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59-541: Couplers) Couplers) The Kawasaki Heavy Industries & CRRC Qingdao Sifang T251 (Contract Turnkey 251) is the first generation electric multiple unit rolling stock in operation on the Thomson–East Coast line of Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, manufactured by a consortium of Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) and CRRC Qingdao Sifang (formerly CSR Qingdao Sifang) under Contract T251. 91 four-car medium-capacity trainsets were purchased by LTA for

118-642: A circular route, using the Hunts Cross to Southport line, however, these were never carried out. With fewer ships docking in Liverpool during the Great Depression , there was a reduction in usage of the Overhead Railway. Tourist tickets were offered from 1932, which also included visits to ocean liners that were moored at the docks, as part of a scheme to increase ticket sales, along with reduced prices, and

177-480: A double-track railway in the same year via the Liverpool Overhead Railway Act 1888 ( 51 & 52 Vict. c. cx). Engineers Sir Douglas Fox and James Henry Greathead were commissioned to design the railway . Steam traction was considered, and they considered fitting floors to the structure to prevent ash falling to the street below; however, this was seen as a fire risk. Sir William Forwood ,

236-608: A major advertising campaign. During the Second World War, the railway suffered extensively from bomb damage. As a purely local undertaking, it was not nationalised in 1948 with the rest of the British railway system. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the company started to modernise some of the carriages, incorporating sliding doors. The line continued to carry large numbers of passengers, especially dock workers. The Mersey Docks & Harbour Board maintained stringent controls over

295-535: A mile (800 m) north of Alexandra Dock station to the carriage sheds and workshops; no land closer to the station had been available. At the time of opening in February 1893, the railway had cost £510,000 and used a total of 25,000   tons of iron and steel. "I have great pleasure in associating myself in however humble and transitory a manner with this great and splendid undertaking. I am glad to be associated with an enterprise which I hope will carry still further

354-451: A number of world firsts: it was the first electric elevated railway, the first to use automatic signalling, electric colour light signals and electric multiple units , and was home to one of the first passenger escalators at a railway station. It was the second-oldest electric metro in the world, being preceded by the 1890 City and South London Railway . Originally spanning five miles (8 km) from Alexandra Dock to Herculaneum Dock ,

413-432: A part in the degradation of the structure. Alongside this deterioration of the railway, the company never made as much money as they had hoped. Passengers made shorter journeys over the years, with the average passenger value declining from 2 d in 1897 to 1.7d in 1913. Electric trams were introduced and competed with the railway, reducing the number of people using it, and changes to ticketing increased operational costs for

472-406: A report into the structure of the many bridges and viaducts showed that major repairs, which the company could not afford, were needed. The railway closed at the end of 1956, and despite public protests, the structures were dismantled in the following year. Since 1977, Liverpool's needs for rapid transit and commuter rail have been served by the partially underground Merseyrail network, which

531-725: The Bramley-Moore Dock . The ceremony was attended by the Earl of Lathom , Lord Kelvin , the mayor of Liverpool, the chairman of the Dock Board, directors and engineers, and a number of other guests, who traveled on an inaugural journey along the railway. The public services started on 6 March, with the first carriages leaving from the Alexandra Dock and Herculaneum Dock stations at 7   am. The Liverpool Echo reported that "the carriages appear to be fairly well filled with passengers." In

590-582: The Budd Metroliner . EMUs powered by fuel cells are under development. If successful, this would avoid the need for an overhead line or third rail . An example is Alstom ’s hydrogen -powered Coradia iLint . The term hydrail has been coined for hydrogen-powered rail vehicles. Many battery electric multiple units are in operation around the world, with the take up being strong. Many are bi-modal taking energy from onboard battery banks and line pickups such as overhead wires or third rail. In most cases

649-470: The Grand National , both held at Aintree Racecourse . Through services from Dingle to Southport were withdrawn in 1914. By 1914 the railway had served over 10 million passengers. To allow the through-running of L&YR trains, the conductor rail was moved to outside the running rails and the centre rail became the earth return until the 1920s. The first automatic train-stop system was installed on

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708-456: The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway branch line which passed above. Special lightweight passenger cars were designed with each having a driving motor car; one bogie was powered with a single 60 horsepower (45 kW) motor. They were placed on the track in the switchback section. The finished railway ran between Alexandra Dock and Herculaneum Dock , though the line extended another half

