Liverpool Overhead Railway
The Liverpool Overhead Railway (known locally as 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. 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 World War II. At its peak almost 20 million people used the railway ever ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Seaforth Sands Railway Station
Seaforth Sands was a terminus station located on the Liverpool Overhead Railway at Seaforth, west of Crosby Road South, Knowsley Road and Rimrose Road junctions. History The station opened on 30 April 1894, as a northern extension from Alexandra Dock with a total cost of £10,000. In 1901 the country's second moving escalator was installed in the station. The escalator was later removed, in 1906, due to multiple occurrences of long skirts becoming trapped in the machinery. With the LOR's second northern extension to Seaforth & Litherland on 2 July 1905, a 'through' station was built alongside the terminus. The original terminus platforms remained in use until 1925 when they were demolished and replaced by a large carriage shed. It was the last overhead station before the junction with the North Mersey Branch. The weight gauge meant that while LOR trains could operate on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Commuter Rail
Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are considered heavy rail, using electrified or diesel trains. Distance charges or zone pricing may be used. The term can refer to systems with a wide variety of different features and service frequencies, but is often used in contrast to rapid transit or light rail. Similar non-English terms include ''Treno suburbano'' in Italian, ''Cercanías'' in Spanish, Aldiriak in Basque, Rodalia in Catalan/Valencian, Proximidades in Galician, ''Proastiakos'' in Greek, ''Train de banlieue'' in French, '' Banliyö treni '' in Turkish, ''Příměstský vlak'' or ''Esko'' in Czech, ''Elektrichka'' in Russian, ''Pociąg podmiejski '' in Polish and ''Pendeltåg'' in Swedish. Some services share similarities with both commuter rail and high-frequency rapid ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John William Willans
John William Willans (c.1843-1895) was a British mechanical and electrical engineer, most known for his role as Chief Engineer of the Liverpool Overhead Railway. Early life Willans was born in 1844 in Hunslet, near Leeds to Benjamin and Ann Willans. He trained as a locomotive fitter and engineer with the Leeds company of Kitson. Early career Around 1865, Willans moved to Middlesbrough to join the engineering firm of Cochrane, Grove, & Company. He later moved to Hopkins, Gilkes, & Company. In 1872, he received a patent iron ore smelting, along with Stanhope Baynes Smith. He then moved to Manchester where he set up as a general engineer and contractor. In April 1871, in Birmingham he married Constance Amelia Smith the daughter of Stanhope Baynes Smith. In 1879, he re-married to Mary Louisa Nicholson. Electric railways Willans specialized in electrical engineering, especially for railways. He was the primary contractor for the construction of the Liverpool Overhead Railway ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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William Bower Forwood
Sir William Bower Forwood (21 January 1840 – 23 March 1928) was an English merchant, shipowner and politician. He was a wealthy businessman and a local politician in Liverpool who raised money for the building of the Liverpool Overhead Railway and Liverpool Cathedral. Early life and business Forwood was born in Edge Hill, Liverpool, the second son of Thomas Brittain Forwood, a Liverpool merchant, and Charlotte née Bower. He was educated at Liverpool Collegiate and at a Pestalozzian school in Worksop. He joined the family business in 1859 and, when his father retired from it on 22 November 1862, ran it with his elder brother, Arthur. This was when the cotton trade was being disrupted by the American Civil War. The brothers made a fortune "first from wartime speculation and blockade running, and then from exploiting telegraph and cotton futures".Killick, J. R. (2004)Forwood, Sir William Bower (1840–1928), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Pre ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prepared flat surface, rail vehicles (rolling stock) are directionally guided by the tracks on which they run. Tracks usually consist of steel rails, installed on sleepers (ties) set in ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels, moves. Other variations are also possible, such as "slab track", in which the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a rail transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, so passenger and freight cars (carriages and wagons) can be coupled into longer trains. The operation is carried out by a railway company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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James Henry Greathead
James Henry Greathead (6 August 1844 – 21 October 1896) was a mechanical and civil engineer renowned for his work on the London Underground railways, Winchester Cathedral, and Liverpool overhead railway, as well as being one of the earliest proponents of the English Channel, Irish Sea and Bristol Channel tunnels. His invention is also the reason that the London Underground is colloquially named the "Tube". Early life Greathead was born in Grahamstown, South Africa; of English descent whose grandfather had emigrated to South Africa in 1820. He was educated at St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown, and the Diocesan College private school in Cape Town. After emigrating to England in 1859, he completed his education from 1859 to 1863 at the Westbourne Collegiate School, Westbourne Grove. He returned briefly to South Africa before finally moving to London in 1864 to serve a three-year pupillage under the civil engineer Peter W. Barlow, from whom he became acquainted with the rectangu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Charles Douglas Fox
