Mersey Railway
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The Mersey Railway was the passenger railway connecting the communities of Liverpool and Birkenhead, England. It is currently a part of the Merseyrail network. It was extended further into the Wirral Peninsula, which lies on the opposite bank of the River Mersey to Liverpool. Both sides of the river were connected via the Mersey Railway Tunnel. The railway opened in 1886 with four stations using steam locomotives hauling unheated wooden carriages; in the next six years the line was extended with the opening of three more stations. Using the first tunnel under the Mersey, the line is the world's oldest underground railway outside London.<ref name="Society2003">Template:Cite book</ref>
Because the steam locomotives created a polluted atmosphere in the tunnel despite the forced ventilation system, many passengers reverted back to using the river ferries making the railway bankrupt by 1900. Recovery came after the railway adopted electric traction in 1903. The Mersey Railway remained independent after the railway grouping of 1923, although it became closely integrated with the electric train services operated by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway over the former Wirral Railway routes after 1938. The Mersey Railway was nationalised, along with most other British railway companies, in 1948.
HistoryEdit
OriginsEdit
Records exist of a ferry service across the River Mersey between Birkenhead on the west bank and Liverpool on the east since the Middle Ages. In 1332 the monks of Birkenhead Priory were granted exclusive rights to operate a ferry; following the dissolution of the monasteries these rights passed through a number of operators eventually to the township of Birkenhead.Template:Sfn
Template:Infobox UK legislation Template:Infobox UK legislation It is recorded that Marc Isambard Brunel suggested a road tunnel when designing the Birkenhead docks and from the 1850s a railway tunnel under the Mersey was proposed several times. The Mersey Pneumatic Railway Company received permission for a single line pneumatic railway in the Template:Visible anchor (29 & 30 Vict. c. cxxxix) but failed to raise the necessary capital. Renamed the Mersey Railway Company, they were given the necessary permissions in the Template:Visible anchor (34 & 35 Vict. c. cci) for an orthodox two track railway connecting the Birkenhead Railway near their Template:Stnlnk station through a tunnel under the Mersey to an underground station serving Liverpool.Template:Sfn However the company found it difficult to raise the necessary funds until Major Samuel Isaac undertook to build the railway in 1881. He contracted construction to John Waddell, who appointed Charles Douglas Fox and James Brunlees as Engineers.Template:Sfn
Construction of the river tunnel started from two Template:Convert deep shafts, one on each bank, containing water pumps. Three tunnels were to be dug, one for the two tracks, a drainage tunnel and a ventilation tunnel. A Template:Convert diameter ventilation tunnel was dug as the pilot heading. Some 38 million bricks were used for the construction of the main tunnel.Template:Sfn When the tunnel was opened, fans on both banks changed the air in the tunnel every seven minutes.Template:Sfn
The geology of the riverbed meant that the plans were changed and at the deepest section the drainage and ventilation tunnels combined. The grade on the Liverpool side was increased to 1 in 27.Template:Sfn Estimates of the influx of water varied from Template:Convert to Template:Convert per minute; after the works were completed the maximum pumped out of the tunnel has been Template:Convert per minute.Template:Sfn There were two pumping stations, Shore Road Pumping Station on the Birkenhead bank near Hamilton Square and Georges Dock Pumping Station on Mann Island on the Liverpool Bank.Template:Sfn The railway's workshop was built next to Birkenhead Central; stabling was also provided at Birkenhead Park.Template:Sfn
Opening and extensionsEdit
The Mersey Railway was formally opened on 20 January 1886 and public services started on 1 February.Template:Sfn The route had four new stations: Green Lane, Birkenhead Central and Hamilton Square in Birkenhead and James Street station in Liverpool. Green Lane and Birkenhead Central were below ground level in open cuttings whereas James Street and Hamilton Square were deep underground and accessed by lifts.Template:Sfn
In 1888 a branch tunnel to Birkenhead Park station opened, with a connection to the Wirral Railway. This was followed in 1891 by an extension from Green Lane to bay platforms at the Birkenhead Railway's Rock Ferry station, and in 1892 the tunnel was extended from James Street to a new underground station at Liverpool Central.Template:Sfn
The railway opened with steam locomotives hauling four-wheeled Template:Convert-long wooden carriages, with first-, second- and third-class accommodation provided in unheated compartments.Template:Sfn In 1900 in the peak periods trains left the Rock Ferry terminus every Template:Fract minutes and the Birkenhead Park terminus every 15 minutes, giving a train every 5 minutes between Hamilton Square and Liverpool Central. At off-peak times this was reduced to a train every Template:Fract minutes, alternately from the Rock Ferry and Birkenhead Park branches. The scheduled journey time between Rock Ferry and Central was 14 minutes; between Birkenhead Park and Central, 10 minutes.Template:Sfn
As well as some through working of carriages from the Wirral Railway at Birkenhead Park, in the summer of 1899 a through service worked from Liverpool to Template:Stnlnk; carriages were taken to Rock Ferry, and there attached to a GWR Paddington express train; the carriages were slipped at Reading before being taken on to Folkestone attached to another train.Template:Sfn Connecting ferries and trains allowed Paris to be reached in under 15 hours.Template:Sfn
