Philip
On Moderation
Does anyone know the details about a potential scheme to convert the Chester and Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canals (the Shropshire Union) to railway? I've read brief mention of the scheme, which was apparently a branch off the Crewe to Chester line at Calveley and then using the line of the canal to Oxley. Calveley would have been a canal-railway transhipment point, with canal cargo from Ellesmere Port and Chester being loaded into the wagons.
How close was this scheme from getting an act of parliament to authorise it? And what would the railway system between the North West and the West Midlands be like today had the conversion gone ahead? From a personal point of view, I'm very glad this didn't go ahead!
It's worth pointing out that the 1835 Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal (built by Telford) really provided a blue print of engineering techniques for the construction of the railways that followed, so the conversion probably wouldn't have been as big a job as you might think, at least south of Nantwich where this canal starts.
How close was this scheme from getting an act of parliament to authorise it? And what would the railway system between the North West and the West Midlands be like today had the conversion gone ahead? From a personal point of view, I'm very glad this didn't go ahead!
It's worth pointing out that the 1835 Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal (built by Telford) really provided a blue print of engineering techniques for the construction of the railways that followed, so the conversion probably wouldn't have been as big a job as you might think, at least south of Nantwich where this canal starts.
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