Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: Liverpool Overhead Railway - transfer of motor coach to new Museum of Liverpool

  1. #1
    Newbie Stephen Wolstenholme's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Surrey
    Posts
    4

    Default Liverpool Overhead Railway - transfer of motor coach to new Museum of Liverpool

    LIVERPOOL'S famous Overhead Railway stretched from Seaforth in the north to Dingle in the south.

    It served one of the busiest ports in the world, the centre of the country's trading activity.

    Construction of the railway was a brilliant technical achievement, way ahead of its time and it was the first elevated railway in the world to use electric traction.

    Trains on the Liverpool Overhead Railway consisted of three coaches, with a motor coach at each end and a trailer coach between them. The video at:

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCjxLVj7beM

    shows the movement out of storage of one of the original motor coaches which has electric motors mounted beneath the floor, a driving cab at one end and third class accommodation with wooden seats.

    The coach is one of a batch built between 1892-1899. It served on the Overhead Railway until it closed in 1956 and was preserved by British Railways - the only example of a LOR motor coach to survive. It was later presented to National Museums Liverpool by the British Railways Board.

    The Overhead Railway was built to ease congestion along the docks but it was also marketed as a tourist attraction as it provided amazing views of the docks, shipping and transatlantic liners on the River Mersey. It was fondly known as the 'dockers' umbrella' as it also provided shelter from the rain.

    The coach has been displayed in the new Liverpool Museum at the height it would have travelled at, so visitors in The Great Port gallery below will be able to walk beneath it, as the dockers once did.

    The video shows interviews with Museum staff plus coverage of the coach being transported to its new location in July 2010, retracing part of the original route that it would have taken.

    Please pass this link on to other groups with an interest. Thanks.

    Stephen Wolstenholme

  2. #2
    Senior Member collegepudding's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    out & about -when not at home
    Posts
    221

    Default

    Another very interesting link provided by Stephen,

    Excellent stuff


    collegepudding

  3. #3
    Member andyk's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Gers / France
    Posts
    23

    Default

    I visited the new museum last weekend, the high-light of which, was undoubtedly the LOR carriage, followed closely by the Liverpool Cityscape by Ben Johnson.

    As a teenager, I was a volonteer at the Steamport Museum in Southport. The museum possessed a LOR carriage which was in the protective hands of Charles Box, who was, if I am correct, the last chief-engineer of the LOR. Mr Box was a fascinating person to talk to and many an hour was spent in his company. Sadly, the LOR carriage was in poor repair and I have no idea what has become of it.

  4. #4
    Newbie Stephen Wolstenholme's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Surrey
    Posts
    4

    Default Fate of the other Liverpool Overhead Railway coach

    Quote Originally Posted by andyk View Post
    Sadly, the LOR carriage was in poor repair and I have no idea what has become of it.
    Car 7 led a nomadic existence after the closure of the LOR being used as an office by a coal merchant and then a firm of car breakers, at some time after its sale from the LOR scrapline it lost it's bogies and almost all of it's interior fittings. before finally being sold to the Southport railway centre and housed in their shed, mounted on a pair of accommodation bogies. The closure of that centre in 1998 and the relocation of most of their stock to a new site in Preston once again left car No. 7 with an uncertain future as it was regarded as surplus to the requirements of the new centre and in need of a new home and a new owner.

    LOR 7 was moved to an electric railway museum near Coventry in August of 1998. Funds are now being raised to effect a full restoration on the coach but it is outside in poor shape.



    Stephen Wolstenholme

Similar Threads

  1. Liverpool Overhead Railway
    By Bob Edwards in forum Bob Edwards' Liverpool Picture Book
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 01-01-2013, 06:05 PM
  2. Liverpool overhead railway
    By merseywail in forum Liverpool's Road and Rail Development
    Replies: 30
    Last Post: 10-21-2010, 07:49 AM
  3. Liverpool Overhead Railway
    By shytalk in forum Liverpool's Road and Rail Development
    Replies: 106
    Last Post: 11-13-2008, 03:54 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •