The Grand Junction Railway arrived in the village of Crewe in 1837. It absorbed the Crewe & Chester Railway in 1840, which prompted it to move its locomotive workshop from Edge Hill, Liverpool, to Crewe.
The arrival of workers and their families from Edge Hill boosted Crewe's population by 800. The first locomotive built in Crewe, No. 32 Tamerlane, entered service in 1843 and, by 1848, the 1,000 men employed at Works could turn out one locomotivea week. A new railway community was established in what had beena rural township of Monks Coppenhail.
The GJR's works opened in March 1843. At the time, it employed 161 people and includeda brick plant and a grease works. The Grand Junction merged with the London & Birmingham in 1846 to form the London & North Western Railway and the LNWR invested heavily in Crewe Works.
It built an all-new workshop a short distance away from what was now called the Old Works. Crewe Works had expanded from a two acre site to one that covered 90 acres and was 1½miles long. It built its last new steam locomotive, ‘9F’
