Liverpool’s Overhead Railway
The Liverpool Overhead Railway is one of the city’s great forgotten treasures. Anyone hoping to visit this pioneering city of industry will find it easy to reach by either road or rail. You can even catch a domestic flight to Liverpool from any other major city in the UK, and you’ll certainly have no problem finding a cheap Liverpool airport hotel.
The Liverpool Overhead Railway was a product of the Liverpool Overhead Railway Company, originally founded in 1888. Running high above the Mersey Docks, this monument in early engineering was the world’s first ever raised electric railway. The elevated tracks were designed to provide convenient access to both the docks, and the Harbour Board’s warehouses in the area. From the area around the docks, the railway headed inland at Seaforth, eventually terminating at the station in Dingle.
Originally proposed in 1852, it took decades to get the idea successfully passed through the local council. Work on the railway was carried out between the years 1889 and 1893, under the careful supervision of the master engineers Sir Douglas Fox and James Henry Greathead. They chose to use electricity to power the tracks (an innovative proposal for the time), as it was believed that the traditional steam trains would run the danger of dropping sparks onto the valuable cargoes at the docks.
The railway was opened on February 4th 1893, in a grand ceremony presided over by the Marquis of Salisbury. It served the docks for a number of years, before problems began to arise – mainly due to corrosion on the iron tracks, and the viaducts that carried the tracks. When it was found that the extensive repair work required was simply too expensive to justify the line’s ongoing usage, the order was passed to close the line. The last train travelled along the Liverpool Overhead Railway on December 30th, 1956.
Visit the area for yourself, and book a stay at a cheap Liverpool airport hotel. The Liverpool dock area is a fascinating region of the city, and has recently been inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
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