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West Kirby Town: Parcels traffic has increased.


Dmudriver
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Was that gentleman from Hayle in Cornwall called Keith by any chance? 

 

If so, hi Keith!!

 

PM to you to follow, Nigel.

 

 

Rod

 

EDIT:   the PM is not about Keith, by the way!!!

Edited by Dmudriver
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Was that gentleman from Hayle in Cornwall called Keith by any chance? 

 

If so, hi Keith!!

 

PM to you to follow, Nigel.

 

 

Rod

 

EDIT:   the PM is not about Keith, by the way!!!

Hi Rod, could quite easily have been but once we got talking I completely forgot his name!...

 

As previous dsicussion, here are some 1:43 bus images I mentioned...post-1813-0-46608200-1548708685_thumb.jpegpost-1813-0-83142700-1548708740_thumb.jpegpost-1813-0-84233900-1548708818_thumb.jpegpost-1813-0-44708000-1548708940_thumb.jpegpost-1813-0-38296000-1548709054_thumb.jpeg

 

So let me know what you think.

Regards

Nigel

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Oh, wow, that's brought back memories!!!  We used to go on these (operated by Crosville) from Edge Lane bus station in Liverpool to Prestatyn or Colwyn Bay for our annual holidays when I was a kid.   Always got stuck in traffic queues at the bridge at Queensferry!!   (Over the River Dee, between Cheshire and N Wales, not the Scottish one!!)

 

"Crozzy" buses, we used to call them.

 

I think you said that is a Radley Models one, Nigel, but I can't find it on their website.  Have they stopped doing them?    I've found the St Petersburg Tramway one (actually Crosville liveried) but the price made my eyes water!!!

 

As I've said, a Crosville one would look good on the layout, but there again, I've not got that much road space so one wouldn't be missed!!

 

Thanks for the pics.

 

 

Rod

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Oh, wow, that's brought back memories!!!  We used to go on these (operated by Crosville) from Edge Lane bus station in Liverpool to Prestatyn or Colwyn Bay for our annual holidays when I was a kid.   Always got stuck in traffic queues at the bridge at Queensferry!!   (Over the River Dee, between Cheshire and N Wales, not the Scottish one!!)

 

"Crozzy" buses, we used to call them.

 

I think you said that is a Radley Models one, Nigel, but I can't find it on their website.  Have they stopped doing them?    I've found the St Petersburg Tramway one (actually Crosville liveried) but the price made my eyes water!!!

 

As I've said, a Crosville one would look good on the layout, but there again, I've not got that much road space so one wouldn't be missed!!

 

Thanks for the pics.

 

 

Rod

Hi Rod, agreed, I have the St.P one and it is a really nice model but expensive.

These were imported by Watling St Models, Telford some while back but I haven’t seen them recently advertised, I guess the high price is a barrier. You’ll see below it is Scale Link, not Radley who does the more attractively priced version.

 

I know the bridge over the Dee at Queensferry, always a bottleneck. I spent time at Sealand and along the coast with a friend at Llandudno so came across plenty of Crosville buses. Plus where they filmed one of the ‘On the buses’ films in Prestatyn.

 

Later on, my 2nd daughter looked at Bangor Uni so we were up there again, although she ended up in Scarborough at an annexe of Hull Uni so it was then United buses... Same look - just change of livery.

 

As I said, mine is a United Counties model, but the real one is a Thames Valley...

 

How’s the modelling going? ‘Bout time for a bit more DMU action...

Regards

Nigel

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  • 2 weeks later...

Its a pity that the proposed rebuilding of West Kirby station to combine the Wirral and Joint platforms in the inter-war years never came to fruition.  It may well be that the West Kirby - Hooton line may have escaped the axe  and the parcels service from Moreton could then have run directly (via Hooton) to Chester and then for all points around the country!  The Victorian station building would then have been swept away and an ultra-modern Terminus along the lines of the building at Hoylake erected.  Of course, the goods yard between the two stations would have to be shifted over to where the West Kirby platforms were, and in "nowadays" would be repurposed as a rail-users car park.

 

I've printed off a 25" map of the area and I'm toying with the idea......

 

Now look what you've done!  :jester:

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1 hour ago, billy_anorak59 said:

I guess you've probably seen this, but this was the proposal for WK  (1944 artist impression):

westkirby1944proposal-cr.jpg.d122d66ecf0a4a34493020c4a5ff80b2.jpg

 

I find that very interesting, as someone who spent quite a lot of time in West Kirby during my childhood.

 

Do you have any more background on the proposal? For instance, would trains have run through onto the Birkenhead Joint branch?

