Exploring the Abandoned Edge Hill Cutting - Liverpool to Manchester Railway 1
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- Опубликовано: 1 авг 2020
- The Liverpool-Manchester Railway in the UK was the world's first proper railway line, opened in 1830. Whilst most of the route is still in use by modern rail, the original Liverpool Crown Street station is long gone, with only an abandoned cutting nearby - Edge Hill Cutting. But this cutting is jam-packed with history and mystery. Three historic abandoned tunnels, and more than ten unique chambers cut into the rock. It's neglected, its overgrown... it's perfect for a mini urbex exploration!
Liverpool railways and Manchester railways, exploring, abandoned, neglected, but full of history. I'm sticking my nose in these places so you don't have to!
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#liverpoolmanchesterrailway #railwayhistory #oldrailways
Walked through the north tunnel from Crown St. in 1975 before the council used it as a tip and filled it in. Edge Hill cutting was hugely overgrown and no tracks. The south tunnel tracks were relaid later. Some kids shouted down to me 'what you doin mister?' 'have you learned about The Rocket steam loco in school?' i shouted back up. 'yeh' came the reply. 'well they kept it here in that hole in the wall' I said. 'wha!?' and down they came. They lived on top of it and didnt know. For 1980 the site was cleaned up and made into a museum for the 150th anniversary. But the museum failed financially and the whole thing was left to rot. Extraordinary. Stockton and darlington was treated the same way. Like Egypt demolishing the pyramids and building on the sites. Both should be UNESCO World Heritage sites with a requirement to preserve and restore.
It's a crying shame to see the state of that area, it would make a superb open air museum with some love and care.
That place is as important as the Rocket itself…
Thank you very much for this nice video documentary.
Check out the Liverpool & Manchester Railway Trust - one of our aims is to create a heritage trail or visitor centre in the cutting. It's slow progress with all the heritage politics etc of course!
@@KyleMayPhoto
The problem is that the Wapping Tunnel, the big & long centre tunnel is reserved for reuse by the Merseyrail metro. A junction south of Liverpool Central's underground station was cut to curve trains into the Wapping tunnel. Thatcher came to power and binned the project - but spent London's DLR.
The metro needs tunnel access from Central to Edge Hill to get the eastern section of the urban metro railway into the main central underground section - ASAP. It could create an east-west crossrail.
But! with longer access tunnels Central station can branch into the disused Waterloo tunnel to reach Edge Hill, leaving the Wapping tunnel as a heritage tunnel.
But again! The Wapping tunnel emerges at Liverpool's waterfront in the front of the large area - so an ideal access tunnel for a new station.
It’s almost criminal that locations like this aren’t preserved for everyone to enjoy and learn from.
What a beautiful place, it should be a heritage museum.
It is fully criminal.
Yes a national scandal,like so many historical sites in the UK none more so than some of the prehistoric sites
This is Liverpool, remember? They destroyed the original cavern club, crown street and are threatened with UNESCO withdrawal of world heritage site status for the mangled waterfront. A cousin of mine lives there and boasted that people weren't concerned as they're getting the tourist trade they always coveted...and their money. So why bother about the UN? Go figure... Meanwhile Manchester, always much less insular and much more far-seeing, has made a proper tourist site of their terminus of this historic railway.
And to cap it all you have UK Gov't departments covering bridge archways in concrete ! Where's the sense ? Very soon we will have nothing left of our heritage - shame on us all.
It’s sad that these places aren’t better looked after
Your enthusiasm for our industrial heritage is infectious. This part of Liverpool is truly amazing and so well preserved.
Liverpool capital of culture 2008 for it's contribution to Literature, Music, Poetry, Theatre and Visual Arts whilst it's vast industrial heritage and engineering feats are left to fall into decay and be forgotten about like so many other places in the UK.
Where I live the recently excavated a car park discovering some of the Towns Victorian past only to cover it back up very quickly to begin erecting the new multi-storey on top of it.
We should preserve our heritage and be proud of what we once were rather than what we have now become.
Great post by the way.
Any other country in the world would have tours but there is so much history in the uk its difficult
Yeah defo. Such a shame!
Ollie...what a belter that was! Sad it's been left to decay, given it's historical importance to England, and even the world for that matter. Thanks for that...looking forward to the next chapter. All the best!