767-602: The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MD&HB) obtained powers in the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (Over-Head Railways) Act 1878 ( 41 & 42 Vict. c. cxcviii) for a single-line steam railway with passing loops at stations. The MD&HB applied to the Board of Trade based on this plan, but it was rejected and there was no further progress. The Liverpool Overhead Railway Company was formed in 1888 and obtained permission to build

826-605: The South Side Elevated Railroad (now part of the Chicago 'L' ) in 1897. In 1895, derived from his company's invention and production of direct current elevator control systems, Frank Sprague invented a multiple unit controller for electric train operation. This accelerated the construction of electric traction railways and trolley systems worldwide. Each car of the train has its own traction motors: by means of motor control relays in each car energized by train-line wires from

885-649: The Chairman of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, had studied American electric railways, and in 1891 electric traction was chosen. John William Willans was chosen as the primary contractor. Building began in 1889 and was completed in January 1893. The structure was to be made of wrought iron girders, positioned a nominal 16 ft (4.9 m) above the roadway. A total of 567 spans were erected, most being 50 ft (15 m) long. The standard gauge railway

944-490: The LOR staff joined British Railways for work after its closure. The railway was replaced by a bus service operated by Liverpool Corporation who purchased 60 new buses for the route. The price of a workman's return fare subsequently increased from 8 d to 1 s as workers were forced to use bus services. Demolition of the structure commenced on 23 September 1957, and all 80 acres (32 ha) of elevated track were removed by January

1003-486: The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway at Seaforth for the purposes of transporting coal to Herculaneum Dock. The lack of development or rescue by the board was at least in part due to its determination to restrict its activities to those that directly impacted the dock. The railway was carried mainly on iron viaducts, with a corrugated iron decking onto which the tracks were laid. It was vulnerable to corrosion, especially as

1062-494: The Museum of Liverpool, and the only surviving first-class modernised carriage, No 7, was taken on by Coventry Railway Centre. On 24 July 2012, a portion of the terminal tunnel near Dingle collapsed. The railway used electric units with passenger accommodation and an electric motor in the same unit. Any number could be coupled together with all motors controlled by the driver. Built between 1892 and 1899 by Brown Marshall & Co,

1121-459: The Southport branch of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway were made available, with revised fares and timetables. The L&YR built some special lightweight electric stock and from 1906 began running services from Dingle to Southport and Aintree. Regular services to Aintree were withdrawn in 1908, and after this special trains ran only twice a year, on Jump Sunday and the following Friday for

1180-620: The T251 turnkey contract to the Kawasaki Heavy Industries & CRRC Qingdao Sifang (formerly CSR Qingdao Sifang) consortium was briefly politicised in Singapore , when the defects from the relatively new C151A trains constructed by the same consortium were made public on 5 July 2016. This was after Gerald Giam from the Workers Party commenting through an official Facebook post doubting

1239-601: The Thomson-East Coast line in 2014 and the first set was delivered on 25 May 2018. Seven additional trains were supposed to be procured for the RTS Link as both the Singapore and Malaysian governments agreed to both lines sharing largely identical technical specifications. Since then, a new agreement signed on 30 July 2020 meant that these trains would not be built and will be replaced by LRT trains. The tender for trains under

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1298-448: The ancillary equipment required per set) while allowing all cars to be powered, unlike a motor-trailer combination. Each car has only one control cab, located at the outer end of the pair, saving space and expense over a cab at both ends of each car. Disadvantages include a loss of operational flexibility, as trains must be multiples of two cars, and a failure on a single car could force removing both it and its partner from service. Some of

1357-641: The batteries are charged via the electric pickup when operating on electric mode. EMUs, when compared with electric locomotives , offer: Electric locomotives, when compared to EMUs, offer: Liverpool Overhead Railway The Liverpool Overhead Railway (known locally as the Dockers' Umbrella or Ovee ) was an overhead railway in Liverpool that operated along the Liverpool Docks and opened in 1893 with lightweight electric multiple units . The railway had

