|
Notes: Pier Head Station was located on the Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR) which in its completed form ran from Dingle in the south of the city to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway’s (LYR) Seaforth & Litherland station in the north.
Pier Head station was the LOR’s busiest station and it opened with the first section of the line on the 4th of February 1893. The station was adjacent to the Liverpool’s waterfront ferry and passenger liner terminals that were the Pier Head. The area was a hub for public transport as the cities tramways also had a terminal at the Pier Head and the underground Mersey Railway (MR) James Street Station was located close by.
 |
The station was a typical LOR structure being located on the elevated line 16 feet above street level on an iron structure that carried the line above Liverpool’s busy Dock Road. Directly below Pier Head station was the Dock Board goods railway which ran throughout the length of the dock system beneath the LOR linking the various goods |
facilities. The line was double track and Pier Head was provided with two platforms that were reached by stairs that led up from street level. Two sets of stairs that met in the middle of the platform were located on each side of the line. Underneath the stairs on the east side of the line there were stalls that sold magazines and tobacco products. Only a couple of Overhead stations had platform canopies and Pier Head was one of them. This was most probably because the station was situated right in the heart of Liverpool’s commercial district and seen as one of the most important on the line. Unlike other Overhead Stations the ticket facilities were at street level.
The LOR was an electric railway from the very start. Pier Head station opened with the line on the 4th of February 1893 and was served by frequent trains that ran between Herculaneum Dock and Alexandra Dock calling at all stations. From the 30th of April 1894 north bound services started running to Seaforth Sands when the line was extended.
| From the 21st of December 1896 passengers from Pier Head station were able to travel to Dingle when a new underground terminus was opened at the southern end of the line. On the 2nd of July 1905 a connection opened to the LYR network at the northern end of the LOR and trains began to operate to Seaforth & Litherland station where connections direct |
 |
connections with the Liverpool Exchange and Southport Chapel Street service could be made. In 1906 the LYR and LOR started through running of services to and from Southport and Aintree Sefton Arms. The Aintree service was short lived ending in September 1908 although race day specials for the Grand National horse race did operate once per year. The Southport service lasted until 1912 after which LOR services operated to the LYR station at Seaforth & Litherland where
In 1911 the world famous Royal Liver Building opened on the west side of Pier Head Station bringing even more business. The LOR line remained busy for the next few decades. It suffered badly during the Second World War when many stations were badly damaged although Pier Head remained relatively unscathed.
In January 1948 the Railways of the United Kingdom were nationalised but the LOR remained independent. In the 1950s engineers discovered that the steam locomotives that operated on the Dock Board railway beneath the LOR had caused major damage to the iron structure on which the line ran for most of its length. Costly repairs would have to be carried out if the line was to be saved. The LOR did not have the finances to undertake the work and the local authorities were unable to find a mechanism to help the LOR as money was very tight in the years following the war. With much local protest Pier Head station along with all of the others on the LOR closed completely on the 30th of December 1956. The line was demolished the following year and nothing remains of it at Pier Head.
To see the other
stations on the Liverpool Overhead Railway click on the station
name: Dingle,
Herculaneum Dock,
Toxteth Dock,
Brunswick Dock,
Wapping Dock,
Canning, James
Street, Princes Dock,
Clarence Dock,
Nelson Dock, Sandon
Dock, Huskisson
Dock, Canada
Dock, Brocklebank
Dock, Langton
Dock, Alexandra
Dock, Gladstone
Dock & Seaforth
Sands
Click here
for a brief history of the Liverpool Overhead Railway
|
Home Page 
