The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) built suburban electric stock for lines in Liverpool and Manchester.
The line between Liverpool to Southport began using electric multiple units (EMUs) on 22 March 1904, using a third rail 625 V DC.
It was increasingly popular for commuting and pleasure trips, but suffered from competition from the Cheshire Lines Railway.
Electric traction was seen as cleaner than steam locomotives, and with coal prices rising, potentially cheaper.
At the time, concerns were being expressed, especially in the railway press, that engineering developments in Britain was being overtaken by electrification projects in America and Switzerland.
Preston-based Dick, Kerr and Company was responsible for the traction systems and the L&YR built the rolling stock.
The L&YR built a power station at Formby, generating 7.5 kV AC, conveyed to four sub-stations by underground cables.
Electrification meant the journey time of stopping trains to Southport was reduced from 54 to 37 minutes.
The L&YR built special lightweight EMUs and from 1906 began running services over the LOR from Dingle to Southport and Aintree.
This had four 150 horsepower (110 kW) motors and could pick up current from the third rail on the main line or from overhead wires in Aintree and North Mersey yards.
[6][7][additional citation(s) needed] From 1913, an experimental electric service operated between Bury and Holcombe Brook.
Sixty-six cars were built at Newton Heath works, the electrical equipment having been supplied by Dick, Kerr & Co.
[15] Passengers were not provided with any means of stopping the train in an emergency, but could at least move into an adjacent carriage!
There was a bell-push (operated by a key) at every door – a particularly convenient feature on the Bury to Holcombe Brook line, on which the guard, perhaps rather unusually in that era, collected the fares from passengers boarding at intermediate stations.
Opening was delayed by World War I: the first public services ran on 17 April 1916, and 16 weeks later the steam trains were withdrawn.
[citation needed] A four-wheeled, battery-electric shunter was built as a low priority job between 1917 and 1918 and used at Clifton power station.