Jon Fitness Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 02 August 1981 Widnes No.7 starter with Widnes West Deviation Junction distant below, tubular steel Widnes No.7 home 1, tubular steel, cabin and home 2 visible in background Widnes No.7 home 2, clear for Carterhouse Line, bracket to Widnes No.1, tubular steel Widnes No.7 cabin from Home 2 signal - poor but added for the historical point of view Hi Dave, Widnes no7 home 2; is that a grey post and trimmers I see? Another paint scheme for me to remember! I know that gantries and welded stem brackets were grey but I thought tubies were usually white. Great and informative pics as usual. Keep them coming, they're much appreciated. Cheers JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 2, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 2, 2012 Hi Dave, Widnes no7 home 2; is that a grey post and trimmers I see? Another paint scheme for me to remember! I know that gantries and welded stem brackets were grey but I thought tubies were usually white. Great and informative pics as usual. Keep them coming, they're much appreciated. Cheers JF There were lots of variations around the North West, the standards didn't appear to be rigorously enforced. I've post the digits from the diagram for you - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/64959-lmr-signal-box-diagram-digits Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 2, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 2, 2012 I think you've got Skipton north and south mixed up - the first pic is in the direction of Keighley and the latter 3 are facing towards Hellifield. Up/down would also be reversed, unless it's up to Carlisle! Hi Mick, Thanks, now corrected, these are captions I wrote years ago, obviously geographically challenged when I was doing them ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 There were lots of variations around the North West, the standards didn't appear to be rigorously enforced. I've post the digits from the diagram for you - http://www.rmweb.co....-diagram-digits Thanks for those! Having checked a few more pics, it looks like tubes up to a certain size were white but larger tubes, welded stem posts and the larger lattice brackets must have been classed as gantries and painted grey but like you say it seems to vary from area to area. Jon F. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingsignalman Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Thanks for those! Having checked a few more pics, it looks like tubes up to a certain size were white but larger tubes, welded stem posts and the larger lattice brackets must have been classed as gantries and painted grey but like you say it seems to vary from area to area. Jon F. Jon, I don't know if this helps or confuses but here is shot of the then newly installed (but not in use) home signals for Carterhouse Junction with Carterhouse's existing distant nearby. The new signalling was for the new connection to Tanhouse Lane and the photo was taken 2/2/1982. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Jon, I don't know if this helps or confuses but here is shot of the then newly installed (but not in use) home signals for Carterhouse Junction with Carterhouse's existing distant nearby. The new signalling was for the new connection to Tanhouse Lane and the photo was taken 2/2/1982. Ah..what year was that? JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 2, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 2, 2012 Ah..what year was that? JF Would it be 1982, as quoted by you Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Would it be 1982, as quoted by you Jon DOH!....Must stop using this stupid smart phone to answer posts .... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
class"66" Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Well i never new Bromborough station had signal boxs!! til i looked through this thread!! im well chuffed now.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 3, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 3, 2012 The new signalling was for the new connection to Tanhouse Lane and the photo was taken 2/2/1982. I walked the line before the revised layout was brought into use and managed to photograph all the signals, Widnes No.7 up home 1 (see above) had it's stop arm replaced by a distant, a motor was fitted and it became Carterhouse Junction up distant. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 4, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 4, 2012 I did warn you the pictures are random 08 August 1981 Edge Hill Panel - this is the original panel installed when the box opened - a friend of mine (now deceased sadly) was the bobby and on Saturday afternoons when the managers had gone home would let me have an occasional visit. It's an NX (entrance/exit - basically push a button at the start of the route and push one at the end, everything in the middle is set and signals cleared etc.) Notice the professional modifications. This panel was replaced in the 1980s. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 4, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 4, 2012 Moving back to the Wirral. Green Lane Junction - an LMS standard box, provided during WW2 as a temporary replacement for the existing cabin which had been destroyed in an incendiary raid. It closed in 1985 (40 or so years later). It controlled the entrance / exit to Birkenhead (Mollington Street) shed and, until 1967, the junction where the up/down fast and up/down slow became up/down main (to Woodside) and up/down goods (to the docks). Sidings ran off to Camel Lairds and the Monks Ferry branch also trailed in. It was fitted with a 60 lever frame, initially no spares, by the time I knew it the working part of the frame had substantially been reduced. It had permissive block and wrong road working to Rock Ferry which was "fun" <Edit - sorry for the poor quality of the up home, this is a fuzzy shot anyway, and this image has been saved and resaved as a jpg a few times which makes it even worse> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 5, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 5, 2012 Next we take a wander a little down the line from Green Lane Junction and Bromborough, we take the main at Hooton South and continue towards Chester, just before Chester we get to Mollington. Mollington was an LMS ARP box, opened in 1940 to replace an earlier cabin when the layout was extended for the war effort and the brick cabin was considered to flimsy in the event of an attack, so like it's neighboring cabin, Capenhurst, an ARP was provided. It closed in November 1980 as part of the stage work for Chester PSB. It has a RMWeb connection - the sister of Debs started her signalling career there, although she wasn't very keen on the late turn so several of us took it in turns to go and sit with her, this involved getting off the Chester train at Upton-by-Chester and then walking along the track for about a mile. She appeared in the local paper with the headline "Signalwoman manages to grab a bite to eat", the box saw an hourly passenger service and occasional tank trains / light engines, so she normally had time to grab a three course meal between trains. Until the 1930s there existed break section cabins at Dunkirk (on the Hooton side) and Upton on the Chester side, these boxes were abolished and IBS provided instead, the up Upton IBS was removed before I got to the box, but the Down Dunkirk IBS was still in use, and hence provided an opportunity to have a go of a motor worked signal. <edit - ARP = Air Raid Protection, basically a thick concrete roof to help it survive a direct hit> I have plenty of photos of the cabin, but the ones I'm currently posting show it after abolition - some 9 months after. The structure survived until the electrification to Chester (early 1990s). 08 August 1981 Dunkirk Down IBS Distant - an ex LNWR signal, with upper quadrant arm, notice the LNWR style of ladder. Mollington Up Distant - an LMS tubular steel signal, a very scary signal to climb, not high but when you got near the arm you suddenly got caught in crosswinds over the cutting and the post swaaaaaaaayyyyyeeed violently. Dunkirk Down IBS Home - a BR tubular signal. A 4-car lash up heads for Rock Ferry at the distant Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debs. Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Mollington........It has a RMWeb connection - the sister of Debs started her signalling career there, although she wasn't very keen on the late turn so several of us took it in turns to go and sit with her, this involved getting off the Chester train at Upton-by-Chester and then walking along the track for about a mile. 08 August 1981 She`ll be delighted to see these, Dave.......she has no pictures at all from her railway-career! What Dave hasn`t mentioned, is the reason why my sister was so nervous at Mollington: the proximity of the "Chester Lunatic Asylum" (yes, they actually called them 'that' in those days!)......there were several 'dawn of the dead' type frightening-events, with (seemingly) ghostly, late-turn escapees, wandering up the track, whilst dressed only in slippers and nightwear....with some even climbing the steps of the cabin and peering in though the windows. She was much happier when she was able to transfer to Port Sunlight signalbox! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 5, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 5, 2012 She`ll be delighted to see these, Dave.......she has no pictures at all from her railway-career! Somewhere I have photos of her in Sunlight. there were several 'dawn of the dead' type frightening-events, with (seemingly) ghostly, late-turn escapees, wandering up the track, whilst dressed only in slippers and nightwear....with some even climbing the steps of the cabin and peering in though the windows. I knew I should have worn jeans and a t-shirt whilst walking to the cabin, those slippers chaffed on the ballast. She was much happier when she was able to transfer to Port Sunlight signalbox! We all were, saved the evening trip to Mollington ! - although I enjoyed the box, the frame was nice, apart from the down starter iirc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted December 5, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 5, 2012 What Dave hasn`t mentioned, is the reason why my sister was so nervous at Mollington: the proximity of the "Chester Lunatic Asylum" (yes, they actually called them 'that' in those days!)......there were several 'dawn of the dead' type frightening-events, with (seemingly) ghostly, late-turn escapees, wandering up the track, whilst dressed only in slippers and nightwear....with some even climbing the steps of the cabin and peering in though the windows. We used to get them from the Fairmile Hospital, Wallingford - which was in fact just up the road from the site of the original Wallingford Road station (the main building survives. One night a trail of reports came in from various trains stopping at signals and reporting seeing a woman walking along the Up Relief Line heading west. Both Reliefs were duly closed and trains on the Mains cautioned but the woman seemingly vanished for a few hours with no more reports - she eventually walked up onto a platform at Didcot wearing no more than a pair of slippers and a nightdress having walked c.6 miles in around 5 hours, very lucky that she hadn't been hit by a train or finished up with hypothermia on a cold winter night. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