ElectrificationEdit
The traffic peaked in 1890, when ten million passengers were carried, and then declined.Template:Sfn Two years previously the company had been declared bankrupt and receivers appointed, because it was unable to pay the charges on its debt. Steam locomotives running at five-minute headways left a dirty atmosphere in the tunnel that the mechanical ventilation was unable to remove, so many passengers preferred the ferries.Template:Sfn
Template:Infobox UK legislation Some other urban railways had been constructed for electric traction: in 1890 the City and South London underground tube had opened with electric traction, followed in 1893 by the more local Liverpool Overhead Railway. Plans for electrification of the Mersey Railway in 1895 were shelved because the company and its investors were fighting in the courts. In 1897 a new board of directors was elected, and in 1898, £500 was released for further expert advice that recommended electrification at a cost of £260,000Template:Sfn (equivalent to £Template:Inflation in Template:Inflation-year).Template:Inflation-fn By then, the railway had attracted the attention of George Westinghouse, an American in the UK looking for business for his UK works, the British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. Ltd, that opened at Trafford Park in 1899.Template:Sfn Westinghouse considered the railway would be profitable with electric traction and undertook to fund the project, promising to complete in eighteen months. Electrification was approved by Parliament in the Template:Visible anchor (63 & 64 Vict. c. cxxxiv), which also terminated the bankruptcy, and in July 1901 the Westinghouse contract was signed.Template:Sfn
All electrical equipment was shipped from the US, including power system plant equipment.Template:Sfn A power station was built at the Shore Road pumping station and was designed to accommodate the extension of electrification to the Wirral Railway, although that did not occur until 1938. The conductor rails were fed direct, without any distribution. Four-rail 600 V DC electrification was installed, with the positive outer rail set Template:Convert from the running rail.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The new electric multiple units, initially marshalled as 2-car or 4-car sets, had British-built wooden bodies on US bogies. 24 motor cars and 33 trailer cars were provided. The driving positions controlled all the motors on the train by the means of a low voltage control signal.Template:Sfn
After inspection by the Board of Trade, the line was approved as fit for traffic on 3 April 1903. The last steam trains ran on Saturday 2 May and the current to the electrified rails was switched on at 3:30 am. At 4:53 am the first electric train arrived at Liverpool Central, and for the Sunday morning trains ran at 3-minute intervals without passengers. Passengers were admitted when the advertised Sunday service started at noon.Template:Sfn
The stations were cleaned, whitewashed and electrically lit. A service was provided every three minutes from Liverpool Central to Hamilton Square and journeys were faster: Central to Rock Ferry was eleven minutes, down from fifteen minutes and the Central to Birkenhead Park journey was reduced by two minutes, down to eight minutes.Template:Sfn
There was a maximum of four cars per train in 1904, which was raised to five cars in 1909.Template:Sfn In 1923, automatic signalling was commissioned at Liverpool CentralTemplate:Sfn and in 1927 the island platform was widened, the work being completed in a weekend.Template:Sfn The maximum number of cars in a train was raised to six in 1936, after the tunnels at the east end of Liverpool Central had been extended.Template:Sfn
Wirral RailwayEdit
As a local railway the Mersey Railway remained independent in the 1923 grouping, although the Wirral Railway became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). The Wirral had authority to electrify its lines, but had not done so, and passengers making through journeys had to change at Birkenhead Park. In 1926 discussions started on electrification and through running.Template:Sfn The Wirral section was electrified with a DC third rail system, the Mersey Railway retaining its fourth rail but moving the positive conductor to Template:Convert from the running rail. The Mersey Railway electric multiple units were modified to run to the Wirral railway,Template:Sfn and at the same time heaters and air compressors were added.Template:Sfn
In 1938 the LMS introduced new lightweight three car multiple units that were later, under British Rail, to be classified Class 503.
Nationalisation and legacyEdit
In 1948, on nationalisation of the railways, the Mersey Railway became the Mersey section of the London Midland Region.Template:Sfn In 1956 these trains were replaced by Class 503 units, similar to the LMS Class 502 design, and the fourth rail removed. The last of the American-designed cars was withdrawn a year later.Template:Sfn
A single track loop line was built between 1972 and 1977, and since 1977 trains from James Street have travelled round the loop calling at Template:Stnlnk, Template:Stnlnk and a new platform at Liverpool Central before returning to James Street.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The original two platforms at Liverpool Central were reused as part of the Northern Line. The tunnel and railway are still in use today as part of the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail commuter rail network.
