A layout in progress, slow progress...

  Slowly getting back to something more like normal now, and in the loft as expected the Hall which was due to take the milk empties back to Granby and Shrewsbury has developed a fault. Birkenhead shed can fettle it, but not in time to take the milk empties….. so that means it will probably work one of the late/overnight freights heading South. It could wait ’til the morning, perhaps taking one of the early London trains as far as Chester. All a bit academic now as the clocks go back to 1956 at midnight! So guess what Chester shed has sent up to 6C to cover for the Hall…..


   
  â€¦ just arrived at the coal stage, still with a slightly duff boiler stay – on the other side of course, it will then be turned before heading to the marshalling yard to pick up the milk empties (in the background) ready for the 7.00pm departure to Granby and Shrewsbury.  Eventually I’ll get around to renumbering the mogul to one of the Croes Newydd engines.

  Things in the loft are also starting to get back to something like normal.

  Keith

  S’mae Peter

  You are absolutely right, and I have decided that a new engine really should only be considered if it is offered at a bargain price. ‘Bargain’ as it used to be used, to mean around 35-40% off the list price. OK, I know I’ve broken my own rule with the Mogul, but further loco purchases will also be limited to definitely no more than one per year or longer, unless somebody starts offering true bargains again. To be honest I think I’ve got sufficient motive power now to run Woodside from the early 50s up to closure in 1967, that said the last few years are really not very interesting when the line was effectively reduced to a simple commuter branch service to Chester - although the freight side of things would then take centre stage. There are still a few gaps I’d like to fill, the Fowler SWB 0-6-0 Dock Tank and Kitson 0-4-0ST, but I’ve got Jinties and a Pug (on loan from Bank Hall, I can always come up with an excuse!) which are reaonable-ish substitutes.

  Keith

[user=1798]Woodside[/user] wrote:

 Slowly getting back to something more like normal now, and in the loft as expected the Hall which was due to take the milk empties back to Granby and Shrewsbury has developed a fault. Birkenhead shed can fettle it, but not in time to take the milk empties….. so that means it will probably work one of the late/overnight freights heading South. It could wait ’til the morning, perhaps taking one of the early London trains as far as Chester. All a bit academic now as the clocks go back to 1956 at midnight! So guess what Chester shed has sent up to 6C to cover for the Hall…..

Hi Keith

There is no rush getting it fixed Keith  :shock:……apart from travelling back in time I am still working on the Down Parcels routine which is an essential precursor of the Up Milk Empties……..it creates the space in the storage yard at Shrewsbury  ……..hopefully before Christmas. :roll:

I do hope you are continuing to recover from your concussion issue. It all sounds rather unpleasant. I am banned from tall ladders now…….very frustrating with a bumper crop of plums to be picked.

Best wishes

  S’mae John

  Apologies for the delay in replying, time in the loft has been somewhat limited by the very warm spell of weather we have had of late. We have also been somewhat distracted by trying to get to grips with our first ever smart phone, beginning to think we would have been better off not bothering!

  Fear not John, I don’t do ‘rush’…. and although the milk empties are timetabled to depart in around an hour and a quarter of layout time, I suspect you will have the Down Parcels sorted long before the newly acquired Mogul gets to the marshalling yard – and even then it will likely be some considerable time before it actually heads south! Thankfully you didn’t specify which Christmas…

  Yes, slowly recovering, thanks, good days and bad days. No plums here, but the gutters will need clearing before winter once the leaves have fallen – very definitely down as a good day job! We do have a bumper crop of blackberries and just a few apples, but no ladders involved.

  Keith

Hi Keith

Have just the day travelling from ours through Liverpool to Chester via Rock Ferry and Hooton.  Nice journey.  Having passed through Port Sunlight, I wondered if there would be room in your timetable for a Port Sunlight-Blackpool day excursion.  Have visited PS and it seems that the Levers would have laid on a train for their workers to have a lovely time up the tower and on the donkeys!!

Just a thought

Barry

  S’mae Barry

  Apologies for the delay, been searching for my ’61 timetables just to check something…. all through the loft, the house, the main shed… then noticed that all the winter timetables were on the shelf above Woodside station….. with the spines facing the wall, not on show as usual. Noone else to blame for putting them back the wrong way, but had me fooled for a few days. Still I have found a few other ‘long lost’ things in the process! Some of the summer timetables however remain on the missing list.

