Liverpool Overhead Railway

Liverpool Overhead Railway

Legend Northern Line Linacre Road North Mersey Branch Seaforth & Litherland Junction with LSCR Bootle New Strand Northern Line Seaforth Sands Gladstone Dock Alexandra Dock Langton Dock Brocklebank Dock Canada Dock Huskisson Dock Sandon Dock Nelson Dock Clarence Dock Princes Dock Pier Head James Street Canning Wapping Dock Brunswick Dock Toxteth Dock Herculaneum Dock Dingle original Herculaneum Dock

The Liverpool Overhead Railway was the world's first electrically operated overhead railway. The railway was carried mainly on iron viaducts, with a corrugated iron decking, onto which the tracks were laid. It ran close to the River Mersey in Liverpool, England, following the line of Liverpool Docks. The railway opened in 1893 and closed in 1956.

Formation

The Liverpool Overhead Railway Company was formed in 1888.

Construction

As early as 1852 the railway had been suggested, although it was not until much later that the railway came into existence. Engineers Sir Douglas Fox and James Henry Greathead were commissioned to design the railway.

From the outset in 1888 electric traction was chosen due to the possibility of sparks from the burning coal of steam power igniting the cargoes in close proximity to the railway, and the railway was the world's first urban railway designed for electric traction from the outset. The works commenced in 1889 and were completed in 1893. The City and South London Railway was the first railway to operate on electric traction in 1890; however cable traction was originally planned and during construction electric traction was adopted in 1889 due to the cable contractor's liquidation.

The railway was the world's first electric elevated railway and the first to use automatic signalling and electric signal lights.

Special advanced lightweight light-rail passenger cars were designed with each having an electric driving motor. This gave the cars the distinction of being the first light rail trains. These cars made up the world's first electric multiple unit trains bearing a strong resemblance to modern EMUs.

Opening

The Liverpool Overhead Railway was opened on 4 February 1893 by the Leader of the Opposition the Marquis of Salisbury. The railway ran from Alexandra Dock to Herculaneum Dock, a distance of six miles. It used standard gauge track with 11 intermediate stations along the line. The railway gained the affectionate nickname of Dockers' Umbrella, as a great proportion of the railway was elevated and dockers could walk beneath it as they travelled around the docks.

Extensions

Liverpool Overhead Railway, Seaforth Sands

The line was extended northwards to Seaforth Sands on 30 April 1894. A further extension southwards from Herculaneum Dock to Dingle was opened on 21 December 1896. Dingle was the line's only underground station and was located on Park Road; the station is now used as a garage. The extension at Herculaneum Dock was achieved with a 200 ft (61 m) lattice girder bridge and then boring a half mile (800 m) tunnel through the sandstone cliff to Park Road. The tunnel portal and complete underground station are some of the few surviving signs of the railway's existence.

Finally, a northward extension was connected to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's North Mersey Branch on 2 July 1905. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway ran some of its own specially built vehicles on the line, and these were especially used during race meetings at Aintree Racecourse.

Trains

The purpose-designed trains used on the Overhead Railway were revolutionary, setting the standard used world-wide today. They were the world's first electric multiple unit (EMU) trains, requiring no locomotive, and the first light-rail trains. In the southern extension the EMUs were also the first to be used underground. Within eighty years most passenger journeys in Britain were being made on trains that worked on the multiple-unit principle.

The initial two-coach trains combined both traction and passenger carriage into one self-contained unit. This was later increased to a three-coach multiple unit consisting of a motor coach at each end of the train and a trailer coach between. The power coaches had electric motors mounted beneath the floor, a driving cab at one end and third class accommodation with wooden seats. The unpowered central coach was for first class passengers, and was fitted with leather-covered seats.

An original example was retained by the Museum of Liverpool and an example of a modernised carriage is stored at the Electric Railway Museum, Baginton.

Modernisation

During World War II, the railway suffered extensively from bomb damage. As a purely local undertaking, it was not nationalised in 1948 with the rest of the British railway system. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Company started to modernise some of the carriages, incorporating sliding doors. The line continued to carry large numbers of passengers, especially dock workers.

Remains at Wapping

Makers mark on remains at Wapping

Decline and closure

The railway was carried mainly on iron viaducts, with a corrugated iron decking, onto which the tracks were laid. As such, it was vulnerable to corrosion - especially as the steam-operated Docks Railway operated beneath some sections of the line. During surveys it was discovered that expensive repairs would be necessary to ensure the line's long term survival, at a cost of £2 million. The Liverpool Overhead Railway Company could not afford such costs and looked to both Liverpool City Council and the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board for financial assistance. None was forthcoming.

The Liverpool Overhead Railway Company had no option but to go into voluntary liquidation. Accordingly, and despite considerable protest, the line was closed on the evening of 30 December 1956. The final trains each left either end of the line, marking the closure with a loud bang as they passed each other. Both trains were filled to capacity with wellwishers and employees of the company.

The service was replaced by a bus service (route number 1) operated by Liverpool Corporation, which could not compete with its predecessor's much faster service, due to congestion along the Dock Road. The public continued to campaign for the railway to reopen, albeit in vain.

Demolition of the structure commenced in September 1957, with the whole structure being dismantled by the following year. The bridges were removed for scrap, leaving very little trace of the railway, save for a small number of upright columns found in the walls at Wapping and the tunnel portal at Dingle.

Film

The railway is featured in the final scenes of the film The Clouded Yellow (1951), as the character played by Jean Simmons uses the railway to travel to one of the docks. Extensive archive footage of the railway appears in Of Time and the City, a "cinematic autobiographical poem" made by British film-maker Terence Davies to celebrate Liverpool's 2008 reign as Capital of Culture.

See also

• LYR Electric Units
• Liverpool Overhead Railway Southern Extension tunnel
• Railway electrification in Great Britain

External links

• http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/l/liverpool_overhead_railway/index.shtml
• http://www.timbosliverpool.co.uk/lor/
• http://historicdocks.proboards.com
• http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/genealogy/Parker/OverheadRailway.htm
• http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~gsgleaves/merseyside.htm
• Film of the Overhead
• http://www.mersey.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/lor/lor.htm
• http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/collections/transport/overheadrailway.aspx
• Map (to scale)
• CGI Animation by Steven Paul Wheeler