Amazing that this place still exists in such a recognisable condition and even more amazing that it is not treated with the respect it deserves.
It's a living and breathing part of the city, this stuff covers huge areas. most of it is still in use. It's not a musem.
Great video. Can't stop thinking how this location could be made as a great tourist destination.
Superb presentation. I have worked on that stretch of Railway, for many years. The two Lines, that go to a dead end, are called the Up and Down Wapping. They are still used every night, to run round freight trains that arrive via Wavertree jct and then depart across the main line, to go down to Liverpool Docks via the Bootle branch. From what I have read, the larger alcoves, as you said, were for Boilers and believe it or not, some of the smaller ones were used as mess rooms etc, by the shunting staff that worked there back in the day. I believe that Horses were also used as you said and in the far right tunnel, that is fenced off, I believe there is a Water trough, for the horses, but I have never gone down that one. On the other side of the main line, opposite Edge Hill Station, there is another long disused Tunnel, Victoria Tunnel. That used to go down to Canada Dock Station and was used primarily for the Boat Traffic. Edge Hill Station is the oldest operating passenger Station, In the World. Great video mate 👍.
First became aware of this site through Dan Snow's 'Locomotion' documentary and have since watched RUclipsrs walking through the Wapping Tunnel, but you explored the area in much more detail and explained the 3 tunnels, which I don't think anyone else had done. So thank you.
The cutting was saved from being filled in by Eric Steward, stationmaster at Lime Street. These are my memories of being taken round LIme Street, Edge Hill and the cutting in the eighties, just before he retired. He gave a conducted tour to the boys from my model-railway club at St Edward's College. He was a wonderful raconteur about his career on the railways and a very practical railwayman. The tracks laid at present were how he saved the cutting, as he used European grant money, arguing that operations at Edge Hill needed two relief sidings. He improved workings through Edge Hill by designing a bi-directional track through the bottleneck of the station, and used the old wooden wagon wheel inserts to floor the pathway into the station building.
Fantastic info thank you
@@BeeHereNowuk We began our trip in Lime Street, seeing the TOPS control system in operation in the offices before looking at the old electro-mechanical signal box. Then Eric took us to Edge Hill. My lads were sons-of-Liverpool enough to enjoy being invited to board a train without tickets, having someone just wave to the guard before letting them on. When we entered the huge Edge Hill box, with its modern track diagram system, I think that there were four signalmen working the panel, with others recording what was happening. Eric seemed to take the entire panel in at a glance and immediately "suggested" to one of the signalmen that he should re-route one train to avoid creating a delay which would otherwise occur to others in a few minutes. The man looked down the panel, exclaimed and within a minute the light display changed. Shortly afterwards, as the lights crept forward, we saw the result as the trains concerned passed the box, not having had to check or stop on their way.
@@davidstewart2740 Eric Retired as Train crew Manager, in charge of all the Drivers and Guards. He came into the Management grades from Kings cross in London.
Eric Stewart took a chance on me and gave me a junior railmans job on tops at Liverpool lime street in 1988 , from there I went shunting at parkside,st helens and edge hill learning all the different styles (loose shunting). I owe my 32+ career to him 👍
Another mint video, its ace seeing some proppa history on here mate, nice1
What a gem of a place. I'd have loved exploring around there as a kid. I'm guessing it wasn't easily accessible, well done getting down there to document it though 👍
It still astounding that no one has considered partial restoration or even just turning this into a museum
Thanks Ollie. Another great video 🙂.
I'll be in Liverpool in the summer, to walk the old lines.
I've been a Railway Rambler for about 25 years.....and have bored hundreds of people 😆😆.
But I'm still at it, and have lost none of my enthusiasm, or admiration for the men that built these lines with blood, sweat and tears.
Have you been to Glasgow? There are some amazing old lines through the city, rapidly becoming stunning countryside walks (it you're fit!)
Thank you again for your wonderful videos.
Stockton/Darlington/Witton Park is the true cradle of the railway 💪😉
13:10 was the shunters cabin.Had many a cup of tea in there as a young fireman 1963
It's a pity they haven't restored this to it's former glory. :(
This would make an awesome tourist attraction!
It's totally unbelievable that somewhere as important as this has simply been allowed to decay, I am certain that people the world over who know anything about railways have heard about this and be totally amazed that Britain has done nothing to preserve somewhere so important. Thank you for going into so much detail and sharing it with us.
