James Cornish was a publisher known to be active in Liverpool in 1837. He published Cornish's Grand Junction, and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway companion in that year.

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was first proposed by William James and Joseph Sanders in 1821. In 1826 George Stephenson was appointed chief engineer. The company originally intended to use fixed locomotives to pull freight trains between Liverpool and Manchester, but following the Rainhill Trial competition of 6 October 1829, locomotives in the style of Stephenson's Rocket were commissioned. The company opened the line between Liverpool and Manchester on 15 September 1830. The first passengers travelled along the line two days later and goods on 1 December. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was absorbed into the Grand Junction Railway on 8 August 1845.

The Grand Junction Railway gained an Act of parliament in 1833. The engineers were George Stephenson with Joseph Locke as his deputy, with Locke taking control of the work in 1834. It ran from Curzon Street, Birmingham to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, Lancashire. It passed close to Wolverhampton and through Stafford and Warrington. The Grand Junction Railway opened in 1837 and was the first trunk line in Europe. The Grand Junction Railway amalgamated with the Liverpool Manchester Railway in 1845 and the Trent Valley Railway in 1846 and in the same year the three were joined to form the London and North Western Railway.