gismorail

Whatever you do don't get a mobility scooter if this how you feel .............

Must in in the Rhyl area on holiday

As an HGV articulated wagon driver I see it all every day but last week took it to new levels. It was approx 05.30 on the M54 heading east cruising along at a steady 56 mph on a fairly quite motorway. As I reached Junction 3 a little Toyota Go being driven by a young lady was coming down the slip road so I moved into the second lane (note that this is a two lane motorway ) so that she could access the motorway from the end of the slip road and as she did I was about level with her ....... as is quite normal she started to accelerate in front of me so once there was a safe distance between us I indicated to move back into the slow lane. During this time I had keep in cruise control so my speed was constant and after about quarter of a mile I was starting to gain on her as she had not keep a constant speed herself. I therefore indicated to move back into the second lane and was overtaking her fairly quickly and as the cab of my wagon started to get alongside her I noted that she was chatting away on a mobile phone that was not hands free. Once the rear of my trailer was safely clear of her car I started to indicate to move back into the slow lane keeping an eye on her position in my mirror, as I started to move over I took a second glance in the mirror and noticed that she was accelerating and was starting to undertake me ..... I therefore repositioned myself back into the second lane as she continued to overtake me in the slow lane ...... still chatting on the phone.....and did'nt glance in my direction and once she was clear of me I moved over to the slow lane. Now during all of this I was still in cruise control therefore my speed had not varied from 56 mph and she was now well ahead of me and probably reaching 70 mph plus and I just carried on my way. After a couple of miles I was starting to gain on her again as she had started to slow down and I had to start slowing down myself until eventually I was doing below 50 mph and still gaining . A check in my o/s mirror showed me that there was no other traffic behind so I indicated and moved back into the second lane and was accelerating fairly rapidly and passing her ...... as the cab of my wagon became level with her car I glance across and not only was she still chatting on the phone which was balanced against her ear on her shoulder but was also drinking out of a Costa coffee cup ................. and yes you guess it once the rear of my trailer was level with the front of her car she suddenly started to accelerate past me again........ well I had to do something so once she was ahead of me I moved back into the slow lane but this time hit the very loud air horns and an all the spot lights........ it must of shocked her into reality as the coffee cup was abandoned and the car shot off into the distance ....... one things for sure that until I hit the air horns she had no idea that I was there ........ I mean how the hell can you not see a 45 ton articulated wagon doing 56 mph on an empty motorway

Wow have you had a telegram from the Queen ooooooops no will be an email from Andy here;'s to the next 100........

Hello I have just spent ages reading through this thread and can't believe I'm so late to pick it up, I can only add to all the others comments of praise for such excellent modelling. It's what I would describe as good old fashion modelling , pure skill and an eye for detail that produces a scene with atmosphere and character... I shall enjoy the ongoing story unfold

Tony don't for one minute say your 'memory is crumbling' it might well be like mine and is playing tricks but not crumbling ....... Pettit's Funeral parlour was on Delamere street next to the black and white pub on the corner in the photograph.The Newtown Tower blocks are still standing in fact they have just been re-furbished over the last couple of years and I believe are quite ' desres' now. What a shock to the City of Chester they were when they were built....... certainly gave the 'Fur coat and no nickers brigade' something to talk about. The large building beyond the station next door to the Pub (The name of which escapes me) was a works in the early years but I can remember it being the parts department for Quicks of Chester the Ford agents during the mid seventies as I made many visits to purchase bits for my old Ford Escort mk1 I always remember that there was always lots of Crosville buses parked on the station forecourt in those days. Beyond that was the railway cutting which Victoria Road school overlooked then to the right of the school gates was a small warehouse called 'Tremblets' who was the local Sweet wholesaler. (No wonder you had an ESN class in that school they were full of 'E' numbers.... ) this small warehouse was surrounded at the back by the Crosville Bus Depot. then there was Abbot's Nook which turned into a passageway that brought you out onto Liverpool Road opposite The George and Dragon. I had a part time job as a barman in there during the holidays when I was at college and I always remember a chap called Derek Draper who was a striker for Chester City was always in there drinking Guinness by the pint ....no wonder they were always in the fourth division. You can see the Crosville Depot in the background of this shot of 41215 which is just by the turntable and beyond the bunker of the loco one can just see the trainshed of the station. Yes I do remember the cafe in St Anne's Street a real greasy spoon in the true meaning of the term which was always full of smoke from the cooking and the number of ciggies that were smoked in there. Black Diamond Street ..... now there's a name to put the fear of God into any young lad...... run down terrace houses's down one side of the street and a stark blackened brick wall down the other side punctuated with gate ways into coal merchants, scrap dealers and places of dodgy dealings ........ not a area to linger for long if you cared for you life ...... As you rightly say Happy Days.

