Anthony_S

It was a pleasure to see this layout yesterday. Excellent modelling.

Merry Christmas everyone! I have just scanned a few more pictures from Earlestown station, a short distance from the now demolished Vulcan foundry where many locomotives were built. I had a distant relative who was transferred to Earlestown works where he painted wagons. As someone who was used to painting coaches (I think at Newton Heath but not sure) he was not at all happy about painting far less glamorous wagons. It's almost like a Thomas the Tank engine story! 45645 taking the Liverpool direction just to the East of Earlestown station. Part of the signal box can be seen behind. There was once a further junction here for a line that passed through the centre of Earlestown towards a coal mine near Haydock. The track bed is now a car park, but the road bridge over the line is still evident by the post office in town. 73090 At Earlestown station on the curve heading towards Warrington which will also take it past the Vulcan foundry Heading in the other direction is 46239 about to take the route to Newton-Le-Willows 46241 The Royal Scot heading North in the curve platforms at Earlestown. I am guessing that this train has been diverted from the West Coast mainline which is a fairly common occurance here. Best wishes for a very enjoyable festive period. Tony

I don't think anyone is green-bashing as an argument for keeping redundant yards open. I'm sure that many will agree their demise, as sad as it is, was a result of the collapse of wagon-load freight, the move to trainload operation and the loss of much of our industry. Criticism of energy policy arose from a question about the logic and sustainability of biomass burning vs coal. It is no surprise then that the EU is stagnating economically, and has been for the past few decades as can be seen from it's diminishing share of global trade. EU energy policy can not be possibly helping this. We are not even reducing carbon dioxide emissions, we are exporting them (and our jobs and industry) to other parts of the world. The cure is far worse than the disease. Should we really unilaterally commit economic suicide so as to prevent an almost insignificant share of global carbon dioxide emissions? If we deliberately and intentionally make energy more expensive through regulation, taxing and punitive measures such as the Climate Change Act 2008 then of course it is going to make our industry less competitive as it adds greatly to their costs. Look at what has happened in the US - fracking has greatly reduced energy costs and boosted industry there as well as reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Doing the same in this country would help us to retain our industry and associated railfreight.

At risk of going toof far off topic, I really feel the need to respond to this. So am I (and others) a climate change denier in the same way that someone can be a holocaust denier? Ad hominem seems to be the default setting of some environmental fanatics. Like many others I agree that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, is increasing in the atmosphere and should cause some warming, so that puts me in the same category as the 97% of scientists agree consensus. I disagree that it will be catastrophic and refer to increasingly lower estimates of climate sensitivity, climate-gate and the huge uncertainties that are in the IPCC reports but never in the summary for policy makers. I bemoan the policy-based evidence-making that has allowed the madness of energy policy in this country to take the path it has. Our increasingly expensive and unreliable energy is making our industry uncompetitive on the global market. We have seen the closure of aluminium smelters and the associated loss of freight traffic as a result and merely displaced the CO2 emissions to somewhere else in the world.

I would argue that it isn't, and go further and say it is scandalous. I posted on another thread on this subject something along these lines; mature woodland in the US is cut down and pelletised (using fossil fuels), transported to a port and loaded onto a ship (using more fossil fuels) and then transported thousands of miles across the Atlantic and making a return journey also using fossil fuels. The pellets are unloaded at a UK port and loaded onto a train making further use fossil fuels. The train then uses even more fossil fuels to transport it to a power station such as Drax to then burn it far less efficiently than coal and at greater expense to us consumers. I agree that Healey Mills as well as many other marshalling yards were becoming much less useful regardless of the coal traffic.They were designed to handle large amounts of wagon-load traffic which had largely disappeared by the 1980s and then then later with the demise of Speedlink.

Took me a while to figure out what I did wrong, but the pictures should be full size now. Sorry about that!

Slow progress scanning and uploading these photos. Here are a few interesting ones from Warrington Bank Quay and a few from Manchester Vicoria. Dates and details as usual unknown, hopefully others who know more than me will be able to give some more insight than I can.

Haven't had time to post more pics recently due (over)work and life in general. At the rate I'm going, I'll have the last one uploaded just in time for their centenary! Not sure where this was taken, but it looks a lot like Crewe. 45572 Again, not sure where this was taken, but I'm guessing its the West Coast Mainline just to the East or South of Newton-Le-Willows Finally a couple of views from Manchester Victoria showing the signal box and a nice gantry of semaphores. 45601 'British Guiana' 45635 'Tobago' As always, if anyone can provide some insight into the locations and the trains they were hauling I would be interested to know.

It's been a while since I added any new photo's. How quickly time passes! A few from Warrington Bank Quay this time. This is 45684 Jutland passing Warrington No. 2 signal box. 46108 and finally an unidentified train passing through platform 2/3.

Scanned a few more this morning. The first from Liverpool Lime Street and I think the following three were taken at Crewe, though I may need to be corrected. 45721 Impregnable 45557 New Brunswick 45714 Revenge and finally 45740 Munster [url=https://flic.kr/p/ofGT2j]

Really enjoying the discussion these photos have generated. Time for a couple more, taken at Winwick Quay. The on below is 46225 Duchess of Gloucester

Thank you all for your replies. I believe that my grandfather was a Leeds United fan and visited Elland Road quite often, so it makes sense that he would take photographs at the station there. That said, included in my pile of photographs are a football programme for Preston North End dated April 21st 1951 and an undated Sheffield Wednesday one from about the same period. I had no idea that there was such variation in the wagons holding the containers! Fascinating stuff. Here is another photo of the same train from a different angle. In this one there is a much better view of the goods warehouse in the background, does any one know where this is? The next photograph is the only one I have which has detailed notes written on the back. It reads; 46158 The Loyal Regiment London - Manchester train entering Manchester London Road station Headed by "Royal Scot" class 4-6-0 46158 The Loyal Regiment. Saturday 9th August 1958 45609 Gilbert & Ellice Islands The next two photos were taken at a location I spent many hours in the early 1990s watching trains go by without ever knowing that there were fairly extensive sidings here! Winwick Quay

Greetings all, I recently inherited a pile of old photographs taken by my grandfather who sadly died too young in 1982 when I was about 2. These were all taken in the North-West from Crewe to Blackpool and Liverpool to Manchester Victoria in the late 1950s - early 1960s (I think!). Unfortunately I did not get any negatives and the photographs are in a battered and tatty condition, so I apologise for the quality. I know very little about steam engines, and not sure about some of the locations, so I thought I would share some of these in the hope that I may learn something about them and the trains they were working. There were little or no notes to accompany the photos, so if there is anything you can tell me about them I would be interested to know. I have no idea where this first picture was taken, though I'm guessing Warrington. Interesting to see containers being carried in open wagons. Again not sure where this was taken. Manchester Victoria possibly? Love the bracket signal. This next one looks like the North end of Crewe station with a train coming in from the Chester direction. It appears that electrification was in progress at this time. This one I'm sure was taken from the curve platforms at Earlestown. Looks very different there these days! I have many more to scan and post over the next few weeks.