The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

CHAP. XXIV.] LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY. 273
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE OPEMNG OF THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTEE EAIL-
WAT.
The directors of the Railway now began to see daylight.
Doubts were being cleared up, and largely debated questions
one by one set at rest. A solid road had been formed over Chat
Moss ; and one " impossibility " had been accomplished. A
locomotive had been constructed that could run at thirty miles
an hour ; and thus a second " impossibility " had been achieved.
Difficulties, which at first appeared insurmountable, were being
borne down by sheer determination, assisted by skill and labour.
The engineer brought the powers of the locomotive to bear in
accelerating the progress of the works. Now, it is a common
thing to employ such an agency in leading stuff to form the em-
bankments of a railway ; but then, it was an unheard-off ex-
pedient. After the competition at Raiithill, the " Rocket " en-
gine was set to work on Chat Moss, to drag the gravel for
finishing the permanent way,—at the same time economizing
horse labour, consolidating the road, and advancing the works
towards completion.
»
About the middle of 1829 the tunnel at Liverpool was finished;
and being lit up with gas, it was publicly exhibited one day in
each week. Many thousand persons visited the tunnel, at the
charge of a shilling a head,—the fund thus raised being appropriated
partly to the support of the families of labourers who
had been injured upon the line, and partly in contributions to
the Manchester and Liverpool infirmaries. Notwithstanding the
immense quantity of rain that fell during the year, great progress
had been made ; and there seemed every probability that one
line of road would be laid complete between the two towns by
the 1st of January, 1830.
.
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