Calling at... British railway stations: Edge Hill (EDG)

Edge Hill is a stop on the Liverpool-Manchester Line between Liverpool Lime Street and Wavertree Technology Park or Mossley Hill.

Northern 319 361 departs

Information
Type:	National Rail (Liverpool-Manchester Line)
Station code:	EDG
Opened:	1836
Platforms:	4

The first Edge Hill station was opened in September 1830 by the Liverpool & Manchester Railway and was one of the earliest railway stations to be opened. This station was replaced by a new one in 1836 after the Liverpool terminus was changed from Crown Street to the more central Lime Street, Edge Hill is just to the East of the cutting and tunnels down to Lime Street.

For a time Edge Hill was where steam haulage began and ended, with passenger trains descending and ascending thanks to a rope powered by a static steam engine at Edge Hill. This was due to the steepness of the gradient up from Lime Street, early steam locomotives not having sufficient power to haul trains up it. Rope haulage continued until 1870. One of the original 1836 built station buildings still exists and is one of the oldest railway buildings still in use in the world [1].

Next to Edge Hill is a large marshalling yard which was opened by the LNWR in 1873, the first to be opened in Britain. At it's height the yard had sixty miles of track and handled over two thousand wagons a day. A much smaller freight yard still exists, also near to the station is a motive power depot which services Pendolino EMUs. A far cry from the 1950s when Edge Hill Depot was home to one hundred and fifty steam engines! [2]

The station is managed and served by Northern. Two branches of the Liverpool-Manchester Line (via Earlestown and Warrington) split just East of the station. The station is served by up to five trains an hour in each direction.