User:Redrose64/Railway Electrification prior to 1956

Railway Electrification prior to 1956 in Great Britain was slow, except in the London area.

Progress
In 1956, the first electrifications under the 1955 Modernisation Plan were begun. Prior to this there had been:


 * London and the South-East
 * Outside the South-East
 * 3 May 1903 Mersey Railway - throughout
 * First UK electrification outside the London area
 * 22 March 1904 Lancashire and Yorkshire Rly - services from Liverpool;
 * 29 March 1904 North Eastern Rly - North Tyneside;
 * summer 1908 Midland Railway - Lancaster-Morecambe-Heysham
 * First AC electrification in the UK, and first overhead electrification other than tramways (check- Newcastle Quayside)
 * 29 July 1913 Bury-Holcombe Brook, 3500V DC overhead. This became 1200V DC overhead in 1917, and 1200V DC third-rail as per Manchester-Bury 29 March 1918.
 * 1 July 1915 NER - Shildon-Newport 1500V DC overhead
 * 17 April 1916 L&YR - Manchester-Bury 1200V DC third-rail
 * There were two peculiarities about the Bury route; (a) the pickup method - the collector shoe pressed against the side of the rail, not the top;
 * and (b) the high voltage - third rail electrification was rarely above 750V [the SR lines west of Pirbright Junction were (and I believe still are) 850V]. There is a scale cross-section of the Bury line conductor rail on p.173, and on p.174 there is a diagram showing how this was mounted on the sleepers via insulators, and protected against accidental personal contact.
 * 1931 Manchester-Altrincham 1500V DC overhead.
 * The special thing about the Manchester-Altrincham route was that it was the first UK application of a 1500V DC overhead system for passenger trains. The NER Shildon route was also 1500V DC overhead, but only the freight trains were electrically hauled.
 * 1938 former Wirral Railway
 * 1949 Liverpool Street-Shenfield 1500V DC