Wapping Tunnel

Aquatint of the Moorish Arch, viewed from the tunnel, by S. G. Hughes after Thomas Talbot Bury, on display at Victoria Gallery and Museum, Liverpool

A view in the opposite direction: entrance of the Railway at Edge Hill, from Bury's Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1831.
1829 Crown Street Tunnel on right, Wapping Tunnel in centre. The tunnel on the left was apparently cut for symmetry, and used for storage, but was enlarged in the 1840s for access to Crown Street yard on left.
Public domain image. See here for usage conditions

Edge Hill tunnel portals, February 2022. Some of the features shown in the 1831 engraving can be seen. The right hand chimney base has survived, but is hidden by a bush. Note that the LH tunnel portal was enlarged in the 1840s, and the cutting widened on that side.

From Heck's 'Iconographic Encyclopedia', 1851

Wapping railway tunnel in Liverpool is 2,250 yards long.

This, and the closely-associated Crown Street Tunnel, are the earliest Liverpool Railway Tunnels.

History

Wapping Tunnel, or Edge Hill Tunnel, in Liverpool, ran from the original Edge Hill Station, in a deep sandstone cutting, to the Liverpool south end docks. The tunnel was designed by George Stephenson for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and constructed between 1826 and 1829, to enable goods to be transported by rail directly from Liverpool docks to Manchester.

The tunnel opened in 1830 and closed on 15 May 1972.

The Edge Hill portal of the tunnel is 123 ft above that at Wapping. The 1-in-48 gradient of the tunnel was too steep for the power of the steam locomotives of the day. Goods wagons were hauled by rope from the Park Lane goods station at the south end docks. Locomotives took over at the Edge Hill junction.

A 50 HP single cylinder winding engine was ordered from Robert Stephenson and Co in April 1829, to be supplied with steam at 30 psi from a boiler made by Isaac Horton of West Bromwich. A second engine was added in 1831.. The first engine was shipped from Newcastle in September 1829, but the ship was wrecked off Aberdeen, and was a total loss. However, it was thought that the engine could be salvaged. George Stephenson reported on 16 November that the engine was ready at Newcastle, although it is not clear whether this was salvaged or newly-built. The firm suffered a penalty payment of £500. A second engine was ordered from Robert Stephenson & Co on 6 December 1830, for delivery 4 months hence.. This date is curious, as the presence of two engines was reported in September 1830 (see press reports below).

One source identifies William Fairbairn as the supplier of the winding mechanism . In view of the date, this would have been Fairbairn and Lillie.

Initially a hemp rope was used, and the maximum load was six wagons, averaging say each 4 tons, 10 cwt., including the weight of wagon, a total of 27 tons. No brake-vehicle was used; the man in charge had to ride on the front wagon holding what is known as a "messenger," consisting of a short strong rope which was secured to the winding or travelling rope. It was soon found necessary to replace this hemp winding rope by one of steel (iron?), and to erect at the easterly side of Tunnel Road more powerful stationary engines. Pilot wagons were provided to travel in front of the up traffic, and the train increased to 16 loads; the loads also were increased in weight.

From c.1870 locomotives worked through the tunnel and cable haulage was abandoned.

The Edge Hill entrance is still open, but is not accessible to the public. Its portal is the middle of three tunnels at the western end of the Cavendish cutting. The right hand portal is for the original 1829 tunnel into Crown Street Station. The left hand portal was originally built for visual symmetry, the tunnel extending no further than a few yards. It was extended in 1832 to provide locomotive stabling. It later became a wagon repair shop until, in 1845 the tunnel was extended through to the Crown Street goods yard. It was also enlarged to accommodate two tracks, and the adjacent cutting was widened accordingly.

Some of the above information is condensed from the Wikipedia entry.

A Moorish Arch was built over the line in the Edge Hill cutting. The flanking buildings, seen in the illustration above, each accommodated a stationary winding engine which powered the incline (see below).

The Crown Street passenger terminus was closed in August 1836 and replaced by the larger and more central new terminus at Lime Street. This was reached by the new double track Lime Street Tunnel, using cable haulage. A new engine house was built at Edge Hill, steam being supplied from a boiler in the old Edge Hill cutting through a long tunnel excavated through the sandstone on the north side of the cutting; this was known as the ‘steam tunnel’; the boiler was housed in a chamber in the cutting wall. Goods and coal traffic continued to be handled at the old Crown Street station and a second wider tunnel into Crown Street was driven in about 1846. In the 1860’s the Edge Hill cutting was widened, forcing the demolition of the Moorish Arch and of the two winding engine houses.

