1893: The Liverpool Overhead Railway
Stretching from Seaforth in the north of the city to Dingle in the south along the Liverpool docks, the “Docker's Umbrella” was the world's first elevated electric railway. The promoters of the railway were inspired by similar elevated railways in the USA, but opted for the new and untried electric technology because of fears that sparks from steam locomotives could be a fire risk in Liverpool’s docks.
A subsequent extension to the railway took the train into a tunnel to the residential area of Dingle, leading to a unique situation where passengers went underground to board an “overhead” train.
The railway was an early adopter of automatic signalling technology with colour light signals. This allowed an intensive commuter service to operate. The only manual signalboxes were those that controlled access to the line’s two depots.
In 1897, the pioneering film-makers, the Lumière brothers, travelled on the railway and filmed the docks from the window of a train, in what is believed to be the first ever “tracking shot” captured on film.
In 1901, the first escalator at a railway station was installed at the LOR's Seaforth Sands station. It differed in many respects from modern escalators and was not a success. It was removed within a few years, but nevertheless pre-dates similar installations on the London Underground.
Heavily damaged during the war, the railway was repeatedly patched up to ensure it could continue its vital function of carrying workers to the docks. Sadly, by 1956 the prohibitive cost of renewing the cast iron structure forced the railway to close and it was demolished by the end of 1957. Remnants of the line can still be seen, including the mouth of Dingle Tunnel and cast iron supports embedded into some sections of the dock wall.
