The act of the 11th George IV. was obtained for the purpose of enabling the proprietors to make a branch from the main line of their railway, where it crosses Newton Brook, to the north side of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, near Newton Parks, so as to unite with the branch railway intended to be made from the borough of Wigan, where it joins the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
The branch is one mile and a half in length, with a rise to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway of 49 feet 2 inches, at a point 56 feet 4 inches above the level of the bottom of the plinth course of Newton Viaduct. A deviation line of forty-two chains in length to the above-mentioned viaduct was contemplated, but subsequently abandoned.
Mr. Robert Stephenson is the engineer for this railway, and has estimated the expense of its construction at £7,008, which is to be advanced out of the funds of the original company; the power is here given them to borrow the further sum of £20,000 on mortgage of the undertaking.
The proprietors have taken the opportunity, afforded by the introduction of this bill, to obtain the repeal of a clause in the former act of 10th George IV. by which they were restrained from using locomotive engines on the estates of Thomas Lord Lilford and the Rector of Winwick, in the townships of Burtonwood and Winwick; and this is permitted in consequence of these gentlemen having been satisfied, from recent experiments, that no nuisance or annoyance can arise from their use.
By effecting a junction with the proposed Wigan Branch Railway, a direct communication will be made between the Wigan Great Coal Field and the populous town of Warrington; and it will afford a more expeditious transit for merchandize of every description into the populous districts on the line of this railway.
The work is as likely to answer the expectations of the proprietors as any speculation, of a similar description, lately entered upon.
