Constructing the railway system

The demand for improved transport facilities was apparent elsewhere in Britain. In Manchester there was an enormous increase in the manufacture of cotton goods resulting from the introduction of the power loom in 1814. Raw cotton needed to be delivered to Manchester from the port at Liverpool and the finished goods returned there for export. In the early 1820s the amount of goods passing to and fro between the two cities was at least 1,000 tonnes a day. The existing roads and canals could not cope. Local businessmen proposed a railway and, despite strong opposition from the canal owners, succeeded in getting approval from Parliament in 1826.

© National Railway Museum

The first initiative for a railway came from William James, a land agent and surveyor, as early as 1803. He formed a company to promote it in 1822, but was short of money at the time and recommended George Stephenson to survey a suitable route. Stephenson’s first survey was unsatisfactory, but a later one on a different route was accepted. He and his workforce of navvies then had to contend with many difficulties and challenges. The most significant was the crossing of Chat Moss, four miles of flat and boggy landscape. Stephenson’s navvies cut drains and spent months stabilising the trackbed. There were other notable building works, including a bridge at Rainhill and a nine-arch viaduct across the Sankey valley. The Liverpool and Manchester was to be a railway for both passengers and freight. The line was double track throughout and there were fully appointed passenger stations at each end, the first on any railway.

© National Railway Museum/Pictorial Collection

As completion of the line approached, no decision had been made as to the motive power to be used. The Railway’s directors asked two prominent engineers to investigate and report. These experts, James Walker and John Rastrick, liked the idea of building stationary steam engines at intervals along the line. These would wind endless ropes between the tracks which the trains would hook on to. In contrast George Stephenson and his son Robert were convinced that steam locomotives would be superior. Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke produced their own report, analysing the merits of various kinds of motive power and coming down strongly in favour of locomotives.

© National Railway Museum/Pictorial Collection

To resolve the dilemma the railway’s directors decided to offer a prize of £500 to encourage engineers to develop new ideas in locomotive construction. These were to be tried out on a completed section of the railway the following October, in what came to be known as the Rainhill Trials.