  As to a special, no problem – I’ve always had a ‘special’ in mind to allow the odd visiting loco onto the layout, so watch this space. Back in the 60s the run to Blackpool from Birkenhead was a bit of a trip, via Helsby, Warrington, Wigan, Preston – a lot harder than it is now, possibly a trip to the Illuminations would be more suitable, avoiding an early start. In the 60s a trip to the North Wales coast would possibly be more appropriate – there were no direct services from Birkenhead to the North Wales Coast in Winter 1961, only by changing in Chester – in the three months of the summer timetable I think there were some through services from Woodside, but I cannot confirm that until I find the timetable. Doesn’t really matter for the layout, as irrespective of which timetable/destination all would travel through Hooton and then disappear down to the fiddle yard, but I do need to get my facts straight. I am assuming that irrespective of destination all specials would start from Woodside as I’m sure there would be a few employees living on the other side of the Mersey, and I’m not sure about the layout of Port Sunlight station, but I imagine just up and down platforms.

  A bit late for this run of the timetable, definitely next time – I may even manage to produce a special board for the loco, and window stickers for the rake of coaches….

  Completely off topic, the Hornby ‘Clan’ does look rather good, brings back early 60s memories of cycling over to Maghull station on a Friday evening to see the express from Glasgow passing through, complete with chime whistle, due Exchange Station at 7.17 – always a Clan on Friday. But the price….. I shall just admire it from afar!

 With the weather ‘improving’ I should be able to make progress with the timetable, after rather a long delay.

  Keith

Hi Keith

There is clearly space on the line down to Chester for 4 tracks in most places.  The station at Port Sunlight does appear basic and that is reflected on old maps (Scottish National Library series).  However, just south of Port Sunlight, there were a lot of sidings and junctions joining the main line with the soap works itself suggesting that an excursion train could be stored prior to the run North for Wales, Blackpool or even Southport!!

If there is nothing in the timetable, you could always blame Thomas Cook and one of his chartered excursions that only appeared in the Special Notices  

Barry

  S’mae Barry

  This continuing settled weather is playing havoc with my time in the loft. About fifteen years ago we did go on an organised trip to Port Sunlight, guided tour around the village, on the way home we passed Port Sunlight station. From memory (shaky at the best of times) it was on an embankment, and I think just two platforms, that’s not to say the line wasn’t four track. I’m more certain about the end of the four track section south of Hooton where the line to Helsby goes off to the left. Back then at least from there it was just two track through to Chester.

  Southport would have been a little easier than Blackpool, diverting to the Wigan Wallgate line just before North Western – then a very fast, level run across to Southport. I often saw specials coming up from the South doing just that at weekends in my trainspotting days at North Western.

  I’ll stick to departing any specials from Woodside, as with my set up any departure/arrival at any station before Hooton has to happen from the coach sidings at Woodside – as is the case with all the peak hour arrivals and departures at Rock Ferry – so for a special I think it will look better to depart from the Station itself. When I was at Liverpool the Transport Society organised a special starting from Woodside, finishing at Liverpool Riverside, traversing mainly goods lines. Most folk joined the train at Rock Ferry after taking the electric train from Central (Low Level), I joined the keener passengers and took the ferry, boarding the train at Woodside – that was probably the last time I took the ferry ’cross the Mersey and used Woodside station.

Keith
   

If you put one on, I’d love to take an excursion from Southport to Blackpool. :doublethumb
Getting the train to Blackpool from Southport was an unthinkable task when I was younger as the direct line was removed. You’d either need to head to Liverpool or Ormskirk first before heading around via Preston to Blackpool. There was at one point a hovercraft which used to do the journey. 

  S’mae Chris

  Now that you have mentioned it, I do remember the hovercraft – not all that reliable and never really caught on as I recall. Even with the direct line gone, still there in my time (it closed in 1964), it wasn’t too bad – straight to Wigan Wallgate from Southport, then across the road to Wigan North Western, up to Preston and across to Blackpool. If you were really lucky, especially during the summer timetable, you could catch one of the rare direct services to Blackpool at North Western. I assume the Southport to Manchester, via Wallgate, service is still running today – for a while back in the mid 70s I was a regular commuter on that line (from Wallgate to Salford/Pendleton) – memories, memories….

