Owd Bob

I do remember them, they were air raid shelters made from two old steam loco boilers stuck end to end and buried, the so called travelers lifted them out for scrap if memory serves me right....they often parked on that land especially when the scrap loco's were there....funny how many loco doors went missing!

I saw that yesterday and i noticed the dozers had scraped and mounded a lot of the top soil up, it looked like they were leveling the field off, the old drainage ditches at the roadside have also been cleaned out, and all the road side tree's are cut down. Probably they are first making an access road to get to the old Bickershaw line? Or using the land as a storage compound for building equipment?

Made a short visit to the Branch yesterday, not much to see at all, the depot looked quite empty and clean and a digger was working on the land where the new place is to be built. Nice to see that the old Fueling point is still in place. No loco's were seen going through on the WCML in over two hours. This emu said 'special' on the front but i can't see what's so special about it! I had a wander around the Ince Moss side to see a new recently built (by the look) of it power station sub station. If anybody knows just what time a proper loco' go's through then please let me know. These two pics' are taken about 35 years apart, taken in the same area where the sub-station now stands.

Inside a big shed in Bury, looking in the cab of a certain over-hyped loco'

Had to redo the roof on the station building, all the matt Black paint had flaked off over the years so i've used 100r/ grade cloth backed emery paper to replicate some roof felting, all soaked in and stuck on with car Isopon resin. I'll paint it matt Black later. Too cold to do anything outside for me yet, but hopefully the weekend will be warmer.

Had a very good day at this show, i got some much needed 7mm detailing bits and bobs bought, but i thought a few more layouts would make it a lot better, i especially would like to see a BR '70's-'80's diesel era layout as most i saw were steam based as were most stalls and their wares.

Brilliant to see a proper loco' in Barmouth station again, spent most of my childhood holidays at Sunnysands caravan site, i was there all last week having a short break away, and it's flippin' typical! i come home and two days later i miss a loco' Love following your postings, superb work.

So lonely. (Sue Lawley) The Police.

I only remember the demolished remnants of Central station up where the baths are now i think? And the big impressive stone built bridge coming across on an angle at the bottom of Darlington Street across Warrington Rd. When we went shopping in pie-land my Dad would always park on the terraced streets where the scout hut is on Greenhough St./Westminster st......never knew until years later its where George Formby was born and bred....at no.4 Westminster St. I see todays weather's turned out shite again ant tit!

Not sure if any Leigh club members remember around ten years back or so? when you held the annual show at Westleigh High School? I came along and asked and was then allowed by the club to put my code 3 repainted Leigh Corporation '00' scale buses and some old Leigh bus pics' on show in glass cases at the entrance to the show, i also showed my small '00' collection of repainted saddle tanks, all were Hornby made and painted into the old Bickershaw liveries and names. All locos have since been sold off to pay the bills but i do still have the buses and the 'King Street bus station' layout i built to show them on, if you ever need it for a show just let me know. Some Bick' pics'

Cheers Apollo! Well the map shows that the old builders yard was'nt railway related, and it is shown as a tarpaulin works, unless that was railway owned? The weigh bridge is marked WM. Spent most of the '70's and '80's during the school summer holidays there and spotted all that moved on the WCML ...cleared all the 25's 40's and electric locos' in no time at all. I remember looking over the back wall and seeing all the old Wallgate station enameI signs stood/stacked leaning up...all within easy reach but much too heavy and big to lift! I've a meeting in Higher Ince tomorrow(Thurs) late morn' Don't laff' as i'm thinking of spending a few hours before at SP before i go....not that i think i'll see owt new! My Dad rescued these tiles from the office wall before it was flattened.

From the cab of 'Russel' on the WHHR.

Llanberis Lake Railway, July 2017. ....another inside pic please

Alright Now. Free.

Apollo! Just wondering if you knew anything about the history or remember anything of the yard just off Wallgate right opposite N.W. station, and whether if it ever belonged to any railway company? Access used to be between the pub and shops through a cobbled alley way, in the '90's the overbuilt building collapsed. My late Dad worked in this old yard for over 30 years when it belonged to J.W. Wild, and was a Builders Merchants yard, he was the yard foreman. It had a very old and still usable weigh bridge, and the old whare house buildings were very railway looking in their style of build. Wallgate Station was just at the back Northern side and to the West end of the yard if you looked over the sand and gravel bays there was still then in the 1970's-'80's another yard used by the B.R. When John Wild packed it all in in the early '90's the area was opened up and the building demolished to make a car park which was my Dads idea, and he then sat in the old office for several years collecting the car park fee's. It may well still be a car park and the last i knew was that it was being attended by Michael Wild, the late Johns eldest Son.

Presence Dear. Blondie.

Bad scan but posted to show the covered centre head code box detail on 40158. Pic' taken at SP Wigan. 11th Dec' 1983.

Thanks John i would love to see the club rooms one day, so it's Slag Ln. then......it must be Byrom Hall Sorry tale about one of the lads who has since passed away, two are still going strong though, t'was a bit like the wild west around here if you got caught by the wrong gang on 'their' part of the fields. Was a totally different era/atmospere back then, not sure if the new 'Yuppy' flats and marina that's now on there is real progress, it do'snt help the room we now have on our local roads or in the Schools either, it's just more rent and taxes payable to Wigan MBC

Have you done one of these kits Paul? Any help or info' would be much appreciated. I was thinking of what kind of layout to make then i thought why not just copy ideas from my garden line So it might turn out painted in two tone Cream & Brown

Just to show i still intend doing this project i bought a few bits and bobs last week whilst down in N.Wales, some Peco points & track, Roco wagons, a Narrow Planet loco kit and a ready made Kato running chassis.

Thanks! In my imagination this is where and what happened to the missing pre-pro' R02.

Correct on all counts especially with your loco' numbers E3109. You are right about the two 'Forties' they were there quite a while......i hope Apollo do'snt mind the bad pics' 40 134 was there a while as well. 40 107. 10th Jan' 1982. 40 158. 11th Dec' 1983. Edited to add dates.

Never seen or heard owt of the Lady MP who took over from Andy Burnham in this town As for LPS i better say nowt as well Its good news for the railway and us enthusiasts and thats all that matters, and sod the politicians and politics be somewhere interesting to go at last around here Here's some owd pics of the i presume proposed area.

This is the era and the area and the lads i messed about with and went to School with, we kept clear of these lads most of the time especially when they had the guns out, I remember how funny it was when this was on TV that it needed subtitles to understand our local accent. .The saddle tanks come in at about 13 mins'