Lime Street is the oldest and largest station in Liverpool. To access the land where the station was constructed, a tunnel needed to be dug through rock from Edge Hill, thereby extending the railway line from the old terminus at Crown Street. Lime Street opened for public use in August 1836. In the early years it was not possible for trains to journey into the station itself because of the steep incline leading up to it. Trains terminated at Edge Hill, the locomitives were uncoupled and the carriages continued with a controlled descent powered by nothing more than gravity. Stationary engines, housed in castleated towers at Edge Hill, hauled the carriages back up. Expansion of the station in 1867 saw the addition of a 200 foot span roof, the largest in the world at that time.

Image details: J Hamilton Hay