Site Records

With the success of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, George Stephenson was once again employed to build a new line linking Manchester, the centre of the northern textile industry with the port of Liverpool. The proposed route posed a serious threat to the Bridgewater Canal which had a monopoly on the transportation of goods between Liverpool and Manchester.

Parliamentary wrangling lasted several years but eventually an act was obtained and George Stephenson started work on the Manchester and Liverpool Railway in 1826.

The proposed route proved a serious challenge with a number of difficult engineering problems along the 31 mile long line, including crossing the unstable peat bog of Chat Moss, a two-mile long, 80' deep rock cutting at Olive Mount and a viaduct across the Sankey Valley.

The Liverpool terminus was to be at Crown Street while in Manchester the terminus would be in Water Street.

Another major consideration was whether to use stationary engines and cable haulage or locomotives which were still in their infancy. In order to reach a decision, a competition was arranged to try and find a locomotive that was sufficiently powerful to work on the line. A £500 prize was offered for the winning locomotive with the competition being held at Rainhill, on the completed line, in October 1829. Each competing locomotive had to pull a load three times its own weight up and down the track at Rainhill 20 times at a speed of at least 10 mph. In distance this approximated a return trip between Manchester and Liverpool. Initially ten locomotives entered for the Rainhill Trials but on the day only five arrived and two of them were unable to compete due to of mechanical problems. Of the remaining three 'Sans Pareil' and 'Novelty' achieved a good result but the clear winner was the 'Rocket' built by George Stephenson and his son Robert.