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 Wirral is where I grew up - my family comes from Hoylake, hence why I'm lurking around in the darkest corners of Rod's excellent forum thread.
 Being ex-Wirral, I am a member of a few Facebook sites which are nostalgic Wirral, and I shamelessly grabbed that picture as 'being useful one day'. I do love a good 'might-have-been', especially in an area I grew up in.
 
 The Post was dated 15 April 2018, and was found in the FB Group "Wirral in Old Photographs"
 
 A follow up response in that thread quoted the source as Hoylake Advertiser - any more than that wasn't mentioned, although one fellow posted
 this response after looking at the original post:
 

Quote

 1 Orrysdale Road extension runs inland of the Joint Line rather than on it. Of course it didn't exist until the 1970s / 80s.
 2 The bridge over the Joint Line / Wirral Way is still in place.
 3 The station for the Wirral Railway to Liverpool has been relocated to Joint Line site with extra platforms.
 I recall hearing that there was a 1950s proposal to take the electric service along the Joint Line to form a Wirral outer loop and back up from Hooton to Rock Ferry.
 4 The station has an approach for drop off / pick up effectively where the Crosville buses used to as a temporary period. Is that a bus stopped there as well?
 5 There is a 6 car train in the nearest platform that doesn't appear to have a loco. That suggests this is post 1937 electrification.
 6 There is a steam loco on a freight train in the old freight yard (the very first original station site).
 7 There seems to be a freight shed on the site of the current station (second Wirral Railway station site) accessed through what is now Aldi.
 8 Grange Road shops and Station Buildings have been completely rebuilt.
 9 Grange Road and Dee Lane carriageways appear to have been realigned to a straight route with Grange Road (to Meols Drive) the stem of a T junction.
 10 The Crescent shops including Lloyds Bank and around to Dee Lane appear to have gone and the area is now full of trees rather than the 1960s redevelopment that took place on the Grange Road / Dee Lane / Banks Road frontage.
 11 The cars appear to have 1930s / 1940s bonnets. And the curves of the buildings seem to suggest a similar period.

 

Other responses of interest are:

 

Quote

"We have printed plans here - dated about 1938, so just after electrification of West Kirby to Birkenhead - by the GWR to electrify West Kirby to Hooton on the 3rd rail system, probably to begin around 1942 or 1943.
Interesting that you refer to plans by the GWR. The WK - Hooton line at that time was GWR/LMS joint. LMS had promoted much electrification (including the 1938 Wirral lines) but the GWR had done little if any."

 

'Here' turned out to be his home, so I'm non-the-wiser there.
Also this:

 

Quote

"But if you look closely, there’s a nice circular station service road with a column in the centre; the station buildings appear to be in the, then current, Art Deco style so would have been a worthy successor to the Ruabon-brick structure of the Wirral Railway’s 1890s building.
If only Hitler hadn’t invaded Poland and had settled for the Danzig Corridor instead, we might have had a magnificent suburban loop in the Wirral and avoided the need of both making the A41 and A550 dual carriageways and the M53 motorway slicing through the centre of the peninsula that we have now"

 

That's all I've got, but it's all food for thought and might be worth pursuing further?

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5 hours ago, billy_anorak59 said:

I guess you've probably seen this, but this was the proposal for WK  (1944 artist impression):

westkirby1944proposal-cr.jpg.d122d66ecf0a4a34493020c4a5ff80b2.jpg

 

I wasn't aware of this scheme, from minimal reading I thought that the last proposal was in the early 30s.  Given the date, it looks like the same sort of ideas being put forward towards the end of the War, some of which were published in Picture Post.

 

From the picture, the layout of the station follows the ideas I had, but development is much more extensive.  Though the cinema at the junction of Bridge Road and Grange Road seems to be in situ, the whole range of late Victorian shops on that side of Grange Road from there to the station seems to have been entirely swept away, to be replaced with something rather more "modern".  I especially like the treatment of the station forcourt, the whole thing looks like it would be a bright and inviting environment.

 

I wonder what the obelisk at the mouth of the station approach was supposed to be?

 

As for the Joint line, in the inter-war years the LMS ran a coach from New Brighton to London, which was brought along the Wirral section to West Kirby and then down the Joint to Hooton where it was attached to a London-bound service.  It was evidently well patronised but was taken off at the start of WW2 and not reinstated.  It could be that if the station had been redeveloped then such a service might have been resumed.  Where electrification is concerned, I would have thought that the Joint would be too lightly used for such a service to be economically justifiable. As a parallel, there were proposals for Bidston-Wrexham to be electrified quite recently, but that seems to have vanished into the long grass.  It's possible that the GWR, had it continued past 1947, might have introduced their diesel railcars, replacing the 14xx autotrain.

