The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-11-14 00:00:00

GOVERNMENT INSPECTION OF THE LIVER-
POOL AND BURY RAILWAY.

Yesterday, and Saturday, the Government Inspector,
Captain Wynne, went over the works of this line of
railway, for the purpose of examining the line previous to
its being taken from the contractor, and opened by the
Company. He was accompanied. on both occasions, by
the Contractor, Mr. William M'Cormick, the Consult-
ing Engineer of the Company, Mr. James Thomson, of
London, the Acting Engineer, Mr. William Thomson,
and Mr. John Hawkshaw, Consulting Engineer to the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Company ; and we are happy
to be able to announce to the public, that not only have
the Works been approved of by Captain Wynne, but he
has been pleased to express his unqualified satisfaction at
the excellent manner in which the contractor has exe-
cuted his work. _ _

This line was commenced in the month of January,
1846, and consequently it has been completed in less than
three years, notwithstanding that it was considerably
retarded by the railway panic of '47. The full length of
the line is 34 miles, passing through Wigan and Bolton,
which are the leading towns on the line. The number of
stations on the line are sixteen, viz.,—Liverpool, Bootle-
lane, Prescot-road, Simon's-wood, Kirby, Rainford, Pim-
bor-lane, Farmoor, Upholland, Wigan, Hindley, West
Houghton, Bolton, Darcy Lever, Bradley-fold, Black-
lane, and Bury. The entire cost of the line, including
the purchase of laud, has been, we understand, about
£900,000. At Bury this line joins the Leeds and Man-
chester line, from which it will derive a great deal of
traffic : indeed we believe it is intended to run the trains
from Leeds to Liverpool direct through on this line,
thereby saving considerable time, and, consequently, con-
siderable expense. The chief traffic will be coal, cotton,
manufactured goods, and passengers. A great portion of
the Yorkshire trade will come on this road ; and not as
heretofore via Manchester.

