| Saltburn Cliff Lift | |
|---|---|
| Info | |
| Locale | Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire, England |
| Transit type | Funicular railway |
| Number of stations | 2 |
| Operation | |
| Began operation | 28 June, 1884 |
| Operator(s) | Redcar and Cleveland |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) |
The Saltburn Cliff Lift is a funicular railway located in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is the oldest operating water-balance cliff lift in the United Kingdom.[1][2]
Contents |
The Stockton and Darlington Railway arrived in Saltburn from Redcar on 17 August, 1861, prompting a growth in day and holiday travellers.[3] Like many seaside resorts, this created a local business initiative, resulting in various pieces of construction, including the Saltburn Pier completed in 1869. Access to the pier from the town via the steep cliff top was difficult, so a solution was sought.
The Saltburn Pier company contracted John Anderson to engineer a solution, which was the wooden Cliff Hoist. Allowing up to 20 people to be placed in a wooden cage and then lowered by rope to beach level, it opened on 1 July, 1870, some 14 months after the opening of the pier. Approached from the town by a narrow walkway, the passengers then descended 120 feet (37 m), after water had been added to or taken away from a counterbalance tank.[1]
After the pier company was sold to the Middlesbrough Estate in August 1883, the new owners had the Cliff Hoist inspected by independent engineers, who condemned it due to numerous rotten timbers.[3] The Cliff Hoist was therefore demolished in late 1883.[4]
They commissioned Sir Richard Tangye's company, who had built the two earlier vertically inclined water powered funicular railways in Scarborough, to build a replacement. Tangye had appointed George Croydon Marks head of the lift department, in which role he was in charge of the design and installation at Saltburn.[5] Marks designed and constructed a funicular with a height of 120 feet (37 m) and a track length of 207 feet (63 m), creating a 71% incline.[1]
The two 10 person cars are each fitted with a 1,000 imperial gallons (4,500 L) water tank, and run on parallel standard gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) funicular railway tracks. Double steel wire ropes are attached to both cars, controlled by a brakeman in the upper station. The car at the top has its water tank filled until its mass exceeds the mass of the car at the bottom. It then travels down the incline, counter-balanced by the mass of the other car, which travels to the top, with the brakeman controlling safety and the speed of travel. When the car reaches the bottom, its water is released thus reducing the mass of the lower car, and pumped back up to the top of the cliff.
It is believed that the Cliff Lift opened on Saturday 28 June, 1884, but there was a period of inconsistent operation at the start. The opening of the Cliff Lift allowed the pier company to undertake an extension to that structure.[1]
The original cars, capable of seating 10-12 passengers, had stained-glass windows. But when the Cliff Lift was refurbished in 1955, the car bodies were replaced without these. When the wholly new aluminium cars were introduced in 1979, modelled on the original design, stained-glass windows were reinstated.[1]
Owned since post-World War II by the local council,[2] Marks design was so good, that beyond maintenance and refurbishment, little has changed since 1884.[4] In 1924 an electrically operated water pump was installed, and in 1998 the main winding wheel was replaced for the first time, together with the installation of a new hydraulic braking system.[1]