Thanks for that one ... can clearly see the signal post in the birds eye view and also the new link pathway down to the canal which I'm sure your son must use to get to the University Campus on Cheyney Road.

When I took the picture which must be well over ten years ago, maybe even longer before the cycle way had been established, there was still a wooden stump within in under growth.The other thing that was still evident of the old railway system was a continual escape of water at the end of where the central platform ended This must have been the supply to the water tower crane in the photograph of the 9F in my earlier post. God knows who was picking up the bill for that .... My parents moved from Abbot's Park not long after the line was finally lifted having been 'mothballed' for quite a long time. In fact I'm led to believe that the final nail in the coffin was because gipsy's where robbing lengths of track further up the line near the Hoole round about when they set up camp on the waste land which had been used be contractors building the M53 link road. Even though the line was under threat of closure at the time of the road construction a brand new under-pass was built as well as a new bridge between the Parkgate Rd and Blacon when a link road to Sealand Ind est / Retail Park was built. I can remember that the line's use was dependant on the steel flow from Ravenscraig and Shotton and trains did run after the road construction, but in the end all traffic was diverted via Wrexham even through it was a single line from Chester. When we see what's going on today regarding the 'long loop' between Green Lane and Rossett the line should never have been lifted. I do have some pictures of a Class 56 running back empty through the Liverpool Rd station site somewhere I will post it if I can find it. I also have a cab video of a Class 56 travelling the line on' Scenes From A Working Cab' 1992-1997 Volume One produced by Trainman F.G. Publications of Warrington but unfortunately my copy is not playing that section I must see if I can get another copy. As signalling would appear to be your interest here is a photograph of the remains of the gantry at the East Junction end of the triangle just as the line has crosses the Birkenhead line alongside Brook Lane. Chester East Junction signal box used to be on the right as the point work started the long sweeping curve into Northgate Station. Not sure when it was taken but I'm fairly certain it is a Class 24 which would have been allocated to Dee Marsh at the time which might give you a clue as to the date. And this is how it used to be 'back in the day' ....... The lowered signal is indicating a clear run through to the station with the fixed distant the right hand arm of the bracket was for entry into the goods yard and those to the left were for the avoiding line to Dee Marsh . There really was a real mix of signals in this area as I'm sure you know.

Interesting thread this one, any idea where one can purchase this track system

Best of luck Steve glad to see your making a success of your business will try and get over sometime if I can get though border control ..... Be interesting to see what reaction you get regarding the shop name ' Grimy Times' ......trust you will be stocking magazines ...... Regards Martin

You are quite right Tony it was Victoria Road bridge , slip of the keyboard me thinks. Thanks for the picture of the front of the station ..... back in the time when British Leyland ruled our roads judging by the cars parked by the railings. Victoria Road school still stands to this day 'but not as you knew it' as the saying goes. It ceased being a council run school a long time ago and became a private school under the name of Abbeygate College which was a private school formed after the closure Merton House and Holly Bank school both of which were on Liverpool Rd. It became empty around 2007 and in 2008 was damaged by fire. The future of the building was in doubt for some considerable time even though it has listed building status and eventually in fairly resent times it has been turned into student accommodation for Chester University or the old Teacher Training College as you and I would remember it. Here's a some more photographs to bring back some memories for you Tony. I mentioned in my earlier post about the cattle trains being unloaded at the goods yard and the cattle being herded down to Gorse Stacks cattle market well found this photograph of the streets around the station frontage. Have to say I'd forgotten how many house's were within area at the time, many of which have been pulled down now. Here's a couple of pictures from about ten years ago of the Parkgate Rd over bridge looking east towards Chester which of course was at your end of the line if you lived in Cheyney Rd. The Junction signal post still stands to this day complete with the metal gantry alongside the cycleway. I little further down the line where it crossed the Shropshire Union Canal there is now an access down to the tow path. I will make a point in the near future of taking some up to date photographs of this area and will post them on this thread. Once again thanks for you input

over the horizon

Thanks for that Dave glad you approve. Yes going to use the tower to access the roof area but think i will do it from within the shed and do it a section at a time . Have managed to source some Kingspan off cuts for the insulation so hopefully will save quite a bit money wise.