class"66" Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Some awsome pictures of the Wirral line!! Well done for posting them.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debs. Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 In this early `box diagram (IIRC: one of Dave`s excellent scans) for Mollington....one can see the wartime oil depot siding; the reason perhaps, that the box was rebuilt to the ARP standard. The oil depot tanks were underground: the area may be seen (upper centre of this 1945 image) to the east of the station with the semi-circular newly laid concrete apron at the top......the Mollington barracks may be seen to the station`s west. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 6, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 6, 2012 In the images kindly posted by Debs, the old Mollington station is under the road (near the N53... label), the box is at the end of the apparently white lane, below the W 2... label. (the original box was on the end of the platform, on the opposite side of the line, almost directly above the W). Exactoscale once produced "kits" for buildings, which were basically a thin skin of "texture" (they had a name for it, can't remember it now) which you applied over a pre-built shell - Mollington was produced from my photos and, as expected, included all the errors in the brickwork, not a bad place to model if a simple station, with local sidings and an oil depot (!) is required. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 We used to get them from the Fairmile Hospital, Wallingford - which was in fact just up the road from the site of the original Wallingford Road station (the main building survives. One night a trail of reports came in from various trains stopping at signals and reporting seeing a woman walking along the Up Relief Line heading west. Both Reliefs were duly closed and trains on the Mains cautioned but the woman seemingly vanished for a few hours with no more reports - she eventually walked up onto a platform at Didcot wearing no more than a pair of slippers and a nightdress having walked c.6 miles in around 5 hours, very lucky that she hadn't been hit by a train or finished up with hypothermia on a cold winter night. We still get them around Bache station and over at Northgate/Windmill lane tunnels at Chester. We even had one at Chester East that threw herself off the bridge without the usual "threatening to jump" preamble. She misjudged it and landed on top of a train, slid off to the cess side and wandered off with little more than a few scratches.. JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roman1 Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Dave, many thanks for taking the time to post these images , they bring back some memories.! I take it you have no photos of our mutual friend 'Birdman' during his tenancy at Green lane. Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 6, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 6, 2012 Dave, many thanks for taking the time to post these images , they bring back some memories.! I take it you have no photos of our mutual friend 'Birdman' during his tenancy at Green lane. Andy He was "bowling cats" when I took the shots Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted December 6, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 6, 2012 We still get them around Bache station and over at Northgate/Windmill lane tunnels at Chester. We even had one at Chester East that threw herself off the bridge without the usual "threatening to jump" preamble. She misjudged it and landed on top of a train, slid off to the cess side and wandered off with little more than a few scratches.. JF One of the nastier moments in my Control days involved a call from Sutton. An Up train from Epsom Downs had stopped - because a lady, probably from one of the local mental institutions, had found the juice rail with terrible effect. The poor driver, who I think had used his short-circuiting bar to get her off, was, judging by my brief phone chat with him, very, very shocked by what he had seen, and clearly unfit to drive a train or do much else. I made a couple of calls to get him relieved at once, and taken for counselling. Horrid for all concerned. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingsignalman Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 He was "bowling cats" when I took the shots This "mutual" friend? Green Lane Junction Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 6, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 6, 2012 No dates for these I'm afraid, when I get organised I will scan more and caption them, but for now these are locations only. Hooton Down Chester home, HN75 - replacing an outer and an inner home, both semaphores, the subsidiary signal read to the run round. This was controlled by Hooton (South) when it was first brought into use, it is still in use today but is now controlled by Hooton panel, and will (probably) in time move to be under Chester.control. Hooton Down Chester distant, with new repeater for the colour light above, HN75R, this was a working distant for the first time since the alterations of the early 1970s, plans had been drawn to provide workable distants on all lines but came to nothing, this colour light replacement brought one working distant into use. Beyond the bridge was Ledsham station (closed 1959), and the defunct slow line arch can be seen to the left, the fast lines were retained when the four tracks were reduced to two in 1972. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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