1416-548: The company. A full-time maintenance team was employed solely for the Overhead Railway, but struggled to keep up with repairs, and costs began to rise steeply during the 1950s. In 1955, a survey discovered that repairs would be necessary in five years at a cost of £2 million. The company could not afford such costs and looked for financial support, from the Liverpool Corporation , the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board and British Railways . A number of attempts to rescue

1475-458: The competition from trams. In the early 20th century, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway L&YR was electrifying its routes out of Liverpool Exchange . A connection was built from the L&;YR Seaforth & Litherland station to a new station beside Seaforth Sands. The railway became popular with tourists. A 1902 Liverpool guidebook devoted a whole chapter to viewing and visiting the docks via

1534-491: The contract turnkey 251 was closed on 15 November 2013 with six bids. The Land Transport Authority has shortlisted all of them and the tender results were published on 28 May 2014. Kawasaki will be responsible for the overall project management, design, manufacturing of bogies and procurement of major components. CRRC Qingdao Sifang will be in charge of manufacturing, final fitting and assembly of complete MRT trains and factory testing. Kawasaki (Singapore) will be responsible for

1593-547: The decision by the Land Transport Authority to award the subsequent contracts, specifically both the design and supply of C151C and T251 rail cars to the same consortium in 2015. This was despite the Land Transport Authority and operator SMRT Trains being officially acknowledged on the C151A crack defects as early as 2013. Electric multiple unit EMUs are popular on commuter, and suburban rail networks around

1652-604: The delivery of complete MRT trains to the depot, on-site testing and commissioning. The T251 trains have a livery of yellow and burnt sienna stripes running around the cars, similar to C951(A) trains, which bear cerulean blue and blue stripes. They include several features unique to this rolling stock, such as: Two of the T251 trains, sets 2012 and 2013 were equipped with automatic track inspection system, found specifically on cars 20123 and 20133. This system includes cameras, lasers, and sensors to detect track defects such as rail cracks, missing fasteners, or foreign objects on

1711-439: The early days of the railway there were a number of injuries and at least one fatality as a result of passengers and conductors overestimating the height of the railway while standing up on the top deck of open-top buses. Realising that the railway was receiving low traffic outside of working hours, the line was extended northwards to Seaforth Sands on 30 April 1894 in order to reach more residential areas. The extension brought

1770-457: The extension from Herculaneum Dock being achieved with a 200 ft (61 m) lattice girder bridge and a half-mile (800 m) tunnel through the sandstone cliff to Park Road. The railway's contractor, J.W. Willans, was appointed as its chief engineer. He specialised in building and running electric railways, and in 1902, newer and more powerful electric motors were fitted to the trains in order to reduce service times in order to keep up with

1829-441: The extra equipment needed to transmit electric power to the train can be difficult. Multiple unit train control was first used in the 1890s. The Liverpool Overhead Railway opened in 1893 with two-car electric multiple units, controllers in cabs at both ends directly controlling the traction current to motors on both cars. The multiple unit traction control system was developed by Frank Sprague and first applied and tested on

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1888-527: The first to be installed in Britain. The track also contained automatic braking systems for trains which ran through a red light; the current could be automatically disconnected and air brakes applied. The seventeenth and final station was opened on 16 June 1930, at Gladstone Dock , between Alexandra Dock and Seaforth Sands stations. Plans were put forward to extend the line from Herculaneum Dock to St Michaels , and from Seaforth Sands to Sefton , to create

1947-439: The following year. Little evidence of the railway remains, but a small number of columns set into walls at Huskisson Dock , and the tunnel at Herculaneum Dock into Dingle station have survived, the latter being used as a garage. The foundations of the double deck swing bridge at Stanley Dock also remain. One of the original wooden carriages, on a recreated section of elevated track, remains on display with other artefacts at

2006-399: The front car all of the traction motors in the train are controlled in unison. The cars that form a complete EMU set can usually be separated by function into four types: power car, motor car, driving car, and trailer car. Each car can have more than one function, such as a motor-driving car or power-driving car. On third rail systems, the outer vehicles usually carry the pick up shoes with

2065-454: The line was closed on the evening of 30 December 1956. The final two scheduled trains were full of passengers and were timed to meet at Pier Head, where crowds gathered. It was the first electrified urban railway in the UK to close. A small number of staff were kept to maintain the buildings and structures, and it was hoped that a way of reopening the railway could be found. More than 100 members of

