An Edge Hill Beam Engine page 1
Resource Type: Image | Posted on 21st September 2012 by Liam Physick
This is an excerpt from July 1951 issue of the Railway Magazine. It explains that when Lime Street was built in 1836 to replace Crown Street as the terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, a problem was that there was a 1 in 93 falling gradent, too great for the locomotives of the day, from the new station to Edge Hill. As a result, beam engines, powered by steam, were placed on the Edge Hill platform to haul trains through the 2230 yard tunnel in between the two stations on an endless hempen rope. They continued in operation until 1870, by which time locomotives had become sufficiently big and powerful to deal with the incline themselves. After this, one beam engine was sold to Richard Evans and Co., which installed it in the wagon building shop of its works in order to drive saws and other woodworking machinery. It was retired in 1943, as by then it was unable to power the more modern machinery just installed.
Categorised under: The Station & Railway Pioneers
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