Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened on 15 September 1830. Work on the L&M had begun in the 1820s, to connect the textile mills of the city of Manchester with the nearest deep water port at the Port of Liverpool, away. Although horse-drawn railways already existed elsewhere, the Stockton and Darlington Railway had been running for five years, and a few industrial sites already used primitive steam locomotives for bulk haulage, the L&M was the first locomotive-hauled railway to connect two major cities, and the first to provide a scheduled passenger service. The opening day was a major public event. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, the prime minister, rode on one of the eight inaugural trains, as did many other dignitaries and notable figures of the day. Huge crowds lined the track at Liverpool to watch the trains depart for Manchester.
The trains left Liverpool on time and without any technical problems. The Duke of Wellington's special train ran on one track, and the other seven trains ran on an adjacent and parallel track, sometimes ahead and sometimes behind the duke's train. Around out of Liverpool the first of many problems occurred, when one of the trains derailed and the following train collided with it. With no reported injuries or damage, the derailed locomotive was lifted back onto the track and the journey continued. At Parkside railway station, near the midpoint of the line, the locomotives made a scheduled stop to take on water. Although the railway staff advised passengers to remain on the trains while this took place, around 50 of the dignitaries on board alighted when the Duke of Wellington's special train stopped. One of those who got off was William Huskisson, former cabinet minister and Member of Parliament for Liverpool. Huskisson had been a highly influential figure in the creation of the British Empire and an architect of the doctrine of free trade, but had fallen out with Wellington in 1828 over the issue of parliamentary reform and had resigned from the cabinet. Hoping to be reconciled with Wellington, he approached the duke's railway carriage and shook his hand. Distracted by the duke, he did not notice an approaching locomotive on the adjacent track, Rocket. On realising it was approaching, he panicked and tried to clamber into the duke's carriage, but the door of the carriage swung open, leaving him hanging directly in the path of the oncoming Rocket. He fell onto the tracks in front of the train, suffering serious leg injuries, and died later that night.
The Duke of Wellington felt that the remainder of the day's events should be cancelled following the accident at Parkside, and proposed to return to Liverpool. However, a large crowd had gathered in Manchester to see the trains arrive, and was beginning to become unruly. Wellington was persuaded to continue to Manchester. By the time the trains reached the outskirts of Manchester the crowd had become hostile and was spilling onto the tracks. With local authorities unable to clear the tracks, the trains were obliged to drive at low speed into the crowd, using their own momentum to push people out of the way. Eventually they arrived at Liverpool Road railway station in Manchester to be met by a hostile crowd, who waved banners and flags against the duke and pelted him with vegetables. Wellington refused to get off the train, and ordered that the trains return to Liverpool. Mechanical failures and an inability to turn the locomotives meant that most of the trains were unable to leave Manchester. While the Duke of Wellington's train left successfully, only three of the remaining seven locomotives were usable. These three locomotives slowly hauled a single long train of 24 carriages back to Liverpool, eventually arriving six and a half hours late after having been pelted with objects thrown from bridges by the drunken crowds lining the track.
The death and funeral of William Huskisson caused the opening of the railway to be widely reported, and people around the world became aware that cheap and rapid long-distance land transport was now possible for the first time. The L&M became extremely successful, and within a month of its opening plans were put forward to connect Liverpool and Manchester with the other major cities of England. Within ten years, of railways were built in Britain, and within 20 years of the L&M's opening over were in place. The L&M remains in operation, and its opening is now considered the start of the age of mechanised transport; in the words of industrialist and former British Rail chairman Peter Parker, "the world is a branch line of the pioneering Liverpool–Manchester run".
Background
Liverpool and Manchester Railway
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was founded in May 1824 by Liverpool merchants Joseph Sandars and Henry Booth, with the aim of linking the textile mills of Manchester to the nearest deep water port at the Port of Liverpool. At the time, the only means of bulk transport between the two towns other than animal-drawn carts was water transport on the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, the Bridgewater Canal and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, all of which were slow and expensive to use; transporting raw cotton the from Liverpool to Manchester was as expensive as the initial cost of shipping it from America to Liverpool. Although horse and human powered railways had existed for centuries, and steam power was beginning to be used in some experimental industrial railways, the L&M was to be the first steam powered railway to provide an inter-city passenger service, and the most expensive engineering project yet undertaken in Britain.The Marquess of Stafford, owner of the Bridgewater Canal, was a friend of Liverpool's Member of Parliament William Huskisson, with whom he had worked at the British Embassy in Paris. Although the Marquess had initially feared the potential impact of railways on the income from his canal and had been strongly opposed to the railway, Huskisson persuaded him to allow the railway to use his lands and to invest in the scheme.
