Liverpool & Manchester – 1: LNWR Lines

by Bob Pixton

The thirty-mile long band of land between Manchester and Liverpool must have one of the densest railway networks in the country. There are over eighty stations, seven termini and ten engine sheds, and this takes no account of the north-to-south lines, goods lines and dock railways. Add to this the fact that some of the earliest railway lines in the world were developed here and you have one of the most fascinating railway areas in England.

Three of the best known railway companies competed for the vast amount of people and materials moved, much of it originating in the pits and steel mills of Yorkshire, and ending in the docks in the two cities. The respective ends of the lines in each city were no more than 1,000 yards apart from each other, yet in the countryside of Lancashire they ranged from Wigan in the north to Widnes in the south, a distance of over fifteen miles. It is still possible to travel over 120 miles of these lines today.

This book takes us on two imaginary journeys between the cities, retraced station by station, along the two lines operated by the London and North Western Railway.

Two further volumes in this series cover the routes operated by the Cheshire Lines Committee and the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway to complete a comprehensive survey of lines between these major cities.

Softback: 124 pages
ISBN 0954485998
£14.95