These points must be touched upon in order to understand why so long a period elapsed between the pioneer electric railways and the real electric railway movement as we know it to-day. They also serve to explain the prominent part which American and German firms took in electrical developments here. Engineering and legislative conditions combined to retard electric railway enterprise so that it did not begin to take firm root in Great Britain until about 1890, and did not attain to any conspicuous growth until the beginning of the twentieth century. Until after 1890 the only electric railways in Great Britain taking power from steam dynamos were those at Brighton Beach, Ryde Pier (Isle of Wight) and Southend Pier, opened in 1883, 1886 and 1890 respectively. These were all, of course, of short length. The Brighton Beach railway, designed and constructed by Mr Magnus Volk, was a unique piece of work. The rails were laid on heavy concrete blocks below high-water mark; and the cars were platforms raised on a light iron structure. Power was conveyed to the cars from wires hung on posts like the standards of a tramway on the trolley system. The unusual sensation of travelling over the water was enjoyed by hundreds of people until the difficulty of maintaining the track (owing to the erosive action of the waves) led to the railway being abandoned and another line of more ordinary character being laid on the level of the undercliff roadway. The first indication of the genuine electric railway movement was given in 1893, when the Liverpool Overhead Railway was opened. This line was constructed to afford communication along the line of docks fringing the Mersey. The track was carried on a continuous bridge in order to avoid obstruction between the docks and the streets behind; and being overhead, there were serious disadvantages attached to the use of steam locomotives. Electric locomotives were therefore employed. In this case, it should be noted, electricity was not adopted because it was more economical or efficient than steam. The reason lay with the peculiar situation of the railway. A similar reason decided the promoters of the City and South London Railway to try electric locomotives on their line. This railway, which was opened in 1890, was the first deep level or 'tube' railway in the world. Moreover, it was constructed and equipped throughout by British engineers, and at a time when the art of tunnelling was much less advanced than it is now. In the later and more imposing development of tube railways in London, the foresight and enterprise displayed by the pioneers of the City and South London Railway are apt to be overlooked. It was, however, the success of the original line from the Monument to Clapham which made it possible to raise capital for the Central London Railway (opened in 1900) and for the extensive tube railway system organised by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London.