Electric Multiple Units
Instead of a locomotive and carriages, the coaches for the Liverpool Overhead Railway contained passenger accommodation and an electric motor in the same unit. Any number could be coupled together and all the motors controlled by the driver at the front. Built between 1892 and 1899 by Brown Marshall & Co, the original units had one 60 horsepower (45 kW) motor, by the third batch this had been replaced by a 70 horsepower (52 kW) motor. In 1902 the motor cars were fitted with two 100 horsepower (75 kW) motors, and these were replaced in 1919 by 75 horsepower (56 kW) motors. Air brakes were fitted, the pressure topped up at terminus stations. In the early days a single motor coach would run off-peak, the norm became a three coach train consisting of a motor coach at each end of the train and a trailer coach between. Two classes of accommodation were provided, originally first and second, to become first and third in 1905 when the L&YR began running over the railway. The cars were open with transverse seating, the unpowered central coach was fitted with leather-covered seats for first class passengers; third class passengers had wooden seating. As the voltage on the LOR was 500V when they ran on the L&YR 630V system the motors had to be in series mode.
In 1945-47 a three car train was modernised, replacing the timber body with aluminium and plywood and fitting power operated sliding doors under control of the guard. New trains were considered too expensive and six more trains were rebuilt.
The trains were all removed from service when the railway closed. An original example was retained by the Museum of Liverpool and an example of a modernised carriage is stored at the Electric Railway Museum, Baginton.
Read more about this topic: Liverpool Overhead Railway
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