Liverpool Overhead Railway 0-4-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class unknown (Locobase 10256)

Data from "Shunting Locomotive for the Liverpool Overhead Ry", The Locomotive Magazine,Volume VIII [8] (17 Jan 1903), p.38.

A vital cog in a system that is proudly described as the first elevated railway to be operated entirely by electricity, this little locomotive assembled the trains that ran on the 6 miles (9.6 km) of line. It may have originally served the West Lancashire Railway's Southport-Crossens passenger line beginning in 1884 (Locobase 20660); all of its dimensions are identical..

The LOR is described as having been an excellent vantage point from which to see the workings of one of the busiest harbors in the world. According to the UrbanRail website -- [], last accessed 27 April 2009 -- the LOR was seen as a good way to move the dockworkers around without adding to the congestion.

Several features deserve notice: "The LOR would be electrified from the onset," UrbanRail comments, "making it the first electrified elevated metro (ahead of Chicago) and it would also feature a pioneering automatic signalling system. New York's and Chicago's elevated networks have trackbeds where debris and other material can fall from passing trains, this was deemed unacceptable with the expensive cargo and number of workers passing beneath the line, therefore the trackbed was made waterproof. This waterproof character gave the system the nickname, the Docker's Umbrella, since it provided shelter when it rained for the many dock workers (Dockers as they were nicknamed)."

The article describing the steam shunter also noted that the equipment would allow for rapid accelerations and raise the average speed, which included the dwell time at 16 stops, to 18 1/2 mph.

After 60 years of service, the system was worn out and the city couldn't commit the money needed to overhaul it, so the LOR was torn down in 1957, a year after it closed.