2124-425: The line, and was electrically operated. An arm on the trackside would be struck by each passing train, activating an electromagnet, resulting in a 'danger' signal being shown until the train had passed through the next station. As a result of automation, the number of staffed signal boxes was reduced to two. The line upgraded the signalling from semaphore to a Westinghouse permanent daytime colour-light system in 1921:

2183-828: The more famous electric multiple units in the world are high-speed trains: the Italian Pendolino and Frecciarossa 1000 , Shinkansen in Japan, the China Railway High-speed in China, ICE 3 in Germany, and the British Rail class 395 Javelin. The retired New York–Washington Metroliner service, first operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad and later by Amtrak , also featured high-speed electric multiple-unit cars, known as

2242-624: The motor vehicles receiving the current via intra-unit connections . Many modern two-car EMU sets are set up as twin or "married pair" units. While both units in a married pair are typically driving motors, the ancillary equipment (air compressor and tanks, batteries and charging equipment, traction power and control equipment, etc.) are shared between the two cars in the set. Since neither car can operate without its "partner", such sets are permanently coupled and can only be split at maintenance facilities. Advantages of married pair units include weight and cost savings over single-unit cars (due to halving

2301-420: The norm became a three-coach train consisting of two motor coaches with a trailer coach between. Two classes of accommodation were provided, originally first and second, becoming first and third in 1905 when the L&YR began running over the railway. The cars were open with transverse seating: the central trailer had leather-covered seats for first class passengers; third class passengers had wooden seating. As

2360-574: The opening ceremony. The first official journey on the railway took place on 7 January 1893, with the railway chairman taking engineers and other people of importance on a tour of the length of the railway. The railway was officially opened on 4 February the same year by the Leader of the Opposition the Marquis of Salisbury , who turned on the main electrical current during a ceremony at the generating station at

2419-477: The operation of the Overhead Railway for the duration of its operation. The board protected its own freight transport interests by including clauses in the Overhead Railway's enabling legislation to limit the weight of parcels that could be transported, and renewing the lease on it every seven years. The board blocked an attempt by the Liverpool Overhead Railway Company to extend its line to join

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2478-424: The original units had one 60 horsepower (45 kW) motor, but 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 being topped up at the termini. In the early days a single motor coach ran off-peak, but

2537-504: The overhead railway, and a 1930s poster described it as "the best way to see the finest docks in the world". As of 1919, a total of 18   million passengers used the Overhead Railway each year, 14   million passengers per year, even during the Second World War , and 9   million into the 1950s. From 1902, the journey end-to-end journey time was reduced to 22   minutes, but due to increased power and maintenance costs,

2596-462: The prosperity and power of Liverpool, and which will carry down the name of Liverpool to posterity as the place where a great mechanical undertaking first found its home... I will therefore, though with some fear and trembling, fulfil the injunctions of Sir William Forwood, and proceed to handle the electric machinery which is to set this line in motion. I only hope the result will be no different from what he anticipates." The Marquis of Salisbury at

2655-407: The railway and arrange a takeover took place over the next year but were ultimately unsuccessful. The company went into voluntary liquidation , despite still being reported to be profitable for its shareholders, and was relieved of its statutory obligation to operate passenger services with the Liverpool Overhead Railway Act 1956 ( 4 & 5 Eliz. 2 . c. lxxxii). Despite public protest,

2714-442: The railway was extended at both ends over the years of operation, as far south as Dingle and north to Seaforth & Litherland . A number of stations opened and closed during the railway's operation owing to relative popularity and damage, including air bombing during the Second World War . At its peak almost 20   million people used the railway every year. Being a local railway, it was not nationalised in 1948 . In 1955,

2773-411: The railway would have seemed an anomaly to those descending to the platform there which was underground in a tunnel. At least two alternative names for the railway existed: "Dockers' Umbrella"; and "ovee", a local slang term. As a result of the traffic, congestion, and overcrowding of the dock roads, many proposals were made for transport solutions. Rails were laid at Liverpool Docks in 1852, linking

2832-444: The road and goods railway. At Bramley-Moore Dock , the railway dropped to road level to pass under the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) coal tip branch. As the gradient was 1 in 40, this was known as the switchback . Originally the conductor rail was placed between the rails, energised at 500–525   volts DC . The power was supplied by a generating station at Bramley-Moore Dock that received its coal directly from

