The day the world got smaller
Two cities bound
Two cities tied by tarmac, water and railway lines
Two industrious cities
That paved the way
To making this world what it is today
Through industry, culture
Through shipping and art
We built bridges
We were there from the start
We lit flames
We broke down borders
We made this enormous world much smaller
Those men with pens did chart gods earth
And men with horses shifted dirt
And rock and stone and mud and boulder
They smashed through mountains
They walked on water
Cast iron girders built bridges high
Red brick viaducts disappeared into the sky
And they claimed they could make iron horses fly
Make men and women pass through time
And they claimed they could dig a hole so deep into the ground
That a Rocket could explode with carriages abound
Passing silently under villages and towns
Without a whisper or a single sound
But the biggest quandary and the toughest job
Was how to lay tracks across a 5 mile bog
And how to get a train across
Without sinking and drowning all those aboard
Heads were scratched and wise men and women worked
Redrawing plans and scanning the earth
They wanted so much for this train to be the first
To carry men and women to work
And not just carry mail or coal
They wanted human beings and living souls
To travel and adventure
To become explorers
They made this enormous world much smaller
And on that famous September day
Crowds lined the route all along the way
And it’s claimed that an amazing band did play
“See the conquering hero come”
and that he did for at the station
was the valiant Duke of Wellington
Who had just defeated Napoleon
at the battle of Waterloo
And he sat in a carriage of ornamental gold
With a crimson canopy that sat high above
And laurel leaves of the victorious
on rich golden scrolls
And the soldiers cleared the crowds from along the tracks
And coal was loaded sack after sack
And the poorer people sat at the back
In carriages of wood
“It’ll never make it”
Someone cried
With all these people crammed inside
With tunnels, bridges and mountains to climb
Disaster is Guaranteed
And yes, one carriage did derail
But those aboard lived to tell the tale
Of how one wheel did run astray
But not a single soul was hurt
But at mid-point on the line
Locomotives stopped for a while
To take on water as advised
By the Engineers
But a crowd alighted onto the track
Ignoring the pleas of the railway staff
At the moment a rocket passed
AND HUSKISSON WAS KILLED
An MP OF GREAT REPUTE
Had just shook the hand of the honourable duke
But a train approached at speed and he failed to move
A great orator was lost
But this great occasion could not be marred
So the crowd re-boarded the railway car
And soon that train did slow depart
To Manchester and beyond
But the next and greatest challenge was Chat Moss
A vast and empty sinking bog
And how to get this train across
Without drowning all aboard
But it crossed Chat Moss on floating planks
And it weighed as much as 100 tanks
And men women and kids all shouted thanks
To the skilful engineers
And on she continued to Liverpool road
Through driving winds and a black sky storm
She arrived not racing but at a crawl
The journey had been done
A train full of people had travelled all the way
City to city
History was made
It was Liverpool and Manchester day
It was the day the world got smaller
And within a year new rails were laid
And on it went everyday
Line after line and train after train
Through Europe Asia and the USA
People travelling for work people travelling for play
And people came to us from across the globe
Growing families
Making new homes
And we welcomed them with open arms
because that’s what we do
Two cities bound
Two cities tied by tarmac, water and railway lines
Two industrious cities
That paved the way
To making this world what it is today
Through industry, culture
Through shipping and art
We built bridges
We were there from the start
We lit flames
We broke down borders
We made this enormous world much smaller