It's probably just the reason why it's been allowed to decay. To many questions if it doesn't just fall to bits and get destroyed
I’m a real history buff, especially industrial history like this, excellent presentation as always, only seen pictures of this of this stretch of the railway, nice to see your view, thanks
Great closeups of the pick marks showing that it was basically hand built. The Navvies moved on from canal building to railway building.
I love the way the buildings are just carved into the rock it's like a modern day Petra. I believe that Jaguar actually drove a car through the Wapping tunnel for an advertisement a few years ago. I did go down to Kings Dock Street to find the end of the tunnel once it used to be a goods yard but now a car park. You can still see an old crane just sitting there over the car park.
Yeah fascinating isn't it. That tunnel is so interesting!
@@BeeHereNowuk Yes it is be careful if you do go in there lol
Petition to re-build the Moorish Arch, clean, restore and preserve the area. It's the starting point and spark of the first serious railway service in the world.
They widened the trackbed so Moorish Arch could never be rebuilt to it's former glory unfortunately
@@mrlister2000 We know this already:))) But it can be done. people just need to want it.
All that railway history and look at the overgrown state of it, very little pride in our country. Thanks for drawing our attention to this site, brilliant.
Top video, mate. Nice one.
Another interesting video well done 👍👍
Really enjoyed that! Have subscribed and am looking forward to the next part. :)
Whoa fantastic! I love seeing the hidden history of cities!
Great video, Ollie! What an interesting place that is - looking forward to the future ones.
Fascinating loved it. many thanks for sharing.
Very enjoyable. Been watching some of your other videos as well!
Class loved it .
Well done again Ollie. Looking forward to your next video.
Thanks glad you liked it!
Great stuff hard to believe such fascinating places still exist.
*Absolutely superb video.*
Hi Ollie, This is an amazing Video. I learnt so much more about my home town heritage watching it. Your videos are great. You put so much love and care into them and their history, and you are so good and at ease talking to the camera. Thank you very much. Take care
great to see the old stations still around great find cheers mate.
Another well made and informative video! Thanks for making and posting.
Cheers thank you
What a fantastic video. Thanks!
What an amazing place! Only in England could the crucial setting that bore witness to such important history be left to become overgrown. This should be opened as a public park and outdoor exhibition centre. I imagine the acoustics from public performances in that cutting would be pretty awesome too?
Briliant video, thank you very much for sharing!
Love it pal, cheers 👍
It does look absolutely amazing down there.!
So hooked on these especially since the history of Stevenson and Rocket are ones I enjoy.
Really interesting information. Thanks for that.
Excellent. Thanks.
Fab video. Love your enthusiasm 👍
Another great vid Ollie.
Fascinating stuff, beautifully presented. Can't wait for more ... new sub.
Thank you!
Good one, mate. Your enthusiasm is catching!
I've always thought the tunnels and cuttings on the approach to Liverpool Lime Street is one of the most impressive entrances to any British railway station.
I didn't know any of this . Thanks very much for taking the time and effort to do this video - a real historical eye-opener !
Thank you!
When railways made money! So quiet now and to think how busy it would have been. Nature reclaiming it.
Excellent video. Subscribed!
Love your videos mate. Your enthusiasm for our industrial heritage puts a smile on my face all the way over here in Western Australia.
Thanks! Much appreciated!
thanks for this informative video. it's been a real inspiration. cheers..
Great video too!!!
I can't believe they've let this important historic area rot. This place could be a true historic showpiece of benefit to Liverpool. Seeing this has brought the old original illustrations alive.
Yes absolutely. What a great attraction it would be. And also it would help preserve it.
Your enthusiasm is infectious my man :-)
Cheers mate!
I’m from Liverpool near edge hill and really enjoyed the video, really informative thanks.
This has me gripped. Loving the history, didn't know anything about this place and just realised ...at 51yo, and a Yorkshire lad, I've never been to Manchester. Keep your content coming.
You are aware this is Liverpool ?! It’s edge hill by edge hill station.
Nice vid, thanks !!
Much of the tunnelling here was done by former workers from the famous Williamson Tunnels at Edge Hill. Williamson and Stephenson became friends.