Note: In 1836 a new Edge Hill new station was opened east of the cutting, serving the new Lime Street Tunnel. From here a further tunnel was opened in 1849, north of the Lime Street tunnel. See Waterloo Tunnel.

Much of the above information is heavily condensed from here.

Above ground, evidence of the tunnel can be seen in the form of three stone and brick ventilation towers. One is in the landscaped area between Crown Street and Smithdown Lane, one is on Blackburne Place , and one is close to Grenville Street South. There were at least two others that were later demolished, one adjacent to Great George Street, and one by Myrtle Street. Some or all of these were late additions to the tunnel, being built in 1895/6. The one at Blackburne Place, for example, is not shown on the 1890/3 25" O.S. map, but it does appear on the 1924/7 map, occupying the site of two houses.

Recent Observations

See here for an urban explorer's remarkable series of recent photographs of the cutting at the former Edge Hill Engine Station and of the tunnels and surviving infrastructure. This infrastructure includes furnace flues, steam pipe tunnels, dwellings, offices, and boiler rooms cut into the sandstone cliffs. The flues for the winding engines' boilers originally led to a pair of tall, ornate chimneys set above the tunnels' portals. The top of the wall above the portals was castellated, as can be seen in the image above. The urban exploration link includes a useful sketch and recent photographs showing the surviving remains of one of the chimney bases and of the castellated wall. This information greatly helps in interpreting the salient features of this neglected, litter-strewn, historically important location.

Some of the images in the above link are drawn from the excellent Subterranea Britannica website here . See here for a plan of the Edge Hill cutting This shows the location of the boiler houses and the routes of the flues and the steam pipe tunnel. The source of this plan, and several other drawings, is the Industrial Archaeology Review Volume II/1 - Autumn 1977.

Useful illustrations, maps and information may be found here

1840 Description of Machinery

From 'The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland, Practically Described and Illustrated' by Francis Whishaw, 1840

OLD TUNNEL-STATION ENGINES, LIVERPOOL. ‘The old engine-station, which is at the top of the Wapping and bottom of the Crown Street tunnels, is about 68 yards in length and 22 yards wide, independent of the recesses formed in the red sandstone rock on either side for the boilers, stable, &c.

‘The whole of the firing of the engines to work the Wapping and Crown Street tunnels, as well as the engines at Edgehill, is concentrated at this station. There are no fewer than eight large boilers erected for the use of the several fixed engines; two of which may be considered as extra spare boilers, to be used in case of repairs to any of the others. Some of these boilers are multi-tubular, having 3-inch tubes; and others have return fire-tubes. The usual working pressure is 40 lbs. on the square inch. Coke is mixed with the coal for the Wapping engine.

‘The engine-houses are situate on either side of the Moorish arch, and are 29 feet 5 inches apart, each 35 feet in length, and 18 feet in width externally. The engines have each 24-inch cylinders and 6-feet stroke; the usual pressure is stated to be 35 lbs., the working beam is 13 feet 4 inches long, and the fly-wheel 20 feet in diameter.

‘For the Crown Street tunnel, the rope is wound on a roll 3 feet wide in the clear and 3 feet 4 inches in diameter; and for the Wapping tunnel an endless rope is used, with a tightening-carriage, as described for the Edgehill engines; and there are two 5-feet wheels placed in the same line and between the large wheel and the tightening-carriage. The rope passes twice round the large wheel, twice round the first 5-feet wheel, the centre of which is 11 feet from that of the large wheel, and once round the second 5-feet wheel. The well is 40 yards deep, and the bore below 60 yards additional. The counter-weight consists of a plate-iron bucket, which holds 2½ tons of scrap-iron, and is 3 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep. There is also a small pumping-engine at this station, with a 12-inch cylinder and 3½ feet stroke.

‘There are four men to attend these engines; the engine-men receive 30s. a week each, and the firemen 20s. The working hours are from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with an allowance of two hours for meals.

‘From twelve to eighteen trains, of about twelve laden wagons each, are drawn up through the Crown Street tunnel daily. When the train reaches the top of the Crown Street tunnel Incline, the end of the rope is brought back by a small four-wheeled carriage, called a pilot, drawn by one horse; an operation which occupies about five minutes.’

