The Liverpool Overhead Railway (known locally as the Dockers' Umbrella or Ovee) was an overhead railway in Liverpool, England. It 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 the Second World War. 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 needs for rapid transit and commuter rail 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
thumb|Share of the Liverpool Overhead Railway Company, issued on 9 March 1897
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
thumb|Illustration of a section of the railway
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, for 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 in the (41 & 42 Vict. c. cxcviii) 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. Building began in 1889 and was completed in January 1893.
The structure was to be made of wrought iron girders, positioned 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.