Loved the video. Found all the tunnel vents on Google Earth as well as what looks like a small junction near the docks and maybe some tracks still in an old warehouse at the very end.
The Edge Hill cutting was originally narrower, but was widened later and that's when the Moorish Arch was lost. Oh! You told us that later in the video after I wrote this comment! Great video as usual.
OMG what an amazing place and amazing architecture with so much history. Why oh why has this not been listed and protected. It is absolutely criminal that such an historical place as this has not been preserved. It just annoys me that so much money and lottery funding is thrown at so many less deserving places.. Surely, Liverpool and Manchester councils the historical value of this.
Those original pictures or prints are very well-known. I’ve often seen them and wondered about whether or not the area still existed. I am so glad that it does, and that someone actually cares about it and has the enthusiasm to share it. It should be restored as far as possible and reused as a living museum. Railways as an institution have been extraordinarily badly treated and misused. It is sacrilege. They were all privately owned, seized by governments, then discarded and depleted or destroyed, subsidised by me (taxpayers) and the countryside disfigured by thousands of square miles of motorways and trunk routes (funded by me), and the continuous din of heavy traffic. And now, there’s no more fuel for the vehicles, which are FAR less efficient than railway vehicles.
Loving your videos .I love the tunnels that the train to lime st go through.some engineering going through all that mass of rock and sandstone.great places for mini party's 👍,Birkenhead has tunnels and an air raid shelter on Hoylake road 😙
Just found your videos, great and informative, its sad to see such important historical sites in such disrepair.
Thank you
im so glad i found this my granddad worked for that railway early 1900s ,im trying to find out what he did . thanks for showing me this . i never knew my grandparents its nice to see some places that he might have seen or worked on ,he might have even drove a train i dont know .
Thank you! I bet he was there at some point.
Great video! It's a shame that the Moorish arch isn't still there.
Amazing vid. Just wandering how you managed to get down to the tracks??
Climbed the fence 😂😂😂😂
Hi mate,great video. Just come across your channel on here and love what I have seen so far. Good to see you down at Liverpool as thats where I am from but now live in Manchester and have recently started my own channel since moving here as the history between the two cities is fantastic. I want to get back to Liverpool myself and revisit some of the mad railways and tunnels where I grew up. Keep up the good work. Peace,Andy.
Cheers thank you!!
Really interesting, thanks for sharing. What a shame it has not been preserved to show the importance of this historical site.
very informative . interesting . thx for this . i hope you get more subcribers
Wow, what else can I say other than SUBSCRIBED!
Good stuff, really love this social history and civil engineering
i used to live in St Andrews garden in Liverpool in 2000, overlooking the cutting arriving in Lime Street. was always curious about what was there. btw, great video: tone, music.. clapping
Homeless people should use those cuttings for shelter. They could clean them out & build a community of their own, breathing new life upcycling something beautiful.
I am always interested in the Edgehill Ascent, that stretch of bridge that climbs now to nowhere and I remember when I lived up there in early eighties it was still energised and used to store overhead units. Rail has always been a bit confused around the 'pool with normal, overhead and third rail all over the show and quite common to see DMU's running on a full overhead line. Then there is the weirdness at Kirkby where once trains used to run through and they stuck a barrier in the track making two termini lol
There are some old paintings of Edge Hill cutting, the largest of the nooks in the side where the Engine "sheds" to store and maintain them and there were small turntables connecting them to the lines.
No horses were used, it was all steam driven. Horses may have been used to supply the cutting, that was about it. The boilers in the cutting in the rock have a pipe to the Lime St tunnel which is in the Edge Hill junction yard, nearby, to power the steam engines there. Well it is was a small bore _tunnel_ in solid rock, not a pipe. The efficency was not great as the steam lost a lot of its heat by the time it reached the Lime St tunnel.
As the tracks show, the cutting is still in use as a head-shunt.
In that cutting there was also a station at the portals of the three tunnels. The original _Edge Hill_ station, which was moved north in 1936 to the portal of the then new Lime St tunnel. Edge Hill station was the first ever abandoned station after six years of use.
Great video, full of great interesting stuff. Would love to see you do a video of Manchester Central Station and the nearby Great Northern Goods shed👍
Thanks!
