Saltburn Cliff Lift
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| 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 | |
| System length | 207 feet (63 m) |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
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 world.
The arrived in Saltburn from Redcar on 17 August 1861, prompting a growth in day and holiday travellers. 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. Approaching the hoist 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.
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. The Cliff Hoist was therefore demolished in late 1883.
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. 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.
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