Note: Heck's 1851 'Iconographic Encyclopaedia' includes a brief description and small illustration of the cable layout in the 'great Liverpool tunnel' (see illustration above). From the description it seems that the tunnel referred to is the Wapping Tunnel.

Newspaper Reports

1828 'COMPLETION OF THE RAILWAY TUNNEL. — The final communication between the shafts of the Railway Tunnel has been effected; and there is now uninterrupted passage from the intended depot near Wapping, to the deep cutting at Edge-hill. This magnificent work is about 2,200 yards in length, 22 feet wide, and 16 feet high; it is almost entirely cut through the solid rock, but which, in several instances, is so shattered and broken, and occurs in such thin bed, or layers, as to render it necessary to insert an arch of brickwork for the security of the roof. Numerous droppings of water, which issued through the pores of the rock, have been successfully stopped by the application of Roman cement. Looking at the extent and magnitude of this undertaking, with all the difficulties inseparable from such work, and considering that it is little more than eighteen months since it was commenced, (during which time no less than 160,000 tons of stone have been removed from beneath the surface, and made subservient to the purposes of improvement above,) we cannot but be astonished at the rapidity of the operations which have effected it. We understand that preparations are making for lighting it with gas and when, this is done, the public will be admitted to a sight of it. It is expected that there will a sufficient current of air from the bottom to the top, to answer all the purposes of ventilation.'

1830 Description of facilities at the Edge Hill cutting: 'two lofty chimneys .... two stationary engines to draw up the loaded waggons from the bottom of the inclined plane at Wapping ....'

1831 'DESCRIPTION OF THAT GIGANTIC UNDERTAKING, THE LIVERPOOL & MANCHESTER RAILWAY.
The Railroad commences at Liverpool, in Wapping, near the King's Dock. Here a large piece of ground is occupied by warehouses, built above the railway, wharfs, &c. The Railway commences on a level with the street but as the ground gradually rises, the road soon sinks below the natural surface, and at the extremity of the "Station" yard, enters the Large Tunnel which passes under the Tower. This excavation is 2250 yards in length, its width is 22 feet, and its height 16. The first part of the Tunnel for 270 yards is on the same level as Wapping it then rises at the rate of 3/4 of an inch in a yard throughout the remainder of its length and finally terminates at Edge Hill.— This "cutting" is from 10 to 70 feet below the surface. At the upper extremity of the Tunnel is a large quadrangular excavation in rock, the sides being perpendicular, about 40 feet deep into this space, on the east, the Railway enters from Manchester between two handsome buildings, in the Turkish style, between which a fine arch is thrown. The whole have the appearance of a magnificent portal.* On the western side are three semi-circular openings. The centre opening is the large Tunnel just described; that to the south is a workshop, and was made for the durable purpose of room and uniformity; the third opening is the entrance to a small Tunnel, running nearly parallel with the large one. The other two sides of the excavation present perpendicular walls of rock or masonry. The small Tunnel is intended for the transit of goods to the upper parts of the town, and especially of passengers. At its extremity is a large yard, with a coach-office, workshops, &c. It is in this yard that the passengers enter and alight from the carriages. From the top of the large Tunnel, the road is level for about 1000 yards, and then descends at the rate of four feet in a mile for five miles....
* These buildings contain two large steam engines, which are used for drawing the waggons from the Wapping station through the tunnel. The boilers are placed in excavations made in the rock on the north and south sides, the flues are tunnelled through the rock to two very handsome chimneys, in the form of columns, which are placed at the top of the excavations on the north and south-west corners.'

1831 'Accidents — Two accidents of a dreadful nature have occurred within the last few days on tbe Liverpool and Manchester railway. On Saturday morning the endless rope by which goods are drawn up the great tunnel, to the station at Edge-hill, broke, and a fireman, named Wedderburn, employed in the stationary engine-house, incautiously went upon the wheel, round which the rope is passed, to take off the old rope that it might replaced by a new one. The wheel was at the time disconnected with the engine, so that no danger was apprehended from that quarter. Unfortunately, however, on the loose end of the rope being extricated, the other end naturally became tight, and caused the wheel to revolve with considerable force, carrying the unfortunate youth along with it. At the first revolution his head was squeezed between the wheel and the frame, and was instantly crashed to atoms. He was immediately drawn out, but life was, of coarse, extinct.
The other accident occurred on Tuesday. The Mercury engine was proceeding to Manchester, with a load of merchandise, and had reached the foot of the Whiston incline. It is usual for the engines to take only half their load up the inclined plane at once, and then to return for the other half. On reaching the foot of tbe plane, tbe engineer stopped the engine, and caused it to retrograde a few feet, that the chains connecting the waggons being slackened, the first half of the train might be more easily detached from the rest. Before this was done, however, a fireman named Bates leaned forward between the two centre waggons, and attempted to detach them, although the chains were not yet slackened. the engine being backed, the waggons fell against each other, and the head of tbe unfortunate man, who was stooping very low at the time, was caught between the projecting bars of the two waggons, and crashed so dreadfully that be expired on the spot, within a few minutes after being extricated from this horrible situation.Liverpool Chron. '

