Liverpool Overhead Railway : The Dockers' Umbrella 1893-1956

For more than two generations the Liverpool Overhead Railway – popularly known as the ‘Dockers’ Umbrella’ or the ‘Ovee’ – was a familiar sight as it wound its way over its seven-mile route from Dingle to Seaforth & Litherland. The line’s origins lay in the need to improve public transport in and around the city’s docks and, in its construction and operation, it was one of the most significant pioneering railways in the world. It was the first electric elevated railway, it was the first to use automatic signalling and electric colour light signalling, and the first to employ electrically-powered multiple units. Profitable right until its demise – although never quite as successful as hoped particularly as a result of competition from the trams – it became a victim of its physical rather than its financial climate. Following an Act of Parliament, and despite massive public protests, the line closed at the end of 1956. Efforts to revive it failed and over the next two years the structures were demolished.