Crown Street Tunnel
Resource Type: Image | Posted on 5th May 2011 by Jenny Porter
This is a view of the Crown Street Tunnel. Crown Street station was the original western passenger terminus on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and was thus the world’s first dedicated passenger station. It was reached via a single-track tunnel, the oldest railway tunnel in the world, between it and Edge Hill. Locomotives would stop at an engine transfer point at Edge Hill, while carriages would be cable-worked through the tunnel up to Crown Street, and then made their way back to Edge Hill by gravity. The Crown Street terminus, however, soon became a victim of the enormous success of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as it was small and far from the city centre, so it was closed in 1836 and a new terminus built at Lime Street, which was more adequate in both size and location. However, Crown Street continued to be used a goods depot until 1972, and a further tunnel linking it with Edge Hill was built in 1846. The original tunnel is blocked off at its western portal, while its younger sibling is still in use as a head shunt for goods trains that arrive at Edge Hill
Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives
Comments
It is highly desirable for you to state where the stationary steam engine—which I presume was the power source for the Crown Street Tunnel—was located. Try to find it ANYWHERE on the Web. For the longest time I assume the stationary engines at Edge Hill were used—only to discover that they were dedicated wholly to the Wapping goods tunnel (correct?) I just ran across a source saying it was AT CROWN STREET. But I’m spending hours trying to find more information, let alone a picture.