The Liverpool Overhead Railway (known locally as the Dockers' Umbrella or Ovee) was an overhead railway in Liverpool which operated along the Liverpool Docks and opened in 1893 with lightweight electric multiple units. The railway had a number of world firsts: it was the first electric elevated railway, the first to use automatic signalling, electric colour light signals and electric multiple units, and was home to one of the first passenger escalators at a railway station. It was the second oldest electric metro in the world, being preceded by the 1890 City and South London Railway.
Originally spanning from Alexandra Dock to Herculaneum Dock, the railway was extended at both ends over the years of operation, as far south as Dingle and north to Seaforth & Litherland. A number of stations opened and closed during the railway's operation owing to relative popularity and damage, including air bombing during World War II. At its peak almost 20million people used the railway every year. Being a local railway, it was not nationalised in 1948.
In 1955, a report into the structure of the many bridges and viaducts showed that major repairs were needed, which the company could not afford. The railway closed at the end of 1956, and despite public protests, the structures were dismantled in the following year.
Since 1977, Liverpool's rapid transit/commuter rail needs have been served by the partially underground Merseyrail network, which was formed from local suburban lines and new tunnel formed into a network, using no former infrastructure of the Liverpool Overhead Railway.
History
Toponymy
The "overhead" refers to the railway being primarily constructed above street level, and not to "overhead line", though there is no ambiguity as the electrical supply was third rail. When the LOR was extended to the Dingle terminus the "overhead" description of the railway would have seemed an anomaly to those descending to the platform there which was underground in a tunnel. At least two alternative names for the railway existed: "Dockers’ Umbrella"; and "ovee", a local slang term.
Origins and construction
As a result of the traffic, congestion, and overcrowding of the dock roads, many proposals were made for transport solutions. Rails were laid at Liverpool Docks in 1852, linking the warehouses and docks. Initially horses were used, as locomotives were banned because of the risk of fire. From 1859, passenger services were provided using adapted horse omnibuses; the wheel flanges could be retracted to allow an omnibus to leave the tracks to overtake a goods train. By the 1880s, there was an omnibus service every five minutes.
An elevated railway was first proposed in 1852, and in 1878 the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MD&HB) obtained powers for a single-line steam railway with passing loops at stations. The MD&HB applied to the Board of Trade based on this plan, but it was rejected and there was no further progress. The Liverpool Overhead Railway Company was formed in 1888 and obtained permission to build a double-track railway in the same year.
Engineers Sir Douglas Fox and James Henry Greathead were commissioned to design the railway. Steam traction was considered and they considered fitting floors to the structure to prevent ash falling to the street below, however this was seen as a fire risk. Sir William Forwood, the Chairman of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, had studied American electric railways, and in 1891 electric traction was chosen. John William Willans was chosen as the primary contractor. Building started in 1889 and was completed in January 1893.
The structure was to be made of wrought iron girders a nominal above the roadway. A total of 567 spans were erected, most being long. The standard gauge railway was laid on longitudinal timbers on the elevated sections.
Four bridges were constructed to cross wider streets. Hydraulic lifting sections were provided at Brunswick, Sandon and Langton Docks to allow goods access to the docks. To allow shipping access to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, at Stanley Dock a bridge was replaced by a combined lifting and swing bridge, the lower lifting section carrying the road and goods railway.
At Bramley-Moore Dock, the railway dropped to road level to pass under the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) coal tip branch. As the gradient was 1 in 40 this was known as the switchback.