 

There's lots of interesting stuff there!

 

Edited by Hroth
more spelin errors...
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Hi all.

 

Time for an update, I think.  I'm very taken with the single decker bus kit above but I think I'll leave that until I know what the road layout around the fire station will be like. 

 

On the subject of the fire station, I was reminded recently that there's a couple of 0 gauge modellers who live locally and who were firemen.  I can see requests for advice coming on!!

 

I've not done that much on the layout really as 1) I've had some pretty nasty virus and 2) I'm drafting an article on the layout for the GOG Gazette.  There are comments being made on Facebook threads/groups about no modern image stuff in the Gazette so I thought "it's about time".  So, I'm doing it - photos too - though the latter are a bit frustrating as I keep seeing mistakes - like leaning lamp posts and lineside telephones, etc: so its sort out the offending items and take another pic!!

 

I have, though, done a bit more work on the concourse fencing  (pics below) so I've now got a better idea of the "filler" pieces I need to make.  The short piece alongside the ticket booths (one of which is cockeyed, but shouldn't be!) will have a 4'6" gate at each end to close off access to the platforms when needed. 1976104960_P1060030-Copy.JPG.331b4eee7769a255c1e7c6e01ad929a4.JPG688205137_P1060035-Copy.JPG.e481a1fca2f625ee5f751e2b5bd86fc8.JPG455193839_P1060031-Copy.JPG.6cf838143a3f8ace5122fedf2a92b1d1.JPG347099312_P1060034-Copy.JPG.85661a92560e4c48f6c62c4d7f4a4e61.JPG

 

The left hand gate, above the steps, will have a stop made so that it can't open wide and let someone fall off onto the bufferstop!!

 

And finally, here's another couple of pics - not directly related to the above, but I like them!!  Taken from the stabling point headshunt.  [See what I mean about leaning lineside phones??!!]

 

P1060017_-_Copy.JPG.ac32c60afecc74d1f92d6f495d8ad5a2.JPG

 

And second, looking back along the platform under the canopy:  Thumper in service at Platform 1 and the 115 parked up in no.2 siding.

 

156090239_P1050998-Copy.JPG.878ed76fe941c99c28db3ebccad4aee4.JPG

 

More soon.

 

 

Rod

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On 28/01/2019 at 21:03, Lodekka said:

Hi Rod, could quite easily have been but once we got talking I completely forgot his name!...

 

As previous dsicussion, here are some 1:43 bus images I mentioned...post-1813-0-46608200-1548708685_thumb.jpegpost-1813-0-83142700-1548708740_thumb.jpegpost-1813-0-84233900-1548708818_thumb.jpegpost-1813-0-44708000-1548708940_thumb.jpegpost-1813-0-38296000-1548709054_thumb.jpeg

 

So let me know what you think.

Regards

Nigel

Hi Nigel, is that the St Petersburgh collection model of the Bristol L? 

Cheers 

Jon F 

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This is amazing!  I'm afraid I haven't read the whole thread (yet), but it takes me back to parts of my childhood, as West Kirby was home to my mother and Uncle when they grew up.  I have many photos of the area, but sadly none of the station inside.  One of the little retail units in the station forecourt was for a short time c.1947 home to the shared businesses of my afore-mentioned relatives - one half art/craft and the other half clerical/business services.  But that info isn't really  much help for this layout is it?  I do remember travelling to/from WK station at various holiday times - your model's whole atmosphere is spot-on!  Top-notch modelling :)

 

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On 10/02/2019 at 09:32, Jon Fitness said:

Hi Nigel, is that the St Petersburgh collection model of the Bristol L? 

Cheers 

Jon F 

Hi Jon,Turns out it actually is. I got out my existing model of the UCOC one I have on my layout and compared them...

The images above are the genuine article, even I was slightly taken aback.

Must concentrate a bit more! ;-)

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Hi Rod, looking good... Layout developing well!

 

Btw, the bus is not a kit... it comes as you see it in the pictures. All you add are dog rails and mirrors plus number plates, fleet names and destinations to suit your taste.

Regards

Nigel

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17 hours ago, Hroth said:

I was in WK this afternoon and wandered onto the platform

 

895112624_WKPlatform190212.jpg.857f4c01bf641a24936dfa63d0e9e343.jpg

 

 

359565096_WKTPlatform.JPG.f6f3e1c610be49014a8a168f4b8b32f5.JPG

As I said, its an impressive model, and much tidier than the real thing.....

 

(dunno who actually uses the eco-bikes!)

 

wow, you even got the red buffers top light in just the right place

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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