Just found out the tower at Hamilton sq was a water tower for the lifts using hydraulics There was also a tower at James st but was destroyed during the war
"The two stations closest to the river — James Street and Hamilton Square — are deep level caverns 121.9m long, 15.2m wide and 9.75m high. There are staircases with more than 160 steps, but passengers are conveyed to the surface by lifts originally operated hydraulically. The hydraulic power came from 45 cubic metre capacity water tanks atop two of the tallest towers (52m high) ever built at British railway stations. Each station has three lifts capable of carrying 100 people, designed by William Edmund Rich, which were converted to electrical operation later"
I think you must be going for the record in reviving topics - only 8 years since the last post.
Anyway, I have a drawing that was just waiting for the right moment to come along, so take a look at the James St lifts cross-section, pre-WW2, attached below.
Nice one Norton, thanks for sharing Anymore like this please start a thread (or revive one)
Originally Posted by Norton
I think you must be going for the record in reviving topics - only 8 years since the last post.
If you don't start one, I will find one
There is just tons of interesting topics to read through in these history forums and I haven't scratched the surface yet Subscribing to user plus has opened up a very large door If I don't find some more work soon, expect me to bring up a topic even older
I think you must be going for the record in reviving topics - only 8 years since the last post.
Anyway, I have a drawing that was just waiting for the right moment to come along, so take a look at the James St lifts cross-section, pre-WW2, attached below.
I remember the old lifts which were large wooden structures with benches around the sides.They were slow moving and rocked a bit from side to side. They were not converted but replaced by electric lifts.
You probably noticed the adverts for the newspapers near the top, but did you notice what was on the very top of the tower? It looks like a giant water cylinder on its side.
In fact, there seems to have been three of them, looking at a couple of 'Britain from the Air' photo's from before the war (prompted by the Mersey Tunnel topic.)
The top one is sat on top of the other two. Three makes sense as there were three lifts, so there could have been a header tank for each.
Despite the detailed drawing, there is very little about what is in the tower or how it operated.
I remember the old lifts which were large wooden structures with benches around the sides.They were slow moving and rocked a bit from side to side. They were not converted but replaced by electric lifts.
What year were they converted to electricity joney?
Norton, I tried zooming into the signs on the tower and can only make out 'Daily' What is the rest?
Regrading the water cylinder, very interesting. I had not noticed it. I thought the water would have been encased in a tank inside the tower
I thought that any water tanks up there would be protected from the weather as well, but these look almost like the ones on the roofs of houses in hotter parts of the world. They are parallel with the road and sit in triangular formation with the top one sitting in the space between the bottom two.
I suppose that had we got the rest of the article it would have detailed other parts of the station building.
The signs are for 'The Daily Dispatch' and 'The Daily Sketch' and seem to look like they would have been illuminated (like on Lime Street) and probably visible from Church Street.
It seems that Hamilton Square station did not have these additions Here is one from July 1934 http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw045191 To me, the James Street ones look like some kind of air compressors ???????
It seems that Hamilton Square would also have had water tanks for the lifts as they were supposed to be the same as at James St. With a deeper lift shaft you would expect larger tanks. Perhaps they were designed to be hidden by the brickwork at the top.
"In each of the stations there are three lifts, each arranged to accommodate one hundred passengers at a time. The time occupied on the vertical journey in about forty-five seconds, so that a trainload of three hundred passengers can be brought from platform level to the surface in one minute. The lift consists of a room, or cage, 20 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 8 foot to 10-foot-high, with seats on each side, and is fitted with handsome panelled sides of teak and American ash, and with a lantern-roof surrounded by mirrors, with a central gas-lamp.
The cage is supported on a stiff frame of iron girders, riveted to a central forged-steel cross, which at its centre is fitted to a hollow steel ram, 18 inches in diameter, which rises and falls in a strong hydraulic cylinder suspended in the well. A safety-bolt, passing through the ram, is firmly secured to the floor of the cage.
In the tower at the stations, at a height of about 120 feet above the pavement, there is a supply-tank holding 10,000 gallons of water, and at a depth of about 60 foot below the pavement there is a waste tank of similar capacity. The hydraulic pumping machinery is fixed on a floor intermediate between the upper and the lower booking-hall in the station. In the engine-room at James Street there are three marine boilers, and three pairs of Messrs. Easton and Anderson’s duplex pumping-engines, each of which is capable of raising 30,000 gallons of water per hour, from the waste-tank below, back to the supply-tank in the tower above. These engines are also so connected that they can supply the lifts direct, either acting in unison with or without the supply-tank. An arrangement of interchangeable valves and pipes in the engine-room enables any main pipe, pumping-engine or lift to be shut off readily without disturbing any other part of the system. The lifts were severely tested by General Hutchinson of the Board of Trade on the 29th of December, with loads equal to about one hundred and forty passengers concentrated on one side of the cage, and they stood these tests most satisfactorily."
Unfortunately, I've not found a better picture or explanation of why the tanks should be different - yet..
Putting the two pictures side by side, we can see how similar and how different the two hydraulic towers were.
Note the attention to detail by the artist and engraver. On the far left of the horizon we can see Bidston windmill and on the right, in Bridge Street, we have a horse-drawn tram.
It seems that Hamilton Square would also have had water tanks for the lifts as they were supposed to be the same as at James St. With a deeper lift shaft you would expect larger tanks. Perhaps they were designed to be hidden by the brickwork at the top.
Are you sure they are 3 water tanks at the top of James st? They do not look big enough to haul a huge weight of 100 plus people They have the shape similar to air/water compressors, possibly a pump What is interesting is they are not at Hamilton Square
You can understand the differences on the outside of the towers but don't you think the inner workings would have been done almost identical having being tested and built for the exact same purpose which makes me think those tanks on James st are a later addition
Originally Posted by Norton
Putting the two pictures side by side, we can see how similar and how different the two hydraulic towers were.
Note the attention to detail by the artist and engraver. On the far left of the horizon we can see Bidston windmill and on the right, in Bridge Street, we have a horse-drawn tram.
I zoom in as much as I am able and just about make out the windmill, your eyes must be good Norton I cannot even make out any horses never mind a drawn carriage
By the way Norton, cracking link you posted, some heavy reading for later, saved in favourites
Here is a picture from 1948 of the refurbished James St station Link http://www.liverpool-city-group.com...sb=17&so=descend&view_records=Go Notice the 2 tanks on the roof which seem similar, or maybe the original ones from the old tower What year was the passenger lifts electrified?
![[Linked Image]](http://liverpoolremembrance.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/5/6/2956791/3016647.jpg)
I cannot even make out any horses never mind a drawn carriage ![[Linked Image]](http://www.liverpool-city-group.com/liverpool/landmarks/images/liverpool-landmarks-l2-james-street-railway-station-1948.jpg)