1833 'The railway enters Liverpool by means of a tunnel and inclosed [inclined] plane; the passage is formed underneath the town. The first shaft of this tunnel was opened in Sept. 1826. This tunnel is 22 feet wide and 16 feet high; the sides are perpendicular for five feet in height, surmounted by a semi-circular arch of 22 feet in diameter - the total length is 2250 yards. The entrance in the company's yard, in Wapping, is by an open cutting 22 feet deep, and 46 feet wide, affording space for four lines of railway. Between the liues are pillars. For the length of 280 yards the tunnel is perfectly level. Over this part are the company's warehouses, to which there are hatch-ways or trap-doors, allowing the waggons placed underneath to be loaded or unloaded. The inclined plane, which is a perfectly straight line, commences here - it is 1970 yards in length, with a uniform rise of one in 48, the whole rise, from Wapping to the tunnel-mouth at Edge-hill, being 123 feet. A considerable portion of this excavation is hewn from the solid rock. The tunnel was completed in Sept. 1828, at a cost of £84,791. The depth of the super-stratum of earth, from the roof of the tunnel to the open space of the ground, varies from 5 to 70 feet. The whole length of the tunnel is furnished with gas-lights, at distances of 25 yards apart. At the upper end of the inclosed plane the tunnel terminates in a spacious area, 40 feet below the surface of the ground, cut out of the solid rock. From this area there returns another small tunnel; its dimensions are 290 yards in length, 15 feet wide, and 12 feet high. It terminates in the company's premises in Crown-street, Liverpool, which is the principal station for the rail-way coaches. Above this area, on the surface of the ground, two steam chimneys are erected of 100 feet in height. In the area below are two stationary engines, by which the loaded waggons are drawn up the inclined plane. Proceeding eastward, the road passes through a Moorish arch-way, which forms the grand entrance to the Liverpool stations. The road in this part curves slightly, but is perfectly level for 1000 yards; it then, for the length of 5 1/2 miles, has a fall of 1 in 1092 feet, or four feet in a mile. A little beyond the perfect level, the road has been formed in a deep excavation made thrugh marle. Beyond this, about half a mile to the north of the village of Wavertree, is a passage cut through a steep eminence called Olive Mount. This ravine, formed in the solid rock, is more than two miles in extent, and in the deepest part 70 feet below the surface of the ground. 480,000 cubic yards of stone have been dug out of this excavation, and have been made available to the building of bridges and walls on this portion of the line. Emerging from the Olive Mount cutting, the road is thence artificially raised by the great Roby embankment, which is nearly three miles long, varying in height from 15 to 45 feet, and in breadth at the base from 60 to 135 feet. After passing the Roby embankment, the railway crosses, by means of a bridge, over the Huyton turnpike road; and proceeds in a slightly curved direction to Whiston, between seven and eight miles from the station at Liverpool. Here the rail-road continues for a mile and a half in a straight line, having in its length an inclitation of 1 in 96; and the top of this inclined plane the road runs nearly two miles on an exact level, produced by the excavation of 2220,000 cubic yards. Over this part, called Rainhill level, the turnpike road between Liverpool and Manchester proceeds by means of a stone bridge. At the other side of this level is the Sutton inclined plane, which is similar in extent and inclination to the Whiston plane. ....'

