Work on the Railway started in October 1889. The Railway was completed in January 1893 and was formally opened in February 1893. It was the world’s first electric elevated railway and the first with electric automatic signals. The railway line stretched from the Seaforth Carriage Shed to Herculaneum Dock, public services began and ended at Alexandra Dock.

At the beginning there were eleven stations, a short extension to Seaforth sands was added. A decision was made to extend the line South to Dingle in order to do this, a half a mile tunnel had to be bored high in the Sandstone rock near the Herculaneum station.

During World War II the dockland area was damaged but was quickly repaired to continue the smooth running of the Railway. At its peak in 1919 it carried 18 million passengers. It also had the nick-name of “The Dockers Umbrella” because the Dockers use to walk under the Railway from Dock to Dock sheltering from the wind and rain.

Several rescue attempts and public protests followed, the Mersey Docks & Harbour Company and Liverpool City Council were approach for financial assistance, both refused.

In 1955 the Railway was in desperate need of repair and the bill was estimated to be over 2 million pounds. No solution was found and it was decided to close the Overhead Railway for good. On the 30th December 1956 The Overhead Railway was closed.

By Janaury 1959 the Liverpool Overhead Railway had disappeared, and with it another Liverpool institution was lost forever. The only traces of the Railway that remain today are the orginal supporting columns built into the dock wall behind Wapping Dock. Cleaned for the Garden Festival in 1984, the tunnel entrance to the Dingle is the most impressive sight of what now remains only a distant memory for those privileged enough to have travel on the Overhead Railway.