Liverpool Overhead Railway

The Liverpool Overhead Railway was an electric elevated railway in Liverpool. Your designer was the British port construction engineer George Fosbery Lyster. It was opened on 4 February 1893 was the second oldest Metropolitan of the United Kingdom and the oldest electric elevated railway in the world.

A port be tapped elevated railway had been discussed since the 1850s, construction was finally 1889. The route led from Seaforth, along the River Mersey to the Herculaneum Dock. The line about 10 miles long, had 14 stations and was based on 4.9 meter high partly wrought-iron pillars. The latter earned her the nickname " umbrella for port workers " (" Docker's Umbrella " ) a.

Later the line was extended twice. The first extension at the north end in 1894 presented a connection to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and are then also took over the overhead society. The second extension affected the southern end of Herculaneum Dock. By the end of 1896 in the present-day area of ​​Liverpool St Michaels was a 800 meter long tunnel piece that led to the first and only underground station on the route and was opened on 21 December. Almost to the day, five years later, in the access tunnel to the Dingle station a serious rail accident occurred on 22 December 1901, when an electric motor in a train caught fire. Six dead were the result, the underground train station was completely gutted. This was the first serious accident on an electrically operated railway, the travelers were killed.

In 1948 the London, Midland and Scottish Railway was nationalized, the successor company of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, like all other railways in Britain.

Due to the decline of Liverpool harbor the elevated train constantly lost passengers. When then a basic renovation of large parts of the viaduct would not defer further, it was decided to decommission and demolish the track. On December 30, 1956 drove the last train.