2891-459: The steam-operated Docks Railway operated beneath some sections, despite the locomotives being fitted with chimney cowls which were intended to deflect the steam from the structure. Parts of the decking had become rusty on the surface, caused by steam and soot from the dock locomotives that passed underneath, mixing with rainwater to form an acid that began to corrode the metalwork. Drainage blockages combined with grit and constant vibration also played

2950-469: The total length of the railway to 6 miles (10 km) and cost a total of £10,000. While the passengers had previously been primarily travelling to businesses and the city, the Seaforth extension resulted in a large increase in traffic from residents of the outer areas of Liverpool. An extension southwards from Herculaneum Dock to Dingle was opened on 21 December 1896. Dingle was the only underground station,

3009-638: The tracks. The coupling configuration of a T251 in revenue service is DM1–M–T–DM2. D stands for "driver's desk", M for "motor" and T for "trailer". Kawasaki and CRRC Qingdao Sifang (formerly CSR Qingdao Sifang) built sets 2001 – 2091. The car numbers of the trains range from 2001x to 2091x, where x depends on the carriage type. Individual cars are assigned a five-digit serial number. A complete four-car trainset consists of one trailer (T), one motor car (M) and two driving motor cars (DM1 & DM2) permanently coupled together. For example, set 2005 consists of carriages 20051, 20052, 20053 and 20054. The award of

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3068-489: The trains were then slowed down by six minutes in 1908, and the frequency of trains was increased to one every three minutes during peak times. By 1910, the operating hours were unrivaled, providing at least one train every 10   minutes from 4:45   am until 11:33   pm on weekdays. From 2 July 1905, Overhead Railway trains began running through to Seaforth & Litherland, and through connections and through bookings between Liverpool Overhead Railway stations and

3127-495: The voltage was 500 V, when they ran on the L&YR 630 V system the motors had to be in series mode. A three-car train was modernised in 1945–47; this involved 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 Liverpool Overhead Railway operated one steam locomotive, called Lively Polly, an inside-cylinder 0-4-0WT , which

3186-420: The warehouses and docks. Initially horses were used, for locomotives were banned because of the risk of fire. From 1859, passenger services were provided using adapted horse omnibuses ; the wheel flanges could be retracted to allow an omnibus to leave the tracks to overtake a goods train. By the 1880s there was an omnibus service every five minutes. An elevated railway was first proposed in 1852, and in 1878

3245-459: The world due to their fast acceleration and pollution-free operation, and are used on most rapid-transit systems. Being quieter than diesel multiple units (DMUs) and locomotive -hauled trains, EMUs can operate later at night and more frequently without disturbing nearby residents. In addition, tunnel design for EMU trains is simpler as no provision is needed for exhausting fumes, although retrofitting existing limited-clearance tunnels to accommodate

3304-458: Was formed from local suburban lines and new tunnel formed into a network, using no former infrastructure of the Liverpool Overhead Railway. The "overhead" refers to the railway being primarily constructed above street level, and not to " overhead line ", though there is no ambiguity as the electrical supply was third rail . When the LOR was extended to the Dingle terminus the "overhead" description of

3363-561: Was kept by the Museum of Liverpool and a modernised carriage was stored at the Electric Railway Museum, Warwickshire . The railway is featured in the films Waterfront and The Magnet (both 1950), and in the final scenes of The Clouded Yellow (1951), as the character played by Jean Simmons uses it to travel to one of the docks. Extensive archive footage appears in Of Time and

3422-458: Was laid on longitudinal timbers on the elevated sections. Four bridges were constructed to cross wider streets. Hydraulic lifting sections were provided at Brunswick , Sandon and Langton Docks to allow goods access to the docks. To allow shipping access to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal , at Stanley Dock a bridge was replaced by a combined lifting-and-swing bridge, the lower lifting section carrying

3481-585: Was originally built in Leeds by Kitson for the West Lancashire Railway . It was used to de-ice the track and haul the maintenance train from its acquisition in the 1890s until it was sold to Rea Ltd, a coal merchant in Birkenhead in 1949. It was replaced by a Ruston diesel engine, which was bought in 1947. Both were fitted with the proprietary coupling used by the Overhead Railway's EMUs. An original train

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