CHAPTER XII.
Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and Extension of the Railway System.
The directors of the Railway now began to see daylight; and they derived encouragement from the skilful manner in which their engineer had overcome the principal difficulties of the undertaking. He had formed a solid road over Chat Moss, and thus achieved one “impossibility;” and he had constructed a locomotive that could run at a speed of 30 miles an hour, thus vanquishing a still more formidable difficulty.
A single line of way was completed over Chat Moss by the 1st of January, 1830; and on that day, the “Rocket” with a carriage full of directors, engineers, and their friends, passed along the greater part of the road between Liverpool and Manchester. Mr. Stephenson continued to direct his close attention to the improvement of the details of the locomotive, every successive trial of which proved more satisfactory. In this department he had the benefit of the able and unremitting assistance of his son, who, in the workshops at Newcastle, directly superintended the construction of the new engines required for the public working of the railway. He did not by any means rest satisfied with the success, decided though it was, which had been achieved by the “Rocket.” He regarded it but in the light of a successful experiment; and every succeeding engine placed upon the railway exhibited some improvement on its predecessors. The arrangement of the parts, and the weight and proportions of the engines, were altered, as the experience of each successive day, or week, or month, suggested; and it was soon found that the performances of the
“Rocket” on the day of trial had been greatly within the powers of the locomotive.
The first entire trip between Liverpool and Manchester was performed on the 14th of June, 1830, on the occasion of a Board meeting being held at the latter town. The train was on this occasion drawn by the “Arrow,” one of the new locomotives, in which the most recent improvements had been adopted. Mr. Stephenson himself drove the engine, and Captain Scoresby, the circumpolar navigator, stood beside him on the foot-plate, and minuted the speed of the train. A great concourse of people assembled at both termini, as well as along the line, to witness the novel spectacle of a train of carriages dragged by an engine at a speed of 17 miles an hour. On the return journey to Liverpool in the evening, the “Arrow” crossed Chat Moss at a speed of nearly 27 miles an hour, reaching its destination in about an hour and a half.
In the mean time Mr. Stephenson and his assistants were diligently occupied in making the necessary preliminary arrangements for the conduct of the traffic against the time when the line should be ready for opening. The experiments made with the object of carrying on the passenger traffic at quick velocities were of an especially harassing and anxious character. Every week, for nearly three months before the opening, trial trips were made to Newton and back, generally with two or three trains following each other, and carrying altogether from 200 to 300 persons. These trips were usually made on Saturday afternoons, when the works could be more conveniently stopped and the line cleared. In these experiments Mr. Stephenson had the able assistance of Mr. Henry Booth, the secretary of the Company, who contrived many of the arrangements in the rolling stock, not the least valuable of which was his invention of the coupling screw, still in use on all passenger railways.
At length the line was finished, and ready for the public ceremony of the opening, which took place on the
15th September, 1830, and attracted a vast number of spectators. The completion of the railway was justly regarded as an important national event, and the opening was celebrated accordingly. The Duke of Wellington, then Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, and Mr. Huskisson, one of the members for Liverpool, were among the number of distinguished public personages present.
Eight locomotive engines, constructed at the Stephenson works, had been delivered and placed upon the line, the whole of which had been tried and tested weeks before, with perfect success. The several trains of carriages accommodated in all about six hundred persons. The procession was cheered in its progress by thousands of spectators—through the deep ravine of Olive Mount; up the Sutton incline; over the great Sankey viaduct, beneath which a great multitude of persons had assembled,—carriages filling the narrow lanes, and barges crowding the river; the people below gazing with wonder and admiration at the trains which sped along the line, far above their heads, at the rate of some 24 miles an hour.