Starting from Liverpool the most important feature
which attracts the attention of the visitor is the intended
connexion between this line and the new North Docks,
from which source much of its traffic will be derived.
At this point there is a draw=bridge provided, in case it
should be requisite to build any docks east of the present
Stanley Dock, and a little further on there is a depot for
goods, carriages, &c. The viaduct from the North Shore
into Oldhall-street is one of the finest pieces of masonry
which is to be met with anywhere. The brickwork of
this, we should observe, has been constructed by Messrs.
S. and J. Holme, in conjunction with Mr. M'Cormack,
who, except as regards this piece of work, has been the
sole contractor for the rest of the line. This viaduct is
about a mile and a quarter long, and it consists of 118
arches, of brick and cement. On each side of the road
there is a strong parapet wall, coped with semicircular
blocks of sandstone. When completed, however, this
viaduct will be extended from the present temporary
station in Oldhall-street, to the intended one in Tithe-
barn-street, close to the Exchange. Shortly after you
pass the viaduct a fine segmental trussed wooden bridge,
the span of which is 65 feet, crosses the Leeds and Liver-
pool canal. This bridge, which is of novel construction,
is one of the strongest and safest railway bridges which
we have seen. The girder is composed of several pieces
of timber, bolted together, the timber ends being so
" broken" that the whole forms one piece ; this
then is " cambered" up and trussed to a high
segment, which being well secured at the abutments, is,
rendered so strong that it is impossible it can give way.
From this we proceed to Walton, where there is a tunnel
1300 yards in length, cut through the red sand stone
formation. The height of this tunnel is twenty feet from
the rails to the crown of the arch, and it is exceedingly
dry, level, and clean. Some of the gentlemen, who,
yesterday, passed over the line, pronounced this to be one
Of the finest tunnels in England. At both ends of this
tunnel there are some heavy excavations, chiefly clay and
sandstone rock. One of them is at least fifty feet deep.
Passing this we come to a handsome stone bridge, which
crosses the river Alt. This is a single arch, span forty
feet ; the elevation forty-five feet, and it must have been
a work of no ordinary difficulty to get foundations in
ground so soft. The next work of importance is the
crossing of Lord Derby's Moss, at Rainford. This must
have been a work of great magnitude. The moss is two
miles long, and so soft that it was only at the depth of
twenty-six feet that the clay formation was found. In
the construction of the line here every engineering diffi-
culty has been overcome, and the line is as firm, and the
run over it as smooth, as in any other portion of the
work. We may state, en passant, that we never travelled
on any line where that great desideratum—easy and com-
fortable travelling—has been so nearly attained as on the
Liverpool and Bury. On this moss the drainage and
ballasting is so good that when tried with a very heavy
engine and train, the deflection was imperceptible. The
mode of operation upon it was to construct what are
called " herring-bone ' drains, with tar barrels across it,
and to weight these_with shale from the coal beds. When
we reached this point the inspector had the train passed
over it twice, and he felt quite satisfied that whatever
difficulties lay in the way of making a good road over this
point of the line they had been overcome by the talent and'
energy of Mr. M'Cormick. From the moss to the next
point of attraction—Billinge Tunnel—is about four and a
half miles, which is principally cuttings. The Billing°
Tunnel is 960 yards long, and it is cut through coal
measures and rock; and from the quantity of water
which came into it, much difficulty must have been sur-
mounted before it could be reduced to its present dry and
clean state. At Pemberton there is an embankment of
two miles long, and about forty-eight feet in elevation,
at its highest point. The weight of the clay deposited I
here, acting upon the soft ground in the vicinity of the
river Douglas, caused the adjacent land to rise on
each side of the line at least three feet. Here the
line passes through a piece of land which once served
the renowned Oliver Cromwell for an encampment
during the period of the civil wars, the Epaulments and
Abatis of which can still be distinctly traced. From this
the turnpike road aeWigan there is alengthened curve
which terminates at the Wigan viaduct. This viaduct is
constructed of timber and iron. There are 45 "bays,"each
30 feet span, resting on solid ashlar blocks of masonry.
At the turnpike road there is a tubular girder bridge,
of 65 feet span, which crosses the road ; and at the cross-
ing of the Leeds and Liverpool canal there is also a bridge
similarly constructed. These bridges and the viaduct are
excellently finished, and reflect great credit on both the
engineer and constructor. On trial there was no deflec-
tion from the straight line, with an engine of 50 tons
stroke. The next work f great difficulty is a bridge
which passes under the North Union line at this point.
It is certainly one of the neatest and most tastefully de-
signed and executed pieces of masonry which we have
seen. The bridge is askew, and is composed of five dif-
ferent arches, laid quite close together, and each of which
is capable of bearing 200 tons weight. The peculiarity, of
the bridge is that each of these arches bears the weight of
a train passing over its apex. We next reached the bridge
passing under the " Wall-gate"- of Wigan, which is com-
posed of cast-iron girders with segmental arches, similar
to those at. Mostyn on the Chester and Holyhead line.
This brings us to the town of Wigan, where there is to be
an extensive station and adequate warehouses. From this
we passed over several bridges of very neat design to
Springs Branch .Viaduct, which is also constructed of
timber. The piles for this work average 45 feet in length,
and are driven at least 20 feet into the earth ; but in other
respects it is similar to the Wigan Viaduct.
The next point worthy of notice is a high embankment
near to Hindley, of a mile and a quarter long, from which
we entered a weighty clay cutting averaging thirty feet
deep. At Hindley mill, there is a double-arch, bridge,
in a forty-five feet embankment, over the mill stream.
From this point to the Bolton and Preston rail-
way, is a cutting of stiff hard clay, averaging about twenty
feet in depth. The length of the cutting is four miles.
Here we joined the Bolton and Preston line,, and ran on
it to Bolton. And it may be remarked as one of the
features of the line, that formerly a passenger could not
reach Bolton from Wiganin lessthan two hours; whereas by
this line the journey from Wigan to Bolton will be per-
formed in 15 minutes. Leaving Bolton, the line passes
over a segmental cast iron girder bridge, and runs on to
the Bolton Viaduct, which is constructed of wrought iron
la'ice work, on the same plan as that which was designed
by Sir John Macneil for the Dublin and Drogheda Rail-
way. This viaduct, which is 700 feet long, cannat, we are
certain, be equalled in England for beauty and durability.
At Darcy Lever there is one of similar design. The
height of the piers of this portion of the work averages
120 feet. From this point the valley of Darcy Lever is
seen to great advantage, and in our opinion it is the best
view on the line. From this to the viaduct at Bury is
one continuous line of very heavy cutting, if we except a
most stupendous embankment which is close to the via-
duct. This viaduct, which crosses the river Irwell, is an
excellent p'e2e of engineering. It is composed of five
kshlar arches of 72 feet span, and than which there is not
a finer piece of masonry in England. Passing over this a
junction with the East Lancashire line is formed, from
which point the traveller may proceed to the Rochdale
Station, and from thence to any part of the west rf 1-:11,;-
land,—thus doing away with the necessity w:.icli new ex-
ists of changing carriages at the Manchester station, when
the train is intended for Leeds or any other towns in that
part of Yorkshire. At Bury there will be an extensive
station, which of course forms one of the termini of the
line. We should mention that the rails are all laid down
on Sir John Macneill's plan, which secures them from
the possibility of getting out of guage.
This line will, we understand be open for traffic on
Monday, aud, considering that it is a new line it is cer-
tainly one of the best which we have been on—indeed, so
well and so carefully have the works been executed, that
in passing over it we sometimes imagined that it hail been
in operation for years. There was no jolting, no giving
way of banks, nor any other obstruction wnieh would in.
dicate haste, want of skill, or niggardliness on the part of
the contractor ; and, as it will form one of the most im-
portant links in our railway communication with the West
of England, we doubt not but that the enterprise of the
shareholders will be rewarded with an ample dividend.

ROBBERY FROM THE PERSON.—Yesterday, at the
Police-court, a young woman, named Mary Welsh, was
charged by John Robinson, of Prescot, with having, on
the evening of Saturday, the 11th instant, robbed him, in
an eating-house near St. George's Church, of a sum of
about £5, in gold and silver, and which he had put into a
purse. He pursued her and had her placed in custody.
Upon her were found two sovereigns, a half-sovereign,
and £3 6s. 6d. in silver. She said at the time that she
had received the money from her husband, who lived in
Tenterden-street. Enquiry had been made, and the house
mentioned by her was found to be uninhabited. She was
committed for trial at the sessions.
PRIME RED BANK OYSTERS.—We cannot refrain from
commending the quality and flavour of the oysters at the
new establishment of Mr. Bindon, in Castle-street. They
are, we can avouch, truly delicious, and entirely free from
the coppery or metallic taste of even what are termed
" natives," being fed in a peculiar and novel manner.
They are the . Red Bank " oysters from the sister island,
and are considered by amateurs to be a new and valuable
discovery and variety of the most digestible and nourishing
species Of shell-fish.