Loco operations at Liverpool Lime street in the 1980s

[ElectroSoldier]

Hey, guys, I was wondering about loco operations at Lime street in the 80s and into the 90s and the use of the sidings between the platforms and the neck siding that was in the cutting.

 

I would be really interested to hear any information at all about anything you know but with particular refrence to how any why you would get Class 90s stabled in the siding D instead of holding them in the neck siding? 

 

Siding A was between P1 & P2

Siding B was between P2 & P3

Siding C was where?

Siding D was between P5 & P6

Parcels bay was between P6 & P7 in the southern trainshed, what was it used for, by what and when did they stop using it for operations? (last time I really remember it being used heavily there was 3 or 4 GUV coaches being loaded with parcels for instance)

[LMS2968]

Not quite correct. Although from a later period, this might help.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2019 by LMS2968
Additional Info: There were once two sidings between Platforms 5 and 6.

[ElectroSoldier]

Yeah thats what I thought LMS.

 

I think the changes they made in the 1980s took the siding away and I never noticed it because of the new booking office.

 

How about loco movements. The incoming loco was trapped by its own rake of coaches until it left with another loco. Then I used to see them go from the platform. 8 for instance, into the neck and then where would they usually go?

I remember a couple of times watching a loco from the platform it arrived on out into the tunnel and then back in to hook up to its next train.

[LMS2968]

I'm not sure when C Siding was removed but it was many decades ago, long before the early 1960s electrification and realignment of the tracks through the tunnel to be paired by use instead of direction. I can't help on loco movements as my times at Lime Street were in the 1950s and 1960s and I was watching the steam locos; I ignored the diesels and electrics! The steam locos would of course often go into the servicing and turntable area at the south side of the throat, but that all disappeared in 1968 or soon after. Or they could run light to Edge Hill mpd, especially if they needed to take coal. The sidings were originally for stock storage, but went over to loco storage with modernisation as this new traction didn't need servicing between turns so no need for wasteful light engine movements to the stabling point, the former mpd, but it did need somewhere to sit prior to its next working.

[Andy W]

You would want to avoid parking anything other than the station pilot in the shunt neck because this was also used for transferring stock between platforms - most commonly vans being removed from the back of a train that has just arrived and placed in a different platform for unloading, but dmus for example were assembled from different arrivals to make up a longer train - sometimes then heading off to Newton Heath or Allerton ecs, though I also saw on odd occasions units being pinched from 2+2 formations to strengthen a weekend or Bank Holiday service to Blackpool when demand exceeded supply and there was nothing that could be extracted from Allerton in time. To this day, although the shunt neck has long gone, as have parcels vans, units are transferred between platforms by shunting out onto running lines that have limit of shunt indicators and position light signals for the purpose, usually only when something has gone wrong

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[ElectroSoldier]

SO they never really used the Up Chat moss ine for shunting moves?
I know there are shunt signals all the way along to make a shunt move.

It was possible to shunt from arrival on the Up & Down slow into Edge hill then on to the Up Slow over the right hand facing switch and follow the ground position signals all the way into a platform, so I assumed the bobby was able to clear a shunt move from the platform onto the the Up Slow to be in rear of the signal and move to a platform in the other trainshed.

Edited August 23, 2019 by ElectroSoldier

[Brian The Signal Engineer]

During my time at Edge Hill as, first a P&M man (1970's) and then as an S&T lineman(1980's) , electric locos were stabled on the shunt neck and then placed on the front of an out-going train. There was no track circuit on the actual neck but if a loco rolled past the shunt GPLS it would lock up the whole of the station throat. As it was a "Stick Track", a lineman would have to be called to check there was no obstruction, a loco past the GPLS, he would then press a plunger (S&T speak for a push to make switch) located in the location cabin.

I do recall that there was a series of apparent power failures which also dropped the stick track, causing delays. This was caused by a sub-miniature relay in the Genny set failing intermittently and caused much hostility between the P&M and the S&T. Genny sets were the "property" of the P&M. Staff on the ground were ok with each other but the department heads were the problem.