The interior of a first-class carriage on the timber-bodied electric trains on the the Liverpool Overhead Railway, Merseyside, England, UK The seats are leather clad and signs in the car indicate ‘No Smoking’ and ‘No spitting’. The Liverpool Overhead Railway operated along the Liverpool Docks and opened in 1893. It was the world’s first elevated electric railway and the second oldest electric metro in the world. At its peak almost 20 million people used the railway every year. A 1955 report showed it required unaffordable repairs and the railway closed in 1956.
The interior of a first-class carriage on the timber-bodied electric trains on the the Liverpool Overhead Railway, Merseyside, England, UK The seats are leather clad and signs in the car indicate ‘No Smoking’ and ‘No spitting’. The Liverpool Overhead Railway (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. It was the world’s first elevated electric railway and the first to use automatic signalling. It was the second oldest electric metro in the world (the first was the 1890 City and South London Railway). Originally five miles (8 km) long from Alexandra Dock to Herculaneum Dock, the railway was extended at both ends over the years, to Dingle and to Seaforth & Litherland. At its peak almost 20 million people used the railway every year. The railway used electric units, the norm being a three-coach train consisting of two motor coaches at each end. Two classes of accommodation (first and third) were provided. The cars were had an open seating arrangement – the central carriage had leather-covered seats for first class passengers, third class passengers had wooden seating. In the 1940s a three-car train was modernised, replacing the timber body with aluminium and plywood and fitting power-operated sliding doors under control of the guard. Six more trains were rebuilt in the same style. 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. This image is taken from an old album with a collection of old prints of Liverpool and the surrounding area – a vintage 1940s/50s photograph.
Size: 3780px × 2238px
Location: Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK
Photo credit: © M&N / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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