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.
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 received Royal Assent for
a single line pneumatic railway in 1866 but failed to raise the necessary
capital. In 1871 the Mersey Railway was given the necessary permissions for an
orthodox two track railway connecting the Birkenhead Railway near their Rock
Ferry station through a tunnel under the Mersey to an underground station
serving Liverpool. 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.
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| 1886 illustration showing the ventilation and drainage system |
Construction of the river tunnel started from two 180 feet
(55 m) 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 7 feet 2 inches (2.18 m) diameter ventilation tunnel was dug as the pilot
heading. When the tunnel was opened, fans on both banks changed the air in the
tunnel every seven minutes. 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. Estimates
of the influx of water varied from 5,000 imp gal (23,000 l) to 36,000 imp gal
(160,000 l) per minute; after the works were completed the maximum pumped out
of the tunnel has been 9,000 imp gal (41,000 l) per minute. 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. The Railway's Workshop was built next to Birkenhead Central;
stabling was also provided at Birkenhead Park.
Opening and extensions
The Mersey Railway was formally opened on 20 January 1886
and public services started on 1 February. Originally there were with four
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.
In 1888 a branch to Birkenhead Park station opened, with a
connection to the Wirral Railway. This was followed in 1891 by an extension
from Green Lane to Birkenhead Railway's Rock Ferry station, and in 1892 the
tunnel was extended from James Street to a new underground station at Liverpool
Central. The railway opened with steam locomotives hauling four-wheeled 27 feet
(8.2 m) long wooden carriages, with first, second and third class accommodation
provided in unheated compartments. In 1900 in the peak periods trains left the
Rock Ferry terminus every 7 1⁄2 minutes and the 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 7 1⁄2 minutes, alternately
from the Rock Ferry and Park branches. The scheduled journey time between Rock
Ferry and Central was 14 minutes; between Park and Central 10 minutes.
Electrification
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| Mersey Railway entrance sign for James Street station |
The traffic peaked in 1890, when ten million passengers were
carried, and then declined. Two years previously the company had been declared
bankrupt and receivers appointed; it was unable to pay the charges on its debt.
The steam locomotives at five-minute headways left a dirty atmosphere in the
tunnel that the mechanical ventilation was unable to remove. Passengers
preferred the ferries. 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 as the company and its investors were fighting in the courts; in 1897 a
new board of directors was elected. In 1898, £500 was released for further
expert advice that recommended electrification at a cost of £260,000. 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. Westinghouse
considered the railway would be profitable with electric traction and undertook
to fund electrification, promising to complete in eighteen months.
Electrification was approved by Parliament in the Mersey Railway Act of 1900,
which also terminated the bankruptcy and in July 1901 the Westinghouse contract
was signed.
All electrical equipment was shipped from the US, including
power system plant equipment. A power station was built at the Shore Road
pumping station and was designed, anticipating extension of the electrification
to the Wirral Railway, although this was not to occur until 1938. The new
multiple train units had British wooden bodies on US bogies; 24 motor cars and
33 trailer cars were provided and trains were initially 2-car or 4-car sets.
The driving positions controlled all the motors on the train by the means of a
low voltage control signal.
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 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 The
stations were cleaned and 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 and the Central to Park journey was reduced by two minutes, down to
eight minutes. 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. However, in 1926 discussions started on electrification and
through running and the Wirral section was electrified.
In 1938 the LMS introduced new lightweight three car
multiple units that were later, under
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| British-Rail-Class-503 |
British Rail, to be classified Class 503. In 1948, on
nationalisation of the railways, the Mersey Railway became the Mersey section
of the London Midland Region. In 1956 these trains were replaced by further
trains similar to the LMS Class 503 design. 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 Moorfields, Liverpool Lime Street and a new platform
at Liverpool Central before returning to James Street. 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 and
power station in Birkenhead is currently a museum. Georges Dock Pumping Station
on Mann Island in Liverpool is a grade II listed building.
Links
Sources
Liverpool Wiki
Wikepedia
Graces Guide
Central Library
