Edge Hill railway works was built by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway around 1830 at Edge Hill, Liverpool. A second was built in 1839 by the Grand Junction Railway adjacent to it.

Liverpool and Manchester Railway

The shop initially maintained and repaired the company's existing fleet of thirty six engines, bought in from private makers, twenty seven from

Robert Stephenson and Company Robert Stephenson and Company was a locomotive manufacturing company founded in 1823 in Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne in England. It was the first company in the world created specifically to build railway engines. Famous early locomotiv ...

. The first locomotive superintendent was John Dixon, followed by John Melling, then in 1840 by

John Dewrance Sir John Dewrance GBE FKC (13 March 18587 October 1937) was a British inventor and mechanical engineer. Early life John Dewrance was born in 1858 at Peckham, London, the only son of pioneering locomotive engineer John Dewrance and his wif ...

. In 1841 four

2-2-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle. The wheel arrangement both ...

were built, followed by six more the following year, which also saw the production of

2-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and no trailing wheels. The notation 2-4-0T indi ...

goods engines. By 1845 some twenty eight engines were built, at which time the L&MR was merged into the Grand Junction, and new building ceased, with the workshop closing in 1847.

Grand Junction Railway

Opening in 1839, the first Locomotive Superintendent was Thomas Melling. He was succeeded in 1840 by William Buddicom. An immediate problem was the frequency of broken crank axles on the inside-cylindered

locomotives from a range of manufacturers. The works produced a new design, either by Buddicom, or his foreman, Alexander Allan, with outside cylinders. The first three were probably rebuilds, "Aeolus", "Tartarus" and "Sunbeam". They became known as the "Old Crewe" type. In 1841, Francis Trevithick, son of Richard Trevithick took over as Locomotive Superintendent. The space at Edge Hill limited further expansion. Moreover, the GJR could only enter it over L&MR tracks. Accordingly, in 1843, the GJR decided to move its operations to

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

, which was roughly halfway along the route. Shortly after this the works closed down, along with

Longsight Longsight is an inner city suburb of Manchester, England, located south of the city centre. It is bounded by Ardwick and West Gorton to the north; Levenshulme to the south; and Chorlton-on-Medlock, Victoria Park and Fallowfield to the west. ...

References

* Lowe, J.W., (1989) ''British Steam Locomotive Builders,'' Guild Publishing

Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Grand Junction Railway

See also

References

Further reading