Dingle railway station

Dingle
Dingle
	Dingle in 2005
General information
Location	Liverpool; England
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Liverpool Overhead Railway
Key dates
21 December 1896	Station opened
30 December 1956	Station closed

Dingle railway station is a disused underground railway station located on the Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR), at the south end of Park Road, Dingle, Liverpool. It was the only below ground station on the line.^[1] Trains accessed the station via a half-mile tunnel, bored from the cliff face at Herculaneum Dock to Park Road. It is the last remaining part of the Overhead railway, with the surface entrance still standing. The former platform and track area were in use as a garage called Roscoe Engineering until 2015.^[1]

History

The extension to a new southern terminus at Dingle was opened on 21 December 1896^[2] with the first trains leaving from Dingle station at 5am that morning, carrying a large number of dock workers.^[3] There were plans for the tunnel to extend further inland with a few more stations when funds were available.

On the evening of 23 December 1901 a motor on a train pulling into the station fused, causing large amounts of sparking, which ignited a stack of wooden sleepers by the railside. The resulting fire spread to the train carriages and station and resulted in the deaths of six people; the train's guard and driver, the station foreman, a carriage cleaner, and two passengers.^[4]^[5] The general manager of the railway stated that the fusing would "scarcely have caused £5 worth of damage" if not for the wind which was blowing into the tunnel and fanning the flames.^[6] The station was closed for more than a year.^[7]

Closure

Along with the rest of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, the station closed permanently on 30 December 1956.

At approximately 11:30am on 24 July 2012, part of the tunnel near Dingle railway station collapsed. A number of homes above this section of the tunnel were evacuated.^[8]^[9] In October 2013 work commenced to repair the tunnel,^[10] with residents allowed back into their homes in February 2014.^[11]

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Terminus		Liverpool Overhead Railway		Herculaneum Dock

References

^ ^a ^b Weston, Alan (11 July 2011). "Hidden Liverpool day one: Dingle railway station". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
^ Bolger, Paul (22 November 2004). "Site Name: Liverpool Overhead Railway & Dingle Station". Subterranea Britannica. Retrieved 19 September 2007.
^ "Liverpool Overhead Railway: The Southern Extension Opened for Traffic". Liverpool Echo. 21 December 1896. p. 4.
^ "Appalling Disaster in Liverpool: Overhead Railway on Fire". Liverpool Echo. 24 December 1901. p. 4.
^ "The Dockers' Umbrella: City railway served Liverpool's busy port". Liverpool Echo. 23 April 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
^ "The Overhead Railway Disaster: The Terrible Scene This Morning". Liverpool Echo. 24 December 1901. p. 5.
^ Wright, Paul (2010). Lost Termini of North West England. Silver Link Publishing. p. 117. ISBN 9781857943160.
^ "Toxteth train tunnel collapse investigated". BBC News. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
^ "Homes near Toxteth tunnel collapse checked for safety". BBC News. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
^ "Work to begin on repairing collapsed Liverpool Overhead Railway tunnel". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
^ "Dingle tunnel collapse families anger at repair costs". BBC News. 12 May 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2015.