Along the Whiston Incline - Part 1

[Lancastrian]

This Article is an edited version of the article with the same name on my website that has more information and photographs covering a short stretch of the Liverpool to Manchester railway line starting at Whiston Platt’s Bridge along the Whiston Incline to Rainhill station. With additional sections for the Locomotive Trials Exhibition in Rainhill and also photographs taken from a train of the Huskinson Memorial, Parkside. There is a link to the full article at the end of part 2.

Rainhill in Lancashire was the site of the 1829 Rainhill Locomotive Trials held on the new Liverpool to Manchester railway line and won by the Rocket designed by George Stephenson.

Rainhill also boasts the Skew Bridge, it is the world's first bridge to cross over a railway at an angle on the Liverpool to Manchester Railway the world's first inter-city passenger railway service and runs through the village.

Originally, it was thought that steam locomotives would not be able to climb the Whiston incline without the assistance of rope haulage and work began on the construction of a line-side winding engine. The success of the Rocket at the Rainhill Trials eliminated the need for this winding engine and another that was planned at Sutton, so they were never completed.

This is at the top of the Whiston Incline by Stoney Lane Bridge in Rainhill. The cutting here was widened to accommodate sidings where assisting locomotives could be detached from ascending trains and added to those descending the incline.

Rainhill Skew Bridge, a Grade II listed structure, is the most acute of 15 such bridges on the line, built at an angle of 34 degrees to the railway. Work on the construction began towards the edge of 1828. A full-size model was set up in an adjacent field and stone blocks, some weighing over two tons, were cut, dressed and numbered in advance, The inscription in the bridge naming the Chairman of the railway and the resident engineer

03 - SB - Inscription.jpg (8.75 KiB) Viewed 1807 times

04 - SB Plaque.jpg (17.06 KiB) Viewed 1807 times

Rainhill station was opened in 1830 as part of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and is one of the oldest passenger railway stations in the world. The station was originally called Kendrick's Cross or Kendrick's Cross Gate, it was later changed to Rainhill.

The grade II listed station buildings were constructed around 1860-68 by the London & North Western Railway

This Photograph was taken off the Skew Bridge that was built to take the Liverpool-Warrington-Manchester turnpike across the railway.

Please go to The Whiston Incline Pt 2