Sir Charles Douglas Fox (14 May 1840 – 13 November 1921) was an English civil engineer. Early life Douglas was born in Smethwick, Staffordshire, the oldest son of Sir Charles Fox and had two brothers and a sister. Sir Charles was a civil engineer and had designed, amongst other things, The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. Douglas was educated at Cholmondeley School, also known as Highgate School, from 1851 to 1854 and King's College School from 1854 to 1855. He studied at King's College London from 1855 to 1857 and was to have studied further at Trinity College, Cambridge but the financial collapse of his father's contracting company in 1857 ended his education. Douglas was instead articled to his father who had set up an engineering consultancy, Sir Charles Fox and Sons. Douglas was a member of the Church of England and was active in the Church Mission Society as well as being the author of several academic papers. He married Mary Wright, daughter of Francis Wright and Se ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Board Of Trade
The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations, but is commonly known as the Board of Trade, and formerly known as the Lords of Trade and Plantations or Lords of Trade, and it has been a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. The board has gone through several evolutions, beginning with extensive involvement in colonial matters in the 17th century, to powerful regulatory functions in the Victorian Era and early 20th century. It was virtually dormant in the last third of 20th century. In 2017, it was revitalised as an advisory board headed by the International Trade Secretary who has nominally held the title of President of the Board of Trade, and who at present is the only privy counsellor of the board, the other m ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mersey Docks And Harbour Board
The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), formerly the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB), owns and administers the dock facilities of the Port of Liverpool, on the River Mersey, England. These include the operation of the enclosed northern dock system that runs from Prince's Dock to Seaforth Dock, in the city of Liverpool and the dock facilities built around the Great Float of the Wirral Peninsula, located on the west side of the river. Peel Ports, the MDHC's parent company, owns other maritime facilities in the area, including the Cammell Laird shipyard, Tranmere Oil Terminal and the Manchester Ship Canal. History Liverpool Common Council's Dock Committee was the original port authority. In 1709, it had been authorised to construct Liverpool's first enclosed ship basin, the Old Dock, which was the world's first commercial wet dock. By 1750, the old Dock Committee was replaced by the Liverpool Dock Trustees. In order to provide stone for the construction of the expan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Liverpool Overhead Railway Illustration
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its ESPON metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom, metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.24 million. On the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, Liverpool historically lay within the ancient Hundred (county division), hundred of West Derby (hundred), West Derby in the county of Lancashire. It became a Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in 1207, a City status in the United Kingdom, city in 1880, and a county borough independent of the newly-created Lancashire County Council in 1889. Its Port of Liverpool, growth as a major port was paralleled by the expansion of the city throughout the Industrial Revolution. Along with general cargo, freight, and raw materials such as coal and cotton ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Liverpool English
Scouse (; formally known as Liverpool English or Merseyside English) is an accent and dialect of English associated with Liverpool and the surrounding county of Merseyside. The Scouse accent is highly distinctive; having been influenced heavily by Irish, Norwegian, and Welsh immigrants who arrived via the Liverpool docks, it has little in common with the accents of its neighbouring regions or the rest of England. Scouse is also a general term for this pan-ethnic community or Liverpudlians in general. The accent is named after scouse, a stew eaten by sailors and locals. The development of Liverpool since the 1950s has spread the accent into nearby areas such as the towns of Runcorn and Skelmersdale. Variations within Scouse have been noted: the accent of Liverpool's city centre and northern neighbourhoods is usually described as fast, harsh, and nasal, while the accent found in the southern suburbs of Liverpool is typically referred to as slow, soft, and dark. Popular collo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Third Rail
A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost fully segregated from the outside environment. Third rail systems are usually supplied from direct current electricity. Modern tram systems, street-running, avoid the risk of electrocution by the exposed electric rail by implementing a segmented ground-level power supply, where each segment is electrified only while covered by a vehicle which is using its power. The third-rail system of electrification is not related to the third rail used in dual gauge railways. Description Third-rail systems are a means of providing electric traction power to trains using an additional rail (called a "conductor rail") fo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |