The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-12-05 00:00:00

IMPROVEMENTS AT CREWE.

We give in another column an account of a grand fete
given on Saturday by the Grand Junction Railway Com-
pany, at Crewe, to their clerks and workmen ; and as we
had an opportunity, on the occasion of our visit, of in-
specting the magnificent works at the station, together
with the improvements in the village, we feel satisfied
that a short description of them will be interesting to our
readers.

The works are si uated at the angle of the junction of
the three lines from Chester, Manchester, and Liverpool.
We were politely accompanied in our inspection by Mr.
R. S. Norris, the resident engineer, Mr. Sumner, deputy-
chairman of the Manchester and Birmingham Company,
and Mr. Braithwaite Poole, agent of the goods depart-
ment of the Grand Junction line, and were politely shown
through the principal rooms. Some idea may be formed
of the extent of the premises when we state that, including
the interior yards, they have a frontage to the Liverpool
line of 730 feet, and a width at the broadest end (the form
of the ground being in its general outline nearly a rect-
angled triange) of about 500 feet. They cover, in fact,
about seven acres. The whole of the buildings were erected
by our townsmen, Messrs. S. and J. Holme, and the ar-
chitect was Mr. Cunningham, also of this town. They
are of substantial brick work, with stone facings, and hav-
ing large semicircular arched windows, lay a claim to a de-
gree of architectural ❑eatness rarely found in buildings of
this class. The whole are exceedingly well lighted, and the
main rooms of amazing extent. The " carriage manufac-
tory" is 241 feet long by 74 feet wide. The " Engine, and
Carriage, and under Repair Room,"or " hospital," is 300
feet by 100; the Engine, in Steam Room," 140 by Si.
They are floored with square wood pavement, which is
smooth, noiseless, and comfortable under foot. We here
observed engines and carriages in every stage, from the
embryo frame work to the highest finish, and embracing
every modern approved patent or appliance. Several of
the new locomotives have the cylinders and connecting
rods outside, but compactly placed, so that the driving
wheels are moved from the outside of the metal nave,
which projects at one point towards the tyre for that pur-
pose, and thus obviates the necessity of the crutched axle,
which is liable to break. We also noticed all sorts of en-
gine, carriage, and waggon wheels, some entirely of iron,
of varied construction ; others of that metal and wood
combined, including Wordsell's patent. Amongst the
engines was a beautifully finished and very powerful one
called the " STENTOR." In the " Engine House" we saw
several other splendid engines, and tenders, in various
states.

The " fitting shop," for dressing, turning, boring, dril-
ling, and planing iron and brass-work, contains many
very valuable machines, some of which were topped with
sprigs of evergreen, in token of the good feeling on the
festive occasion that influenced those who worked them.
It is an immense apartment, and well lighted from
twelve windows on each side. All kinds of work are
smoothed and fashioned from the rudest form, with a de-
gree of accuracy, fineness of surface, and we may add
facility, which is truely surprising even in this age of im-
proved working in metals,—the tedious process of filing
and clipping being almost superseded. There is also,
besides many smaller lathes, a large machine for turning
the largest iron wheels, shafts, and axles. In this room
there are thirty machines in all. We had not the advantage
of seeing any of them at work, (which would have been
still more interesting,) the whole of the men having been
let loose to prepare themselves for the festivities of the
day ; but we could readily conceive the contrast between
the silence that prevailed, and the noise of the machinery
and apparatus when the operations are going on. A cap-
ital and compact Cornish steam-engine of 20 horse power,
by Barry and Co. communicates power to the several rooms,
turning a variety of drums with straps over head, the shaft-
ing of which is supported apart from the walls by im-
proved bracketting, for additional strength and to reduce
the vibration. The floor in the last noticed room is paved
with wood, in octagonal pieces, and the cleanness and sys-
tematic good order of the whole of the machinery and
instruments throughout, reflect the highest credit on the
foreman and the men under him. The " Grinding shop"
adjoins, in which nuts, bolt-heads, &c., are ground and
polished to their required size and surface by large stones
turning vertically with great rapidity. Another room is
devoted to stores of iron plates, bars, rods, &c. in their
crude state; another for abundance of tiles and other
tools, brass taps, cruscibles, &c. ; and another for copper
tubes for engine boilers, carriage springs, and a variety of
other needful articles. Leading from one of these there is
a cellar containing cool iron tanks for oils of various kinds,
with brass taps, having their handles so weighted with
balls, that when left they close of themselves. We also
entered two smithies, one of them containing no fewer
than seventeen fire-places covered with sheet-iron, and a
large cutting and piercing machine. The other has eight
1
furnaces.

There are also many other rooms for purposes con. nected with the business, and a magnificent range of offices
at the south end of the buildings, in which is the principal
entrance gate, in a handsome arch thrown out in projec-
tion, and surmounted by an ornamental stone belfry.
From the top, on a flag staff, floated a large British en-
sign and broad pendant. A pole was also fixed in the
ground at each side of the building at the same end, and
from a rope reaching the top of the central staff were
hung no fewer than forty other various flags. The yards
are very long and spacious. That appropriated for the
goods waggon building department is filled with admirably
constructed machines, most of them in readiness for
work ; and wheels attached to their axles, and also
finished in reserve, are numerous over the adjacent
ground. The establishment, indeed, (the company having
removed their works from Edge.hill and elsewhere to it,
as the grand manufactory for the whole line,) may, in
truth, be said to be " the finest and most extensive rail-
way workshop in the world."