Keith
    

Keith

Only this week, the local rag reports that we will lose our Southport-Manchester Piccadilly service.  It will now terminate at Oxford Road.  OK for getting into Manchester but rubbish for any sort of connection.  Looks like another one of those inter-regional things where the operator can guarantee getting to Oxford Road on time but delays getting into Picc mean that they have to shell out on refunds too often.

Bring back British Railways (he says although certainly not from any political standpoint).

Public transport, of any kind, is currently a mess !!

I've just shelved an idea of coming over to UK by public transport next month simply because flights either depart/arrive at  stupid times or they don't go to where I want them to go …………..

Driving over is so convenient - if only it didn't require a re-mortgage to pay for the trip !!

 I think I'll just stay put until summer flight schedules come in next spring plus, there's talk of a new rail route opening around Paris negating the need to cross the city from Montparnasse (where the TGV from Bordeaux arrives) to Gare du Nord (from where Eurostar leaves for UK).  If that happens, then going by train will become a real competitor.

And to think, less than 10 years ago I used to say how easy and cheap flying from here to UK was.
 

  S’mae Barry

  I vaguely remember talk of trains going into Piccadilly just before I left Salford in ‘85, wouldn’t have been a problem for me, but  by then I had gone back to using the car as I was spending less and less time in the office. Poor old British Rail had many flaws, but looking at the rail system we appear to have today with the separate companies ‘cooperating’, I’d have BR back tomorrow!

  Keith

  S’mae Peter
  The problem for Public Transport today, particularly the railways, is that it has little, if any, connection with the Public – feels like it is there purely to generate income for the companies. Any benefit to the public is just a bonus which will almost certainly be removed when the next timetables are published…… I’ve never been a fan of the way in which BR was privatised.

Keith

Without wishing to make any political statements Keith, I absolutely agree that none of the "public" services should have been privatised - postal services, railways, electricity and water should all be there for the benefit of the public who naturally, pay for them - but on a "not for profit" basis instead of them being siphoned off by the shareholders instead of being reinvested. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for private enterprise being profit driven but the "service" industries should not be "private".

Whilst obviously I seldom use the railways in UK, when I do, the ticket prices are eye watering.  I can fly from this part of France to London and back, several times, for the cost of a single rail ticket from London to York.  Yes, rail cards and advance booking is cheaper but that involves planning well ahead and that to me, rather defeats the object of "public" transport.  As you say, they grab cash whenever and wherever they can and serving the public is an afterthought.

The other issue is what you get for your money - when I was younger, I worked for a time in SW London where there was a big West Indian community, first and second generation "Windrush" families.  They were proud as punch to tell you they worked on the buses and on the trains.  They wore their uniforms and did their jobs with great pride but were dispairing of their kids who had no interest.  Today in London, the later imported workforce have no pride nor interst in what they do - its the means to an end - a wage packet at the end of the week.

To get back on thread, layouts like Woodside with their realistic operation, take me back to the old BTF films of yesteryear when staff helped old ladies, closed carriage doors and not only knew the answers to most questions but actually understood the question!

Long live Woodside!!

Hi Barry  Jumping into your thread, I joined London Transport for the same reason, would I have been better off with BR? It’s impossible to tell now after so many years. A neighbour of mine became a fireman(second man) on the East Coast Main Line . Now that would have been useful. Best wishes Kevin 

[user=1801]Passed Driver[/user] wrote:

…………… A neighbour of mine became a fireman………………

No doubt many years after they ceased to use fires on locomotives Kevin.  He'd be the chap paid to sit in the rear cab and read the newspaper all day long ……… :roll:

Hi Petermac. Thank you for your comments. But, a job is a job. And just like today everyone of working age needs a job? Although today’s workforce don’t want to work. Best wishes Kevin 

Hi Keith.  I owe you a big apology for dragging your thread all around the MPD‘S , when I only meant to ask Barry a question about wagon chassis.   Best wishes Kevin