@@BeeHereNowuk i might have got the shed name wrong, but u know the one im talking about. The massive shed next to central station at the betham tower
Yeah defo. I was in town the other day checking all that out actually. Would make a great video. Couldn't get near it at the moment cos its still a nightingale hospital but soon as I can I'll go back for another look.
Thanks
All the links we have between our two great Cities via canal rail and road ... yet we have a negative rivalry !.
I do not have any rivalry as a person from Liverpool, I have a sense of Unity with people of Manchester.
We wear the first two Cities with economic and social links ... Yes we have our own Football Teams, but we have gone through our times of industrial/economic highs and lows together.
We have inter socialized because of those links we have, and I think that is Great
nicely done, thank you. especialy caught by the map @19:00/19:14.
Always wanted a nosey down there so thanks for sharing, I used to go to the Edge Hill depot often when i was in the job and there were arches and nooks and crannies all over the place you could feel the history .
Hey Swampy. Did you work at Guide Bridge mate ??
@@stephensmith4480 No ,i was a Fitter at Longsight ETD ,loved BR privatisation really screwed me over and a mourn it .
@@colin5296 I hear ya mate. No, the reason I asked was because, when I was based at Edge hill, I used to talk to a Chargeman at Guide Bridge yard. We used to send each other Ballast trains, mainly for weekend working and they used to call him Swampy. My best mate was a driver at Longsight in the late80s. The job is not the same now.
@@stephensmith4480 Great days , i used to keep my Old Bedford Army lorry on the Depot about the same time the guy was in the trees and you know what the Railway was like for nicknames .I keep in touch with a lot off lads they were ggod mates ,we have a reunion twice a year as a rule but the Covid job as put pay to it . Stay lucky Brother.
@@colin5296 Nice one mate. Bedford`s, that takes me back. I served my time as a fitter too. I have had many a pint in the Man Picc staff club, like you say, good mates. Take it easy pal and enjoy 😊🚂
great explore, love the comparison photos the Victorians must of loved these grand tunnels and railways ,shame they're not preserved. the running tunnels are a comparison to eurotunnel today.
Brilliant video mate. Why this isn’t a highlighted heritage site is beyond me. Well filmed and well researched. Good on ya 👍
Cheers thank you!
18:00...
Just shows how the environment was changing all the ways back then.
Would be a GREAT place to take school kids to show them how Geology goes about its day to day.!
This is great, just like a more local version of "abandoned engineering". I've spent plenty of time in the past in and around that area trying to find old remnants of past railways and nearly got mugged by some of the more hostile locals in the process. And it lets you see the areas I could never reach.
The tunnel to the port could become a walking/cycling trail and the whole cutting could become part of it too. Clean it up and get the vegetation off the walls as that will slowly destroy the walls. Fence off the used railway and the rest could be public access.
The rail lines still there are very recent as the track is fastened with pandrol clips and these were invented in 1957.
I'd be surprised if there wasn't a blacksmith shop in the cutting, metal components break, as they still do today, and you needed the shop close. Inside one was a wonder, with numerous forms, and shapes hung on the walls, our local was beside the engine sheds in an arch where the traffic bridged the line, the shop was always a draw for the younger staff. (C.M. & E.E. Section)
They didn't destroy our E.C.R. still opens and will in Sept. for Heritage Day ('s)
This would make a marvelous park, with the various openings turned into eateries.
Eateries? Is that progress, turning history into exactly the kind of business that was struggling long before the pandemic? Remind me never to go into business with you.
@@fman02 😆😆I think Liverpool has enough eateries as it is with the likes of Albert dock and Chinatown etc.
After watching this, I watched the video "Keith Chegwin - 1986 railway history documentary" on the VintageLynx channel. The changes are amazing after just a few decades. The steps up to the Moorish Arch, for example, were not overgrown and were easy to climb (see 6:50 in that video).
If walls could talk. I loved the people who carved their names into the walls, i wonder how their lives panned out. The Victorian trolly was still in good nick as well, who’d have thought they used those type of things in the 1830’s.
Has no one thought that this place would make a great wedding venue? Just like how a welsh quarry would surely attract sci fi fans, this place would be a magnet for railfans, the local residents probably wouldn't agree mind.
You're making great vids, sure to get the numbers subscribed if you keep up this quality
Imagine being tasked to demolish the Moorish arch , must have felt like sacrilege.