Shore Road Pumping Station in Birkenhead was a museum until closure sometime before 2014. Georges Dock Pumping Station on Mann Island in Liverpool is a grade II listed building.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Rolling stockEdit
Steam locomotivesEdit
For the opening of the line, eight powerful 0-6-4 tank locomotives were obtained from Beyer, Peacock and Company, fitted with condensing apparatus for working in the tunnel. Designated as Class I, a ninth followed within six months. Beyer Peacock also built six 2-6-2T tank locomotives in 1887 (Class II) and three further 2-6-2T (Class III) were built by Kitson and Company in 1892.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The 0-6-4Ts were built with steam and vacuum brakes and steam reversing gear and weighed Template:Convert. The 2-6-2Ts were fitted with vacuum brakes only; those built by Beyer weighed Template:Convert and Kitson's Template:Convert.Template:Sfn
As electrification progressed, the old rolling stock was advertised for sale. An attempt to sell the 18 locomotives and 96 carriages by auction in June 1903 proved unsuccessful – the auctioneer had to remind the bidders that he was not selling scrap.Template:Sfn It was September before the first locomotive was sold; it would take another two years to sell all-bar-one of the locomotives. The last locomotive — which had been retained for working permanent way trains — was sold in January 1908.Template:Sfn
The first to be sold was No. 5 Cecil Raikes, which was bought by Shipley Collieries for £750. They came back and bought No. 8 for £650; but not before Alexandra (Newport and South Wales) Docks and Railway had bought all six of the Class II locomotives for £3,450.Template:Sfn They became ADR 6–11 (not in order). Alexandra Docks later bought four more locomotives: Three 0-6-4T (Nos. 2, 3 and 6), and one Class III 2-6-2T (No. 16), these becoming 24–22 and 25.Template:Sfn All ten ADR locomotives passed to the Great Western Railway in January 1922, and were withdrawn between January 1923 and May 1932.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The other two Class III locomotives were bought by Whitwood Colliery for £1,240.Template:Sfn
The last four locomotives (Nos. 1, 7, 9 and 4)Template:Sfn were sold to J & A Brown (as their Nos. 5–8) for use on the Richmond Vale railway line in New South Wales, Australia.<ref>"Scouse Down Under". The Railway Magazine issue 829 May 1970 pages 258/259</ref> No. 4 Gladstone had been retained by the Mersey Railway until 1907 for departmental use, but was then replaced by Metropolitan Railway A Class (4-4-0T) No. 61, built by Beyer Peacock. This was replaced in 1927 by an earlier Metropolitan Railway 4-4-0T, No. 7.Template:Sfn
Two of the Class I locomotive have been preserved: No. 5 Cecil Raikes is preserved at the Museum of Liverpool;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and No. 1 The Major is preserved at the NSW Rail Museum, Thirlmere, New South Wales.
Locomotive-hauled coaching stockEdit
Between 1904 and 1907 thirteen four-wheeled gas-lit coaches were sold to the Liskeard and Looe Railway.<ref group="note">photographs can be seen Template:Harvnb and Template:Harvnb.</ref> Built by the Ashbury Railway Carriage and Iron Company Ltd between 1885 and 1888, the sale price was between £20 and £70 each. In 1912, the six surviving examples were sold on to the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Page needed
Electric multiple unitsEdit
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In 1903 24 motor cars and 33 trailers were provided by Westinghouse. The stock was of an American design, with a clerestory roof and open gated ends. Unheated accommodation was in saloons and the wooden bodies were British built, and the bogies had been made by Baldwin Locomotive Works in America. First- and third-class cars were provided, the first-class seats being of natural rattan and the third-class seats being moulded plywood. The livery was maroon with white roofs and "Mersey Railway" in gold leaf on the upper fascia panels.Template:Sfn Air brakes were provided with storage reservoirs that were recharged from static compressors at the terminal stations.Template:Sfn The motor cars were powered with Westinghouse motors controlled by the Westinghouse low voltage multiple unit train control system.Template:Sfn
An additional four trailers were received in 1908Template:Sfn followed in 1923 by two more motor cars and in 1925 a new five-car train. To allow the introduction of 6-car trains in 1936, ten trailer units were ordered. The later cars did not have a clerestory roof,<ref group="note">A clerestory roof has a raised centre section with small windows and/or ventilators.Template:Sfn</ref> but any car could work in multiple with any other car.Template:Sfn
When the cars were modified to run to the Wirral railway,Template:Sfn heaters and air compressors were added.Template:Sfn The cars were replaced by vehicles similar to the Wirral Railway units in 1956–57.
Car no. 1, a first-class motor coach, was destroyed in a fire at Derby Litchurch Lane Works, where it had been taken for overhaul in preparation for restoration and preservation.Template:Sfn
PreservationEdit
Only two of the Class I locomotive have been preserved: No. 5 Cecil Raikes is preserved at the Museum of Liverpool;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and no. 1 The Major is preserved at the NSW Rail Museum, Thirlmere, New South Wales, Australia.
References and notesEdit
NotesEdit
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ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
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Historic publicationsEdit
External linksEdit
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