1836 Report, assumed to relate to Wapping Tunnel: 'GREAT TUNNEL UNDER LIVERPOOL. Hence, by the great tunnel, merchandise is conveyed under the town to the railway station at Edgehill. This vast subterraneous excavation, a mile and a quarter in length, viewed either with regard to the purposes which it is applied, its execution as channel of conveyance for live cattle, timber, and all sorts of merchandise, through the bowels of the earth, and below the site of a populous town, is a truly wonderful performance. I obtained permission, on one occasion, to pass through it; and though the passage was performed in utter darkness, it did not the less strongly interest me. This tunuel, as well as the splendid warehouses and quays at its mouth, are an indication, and a true one, of the vigour with which the projectors of the railway grappled with the undertaking.
It is quite impossible to enter, within any brief compass, on the beauty and symmetry of the arrangements which prevail among the warehouses, and within these extensive premises. The scene I was allowed, as a stranger, to contemplate unnoticed and unmolested: I was permitted to walk from end to end, and observe and admire the address and despatch with which multitudinous affairs were conducted.— I particularly remarked on the facility with which logs of timber of the largest dimensions, and all descriptions of bulky and heavy materials, were slung on the carriages; the great size of the Dobbin wheels, ten feet in diameter occasionally employed; and also the extreme length of the ordinary Liverpool cart, for the conveyance of cotton bags, eighteen feet from the tail-board to the point the shaft, which latter is totally overhung by the body wilh the exception only of four feet. These were the principal objects which diverted attention. The load of these carts, drawn by a couple of horses, is about three tons. Among the timber lying the ground ready be sent by the carriages the railway, I measured one stick, of which there were several others as large; it was a piece of squared timber, two feet the side of the square, and fifty seven feet long. They allow, on the railway, four tons to a carriage, although not unfrequently they carry five ; so that, to convey timber two carriages are lashed together, a full load may be estimated at ten tons.
Among the cargoes put on the carriages with the greatest ease and despatch, are pigs. This shows what management will effect; and, though strange, is at least true. Indeed, this branch of business is so well assorted, that though as locality the animals previous to departing on their journey are upon equal terms with the men and merchandise, as to actual juxtaposition they might as well be five miles asunder. This desirable object is effected by means of a back entrance into a pig-yard, where all the herds that arrive, on their way to Manchester, find accommodation. From this there is a small door, that leads down a wooden platform placed on an inclined plane to the carriage standing on the railway, close to the mouth of the tunnel; so that the pigs enjoy this right of road unmolested, and, in point of fact, step quietly out of their drawing-room into their vehicle, each easily as an old dowager into her chair waiting in the vestibule.
On the occasion of my passing through the tunnel before alluded to, I sat in the foremost carriage of a train by which were conveyed, among merchandise of many descriptions, a quantity of pigs and live cattle.—
The carriages were drawn out three hundred yards within the mouth of the tunnel, upon a level by a single horse, which, at the foot of the inclined plane, was unhitched and sent back. Preparatory to the ascent, the foremost carriage was made fast by a messenger line to the endless rope communicating with the stationary engine at the east end; when, at the signal of a bell, the wire of which reaches the whole length — viz. a mile and a quarter — the engine commenced its labours and we trundled onwards in the dark at the rate of about eight or ten miles an hour. There are, indeed, lights at rare intervals within the tunnel: but nevertheless, by far the greater part of the distance is performed in total darkness. As we passed along, a train came rumbling downwards, by its own gravity, in an opposite direction. Tbe effect was awfully grand in the approach of so stupendous a body rushing towards us, in the dark, with a sound like that of distant artillery; while its conductor sat in front, holding in his hand a small glimmering lantern. The scene brought the regions of Pluto to the imagination ; while the hogs grunted and the calves lowed in funereal cadence.'

1836 'On Friday one of the boilers belonging to the stationary engine on the Liverpool railway, burst, and a man named Wilson, was killed by being dreadfully scalded : he was actually blown to the side opposite to where he stood ; and two were so much injured that they died soon after. Their names were Benjamin Parr, William Roberts, and - Wilson. Parr was a fireman ; he had lighted a fire under the boiler early on Friday evening, preparatory to the engine being employed to draw luggage-waggons through the old tunnel from Wapping. It was supposed by the engineers in the service of the company, that too little water had been put into the boiler and caused it to burst. The boiler was examined a month ago and found sound. It burst about 25 minutes past six o'clock. Roberts was a night watchman. The third man, Wilson, was a smith ; he was passing to his work in company with his father when the explosion took place, Wilson died immediately, Parr a few hours afterwards in the Infirmary, and Roberts at his own house, at seven o'clock that night. The latter suffered greatly, and one of the witnesses said the skin came off both his arms like a glove. An inquest was held on the bodies on Monday, and a verdict of "Accidental Death" returned.'

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