The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a British railway company that built a line from Manchester to Normanton where it made a junction with the North Midland Railway, over which it relied on running powers to access Leeds. The line followed the valley of the River Calder for much of the way, making for easier gradients but by-passing many important manufacturing towns. Crossing the watershed between Lancashire and Yorkshire required a long tunnel. The line opened throughout in 1841.
Early on, the company realised that the initial route required expansion, and branches were built by the company or by new, sponsored companies. In Manchester steps were taken to make a railway connection with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and a connecting line was built, including an important joint passenger station, named Victoria station.
The pace of expansion accelerated, and in 1846 it was clear that the company's name was no longer appropriate, and the opportunity was taken, when getting parliamentary authority for further amalgamations, to change the name to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway; this took effect by an act of Parliament, the Manchester and Leeds Railway Act (No. 3) 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. clxiii) of 9 July 1847. From that time, coupled with the considerable expansion of the network, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway took on a new dynamic..
Conception Proposals to build a railway from Manchester to Leeds originated at about the same time as those for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and a company was formed in 1825 but despite the involvement of George Stephenson, the scheme was abandoned, and a reintroduced scheme in 1831 also failed to gain approval.Martin Bairstow, The Manchester and Leeds Railway: The Calder Valley Line, Published by Martin Bairstow, Leeds, 2001, , page 26John Marshall, The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, volume one, David & Charles : Newton Abbot, 1969, , page 39
In 1835, the company was reconstituted with capital fixed at £800,000; Stephenson was again appointed chief engineer, and plans were deposited for the following parliamentary session. The route was altered from the earlier proposals to run via Wakefield to Normanton to join the North Midland Railway over which it would have running powers from Normanton into Leeds. The eastward diversion was to form easier gradients than previously proposed, but nearer Manchester there were three inclines, each about long at 1 in 165 and 1 in 130. In from Manchester the line would climb to a tunnel, long, and two other tunnels of and .Marshall, page 42 Normanton is some distance east of Wakefield and not the direct route towards Leeds. Running powers over of the North Midland Railway to Leeds were given and a clause in the act that should the North Midland Railway fail to build its line, the Manchester and Leeds Railway would have the power to do so.
The (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. cxi) was given royal assent on 4 July 1836. Authorised share capital was £1,300,000. The (7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. xxiv) on 5 May 1837 authorised changes to the route.Marshall, pages 37 to 40
Tunnels Work on the section from Manchester to Littleborough began on 18 August 1837, and on the Summit Tunnel the following year. The tunnel proved much more expensive than planned, and took longer to complete. It was nearly finished in December 1839 when a portion of the invertIn this context, an invert is a flattish inverted arch built under the track when it is suspected that the footings of the main arch may be forced inwards (laterally) by the pressure of bad ground. failed, allowing the side walls to move by , requiring them to be rebuilt. Stephenson explained the failure by saying
The blue shale through which the excavation passed at that point, was considered so hard and firm, as to render it unnecessary to build the invert very strong there. But shale is always a deceptive material... In this case, falling away like quicklime, it had left the lip of the invert alone to support the pressure of the arch above, and hence its springing inwards and upwards.George Stephenson, contemporaneous remarks, quoted in Samuel Smiles, The Story of the Life of George Stephenson, John Murray, London, 1860, page 262
At the time of its completion it was the longest railway tunnel in the world, at . The brickwork varies from five to ten rings in thickness. The total cost of Summit Tunnel was £251,000.Marshall, pages 43 to 47
There was a problem at Charlestown Tunnel, between Eastwood and Hebden Bridge. The ground consisted of loose, sandy earth which gave trouble from the start. On 8 June 1840 it was reported that the masonry inside the tunnel was collapsing and eventually, after much further consideration, the tunnel was abandoned and the line built round the hill at ground level on curves of radius.
Early track Whishaw wrote in 1842,
"The [track] gauge is , in order to allow of an inch [] play on either side for the wheels of the locomotives and carriages.Templeton said the same thing in 1841. With a stone block permanent way this may have been appropriate, and at the speeds of the day irrelevant. The track was relaid, and it is unlikely that this outlier persisted, and there are dangers in quoting this as "the track gauge of the M&L Railway". The rails are of the single parallel form... They are in lengths, having bearings..."This means that there were chairs and sleepers at intervals of .
