Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/206

 this point the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which has its passenger terminus at Lime Street, a mile and a quarter from Edge Hill, is joined by a branch railway running round the city, to the docks at the north end, and also by branch lines running through tunnels, under the city, to the various goods depots at Wapping, Waterloo, and Crown Street, so that it will be easily perceived that as regards goods traffic, Edge Hill is a very important and busy place indeed. This is sufficiently proved by the fact that, at the present time, no less than 534 trains of all descriptions are running in and out of Edge Hill within 24 hours, viz., 273 in, and 261 out, and that it has been found necessary to build there a steam shed or engine-house, which holds eighty engines.

Of course, all goods trains arriving at Liverpool have to be broken up at Edge Hill, and the waggons have to be sorted out for the several depots, whence they are distributed to the various docks and warehouses. On the other hand, the trucks loaded at all the depots have to be sent, in the first place, to Edge Hill, where they are classified and marshalled in trains for despatch in all directions. These comprise what is called the "outward" traffic.

It was about the year 1873 that the Company began to have strongly impressed upon them the urgent necessity for making provision on a very much larger scale than they had, up to that time, contemplated, for the shunting and marshalling of trains at Edge Hill, and that they commenced to carry out, as an experiment, and, to a limited extent, the system which has since been elaborated and extended with such beneficial results. In that year (1873) they found themselves