In 1826 George Stephenson was appointed to design and build the route. Stephenson built the line using four equally spaced rails; he envisaged that this would allow the line to operate as a double tracked railway line under normal circumstances, but that in the event of a locomotive needing to haul a particularly wide load or of one of the outside rails breaking, a train could run along the central pair of rails. He also felt that, by having the rails this close together, it would reduce the amount of land required for the already extremely expensive L&M scheme.
William Huskisson
William Huskisson was born at Birtsmorton Court, Malvern, Worcestershire, on 11 March 1770. In 1783, Huskisson went to Paris to live with his great-uncle Dr. Richard Gem, witnessing the early years of the French Revolution, and was present at the Storming of the Bastille. Learning economics from the Marquis de Condorcet, he became an assistant to Earl Gower, who would later become the Marquess of Stafford. In 1792 Britain severed diplomatic relations with the French revolutionary government and Huskisson returned to London.On Huskisson's return to London Henry Dundas, the Home Secretary, appointed him to oversee the execution of the Aliens Act, which dealt with refugees arriving in Britain from areas affected by the French Revolution. He performed this task well, and in 1795 he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War at the age of 24. In 1796 he was elected Member of Parliament for Morpeth. In 1799 he married Eliza Emily Milbanke, daughter of Admiral Mark Milbanke, and shortly afterwards moved to Eartham House near Chichester. He resigned from public office in 1801 following the fall of William Pitt the Younger's government. In 1804 he was re-elected to Parliament for Liskeard, and appointed to the post of Secretary to the Treasury by the returning Pitt. In 1809 Huskisson resigned from the government along with George Canning following Canning's duel with fellow cabinet minister Lord Castlereagh. In 1814 he re-entered government as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests; although this was a relatively minor post, he was very influential in the development of detailed legislation and policy, particularly regarding the controversial relaxation of the Corn Laws.
In 1823 Huskisson was appointed to the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade and Treasurer of the Navy. In the same year he succeeded George Canning in the important constituency of Liverpool. He oversaw a number of reforms aimed at developing industry and free trade, including reform of the Navigation Acts and reduction of taxes on manufacturing and on the import of foreign goods. He drove through the restructuring of Britain's network of overseas outposts and colonies into the network of economically and politically interdependent states which became the British Empire, aiming for a gradual abolition of slavery and accelerating British colonisation.
In April 1827 Huskisson's mentor George Canning became prime minister, but died less than four months later and was succeeded by Viscount Goderich. Goderich appointed Huskisson Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. Goderich resigned in January 1828 and was replaced as prime minister by Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. Huskisson, along with many other protégés of Canning, resigned later that year over the issue of the lack of parliamentary representation for Manchester. Huskisson remained in Parliament as MP for Liverpool, and devoted himself to working on behalf of the growing industrial towns of north west England; the Manchester Guardian described him as "perhaps the most useful practical statesman of the present day". Although still weak from a previous serious illness, he felt it was his duty as Liverpool's MP to attend the opening of the railway.
Rainhill Trials and preparation for opening
In late 1829, with construction of the railway almost complete, the Rainhill trials were held on a short level stretch of the completed line near Rainhill, to test how the track withstood locomotives running over it and to determine which type of locomotive would be used, with a £500 prize at stake. The Trials were widely publicised, and 10,000–15,000 people attended the first day on 6 October 1829. Of the five entrants Rocket, built by George Stephenson and his son Robert, was the only entrant to complete the trial without suffering a serious failure, and was duly selected as the design to be used. At around the time of the Rainhill Trials the tunnel to the forthcoming Liverpool terminus—the first tunnel ever dug under a major built-up area—was completed. To win over sceptical locals it was whitewashed, fitted with lighting and a band, and the public charged a shilling apiece to walk through it.By early 1830 the line was almost complete, and locomotives began trial runs over the route. On 14 June 1830 a test run from Liverpool to Salford drew two passenger carriages and seven fully loaded coal wagons for in 2 hours 25 minutes without incident. Booth convened a meeting of the directors that evening, who decided that the railway would be ready to open in late summer. After consulting with the office of the Duke of Wellington over when he would be available to attend an inauguration ceremony, and learning that he was due in the area on 13 September to attend a dinner in Manchester, it was agreed that the railway would formally open on Wednesday 15 September 1830.
Actress, author and anti-slavery campaigner Fanny Kemble, who accompanied George Stephenson on a test of the L&M prior to its opening, described the tests in a letter written in early 1830. She described the steam engine as if it is a horse, with steam valve handles being its reins bit and bridle, coals being its oats, etc: