Page:The Grand junction railway companion to Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham; (IA grandjunctionrai00free).pdf/41

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Grand Junction Line.
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to the left; this is the line from Manchester to Birmingham; and for about the same distance the carriages travel along a perfect level, but here they begin to descend a plane. At the 15¼ mile-post,[1] an excavation, the first on the Grand Junction Line, commences. We continue to descend what may perhaps be properly called the Bradley Incline, as the village of Bradley lies to the left; this is the steepest that the locomotive engines travel on during the whole journey. It is rather more than three quarters of a mile in length, and has a descent of one inch in 85; at the post marked 15½,[2] the steep ends, and a gentle declivity of 1 inch in 476, succeeds, which, with but little alteration, continues to Warrington; opposite this post the Bradley excavation ends, and a slight embankment commences. To the left is the Vulcan Foundry, a red brick building; a great many locomotive engines are here made: the adjoining house belongs to the proprietor of the foundry; and, a little further on, opposite the 15¾[3] post, are a number of cottages, built of red brick, which are principally, if not wholly, occupied by the families of the foundry people. The country here[4] is a flat valley, richly wooded; opposite this post, to the

  1. From Birmingham: 82; From L'pool & Manch'r: 15¼
  2. From Birmingham: 81¾; From L'pool & Manch'r: 15½
  3. From Birmingham: 81½; From L'pool & Manch'r: 15¾
  4. From Birmingham: 81¼; From L'pool & Manch'r: 16