The track consisted of T-section rails, deep with heads wide and deep, weighing , secured in chairs by means of a diameter ball and key fitted into grooves in each side of the stem of the rail. Sleepers consisted of sandstone blocks of about each in cuttings, and Kyanised larch sleepers, by by , on embankments.Francis Whishaw, The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland, John Weale, London, 1842
Opening On Wednesday 3 July 1839, the line was formally opened from Manchester to Littleborough and two trains conveying the directors and invited guests ran as far as Summit Tunnel. On the following day the line opened to the public over that section; 3,100 passengers were carried. The fare for the from Manchester to Littleborough was first class 4s, second class 2s 6d, and third class 6d. The chief booking clerk at Manchester was Thomas Edmondson who had invented a machine for printing railway tickets on cards of standard size, numbered progressively, and another machine for stamping the date on each ticket. Edmondson's ticket system and machines were used into the 1970s, almost identical with those first used on the in 1839.Marshall, page 48
The next section that opened was from Normanton to Hebden Bridge on Monday 5 October 1840. The North Midland Railway had opened its line to Leeds, using its own terminus at Hunslet Lane on 30 July. As the eastern end of the was isolated by the uncompleted Summit Tunnel, the NMR provided locomotives for this section until the line was completed. Passengers could now book from Manchester to Leeds, the journey from Littleborough to Hebden Bridge was made in road coaches provided by the company.
The line from Hebden Bridge to Summit tunnel opened on 31 December 1840. When Summit Tunnel was completed, the line was inspected by Sir Frederick Smith who sanctioned its opening to the public on behalf of the Board of Trade in February 1841. The main line opening took place on Monday 1 March 1841. The timetabled four trains each way on Sundays encountered strong opposition from religious bodies. The board was divided and the chairman and two directors resigned in protest against running Sunday trains.Marshall, page 49David Joy, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume VIII: South and West Yorkshire, David & Charles Publishers, Newton Abbot, 1984, , pages 103 and 104
First train services The first timetable showed nine passenger trains each way except Sundays when there were four. The first weekday eastbound train started from Sowerby Bridge. The trains alternated between all stations and semi-fast, the latter calling at eight intermediate stations compared with 15 intermediate stops for all-stations trains. The stopping trains took about 3 hours and 20 minutes to and from Leeds, the semi-fast trains took 2 hours and 45 minutes.
The fact that the line by-passed many important towns is emphasised by the notes in the timetable: Mills Hill (for Oldham); Blue Pitts (for Heywood); Todmorden (for Burnley); Sowerby Bridge (for Halifax); Brighouse (for Bradford); and Cooper Bridge (for Huddersfield).Marshall, pages 50 and 51
The quickly achieved a high profit level, owing to the density of population along the route and the fact that in the early years much southbound traffic from Manchester was routed this way owing to disputes affecting the Grand Junction Railway.
In July 1844, the seized all the Midland RailwayThe Midland Railway was established on 10 May 1844, amalgamating the North Midland Railway and others. goods wagons on its system in order to run a cheap excursion from Dewsbury to Liverpool—at the time a commonplace form of accommodation. The Midland reacted by taking all the M&LR wagons it could find and moving them to Derby.
On 16 September 1847, a train headed by a 2-2-2 engine was derailed by a broken rail at Sowerby Bridge, killing two passengers and injuring one. In his report Captain J L A Simmons, the government inspector, strongly condemned the permanent way. Over a distance of the chairs had worked loose in the stone blocks, the gauge varied by up to each way and the rails were badly worn. Between 1844 and 1846, some of line had been relaid with double-head rails in chairs, but much remained to be done.Marshall, page 52
Manchester Victoria Station
After the opening of the Leeds to Manchester line, only the gap between the 's Oldham Road station and the 's Liverpool Road terminus in Manchester, prevented there being a through line from Liverpool to Hull. As well as the inconvenience to passengers, goods had to be unloaded and carted across Manchester and reloaded into railway wagons.William Harrison, History of Manchester Railways, supplement to Manchester City News Notes and Queries, volume IV, 1881 - 1882, reprinted 1967 by Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, pages 13 and 14 The companies agreed to make a connecting line from the at Miles Platting to a new station at Hunt's Bank and on to the terminus of the Manchester and Bolton Railway (close to the present-day Salford Central station) and over an S-shaped link to join the to the west of its terminus in July 1838. The Hunt's Bank site was purchased privately by Samuel Brooks, vice-chairman of the , and presented to the company in August 1838. The section from Miles Platting to Hunt's Bank was built by the , and the western section by the . Royal assent was given to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Act 1839 (2 & 3 Vict. c. xli) for this arrangement on 14 June 1839, followed by an (2 & 3 Vict. c. lv) on 1 July, which also authorised branches to Oldham and Halifax. There was considerable controversy because a southern route was strongly advocated; the in particular was attracted to a connection to the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, giving better connections southwards, at the cost of failing to connect the Bolton line at all, and of requiring some form of transshipment for Leeds traffic, because of incompatibility in the levels. It took some time to pacify the dissenters, but the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. cviii) was obtained on 30 July 1842, finalising the matter.Bairstow, page 26Marshall, pages 55 to 57
The part of the construction was beset by accidents, but it was opened on 1 January 1844. The extension descended to Hunt's Bank with gradients from 1 in 47 to 1 in 59. A stationary engine was provided at Miles Platting to work the incline by rope.