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2002
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