Building has been a bit slow since the last update had one or two things to sort out and had family over during the weekend so thought it would be 'rude' to be making a shed whilst they were staying .......... (Dad's obsessed with this bl--dy shed sure he's losing the plot... Sure you guy's understand the 'need of speed' on such an important project......... Well between the showers today I have reached a mile stone in shed construction the final side of the shed now has cladding in place ........ The only cladding to be finished now is the end gable above the workshop roof and I will put that on once the roof is in place as it will be easier to access. Just for the record I reckon I has used over 2000 screws on this project so far ....it's ..... Hope your all still awake on this thread .....will be asking questions at the end

Like you good self I was never one for taking numbers I just enjoyed the sites and smell of the railway as it used to be ' back in the day'. Wrexham Central station always seemed to be a very uncared for place right from the outset almost as if neither the GC or the GWR were never sure as to who was responsible for it's upkeep. But despite that it was an interesting place ........ how many other stations were shared by these two companies. It certainly would make an interesting model that might well cause a few comments.

Tony many thanks for your input into my continuing research and have to say that your two articles ' A Cestrain's Urchin Tales' have been so very useful to me in trying to piece together fading memories of my very early train spotting days. The whole scene at Chester Northgate and the Liverpool Road area was such a fascinating place to me as a small boy and I would spent what seemed like hours at my bedroom window watching trains going through the then closed Liverpool Road station as well as shunting movements around the triangle in Chester Northgate. The Chester West Junction signal box was right opposite the end of our garden in Abbot's Park beyond what was then allotments before it was turned into playing fields for the Queen's school junior department. This photo was taken from the end of our garden with a very old Brownie camera just wish I had taken more. You can see the new block at Chester College behind the houses in Moss Bank. The allotments have gone and the playing field has replaced them, at the bottom of the railway embankment there was a lane that ran from the Parkgate Road into Alan Morris's builders yard and this was used to store household coal which once came in by rail but I can only remember it being delivered in Alan Morris Foden wagons. ( Just as a matter of interest Alan Morris is still going and are based up near Buckley, their no longer builders merchants but are Hauliers of lime stone and wood chip. It has occurred to me that I should contact them to see if they have any old photographs of the old yard on Liverpool Road.) I remember a friend of my parents told me that on market days a cattle train would be held in the sidings opposite the signal box in the early hours before being shunted into the goods yard at Northgate and the cattle would then be herded up St Anne Street and into the Cattle Market at the end of George Street.and Gorse Stacks. You are quite right about the 0-6-0 (J10) which is just about to pass under Brook Lane bridge and into the small cutting between Liverpool Road bridge and into Liverpool Station. This is a picture looking east at Brook Lane bridge the loco would have been just beyond the bridge on the down line./the two lines on the right head towards Chester Northgate. and then once through the two bridges and into Liverpool Rd station site with Alan Morris yard on the right the up starter in the cutting between the two bridges was an interesting signal. The lower arm was for better sighting for drivers who had stopped in the station as the Liverpool Rd bridge would have blocked the view. I believe that when the station was open there was a footbridge on the west face of this bridge from the station building which was on the city side of Liverpool Rd. When I walked to school passed this old station building in the winter there was always a big puddle about where the car is parked in the picture and I always seemed to be drawn to splash me way through it ....... oh the joys of childhood. And this is what remains of the old Great Central avoiding line. It has since these pictures were taken been turned into a cycleway from Mickle Trafford to Conah's Quay. Going back to the water tower at Northgate Loco Depot it was quite a large expanse of land that the triangle occupied and I can understand you thinking that the building in the photograph might be part of the GWR depot at Chester General but hopefully the following map will show that the GWR depot was further to the left before the Birkenhead line passed beneath the CLC line and Brook Lane (the Co-op Dairy used to be on the left just before the road started to climb on the approach the bridge and Chester East Junc signal box was on the embankment to the right hand side.) The 0-6-0 (J10) loco in the picture would have been on the bottom left hand of the map just before Brook Lane bridge. The 1/4 mile post on the east curve from the station is just alongside the point work into the goods yard and depot where the Banana warehouse was alongside Trafford Street. Mentioning the Banana warehouse and the depot sidings reminds me that in your second article ' A Cestrain's Urchin Tales 2' you have a photograph of Gorton 04/3 63686 on Chester Northgate shed on Jan 1958 in the snow. In the write up about the photograph you mention that you could not remember where the goods shed was in relationship to the scene in the photograph well it would have been behind and to the right of the tank loco in the background and the building that rises behind the 'curious canopy' is the Banana warehouse. The following os map should orientate it for you ....................... Once again Tony many thanks for you help

That's very true but they speak funny in both places and have different names for things that are the same ie. bread buns can be ' baps' 'barms'

which will result

Just to continue on the theme of the locomotive facilities the coaling/ash pit and watering area has been quite an interesting area to research. I had worked out from the O/S maps that there was quite a sizeable water tower built there from the start of operations but for some time I could not work out exactly what the structure consisted of and in the outset I only had the following photograph to work on The date is March 1957 and shows 84001 taking water whilst facing towards the locomotive shed with the LNER coal host in the background. Not sure what today's H&S would say about the staff access to the water facilities........ but by looking at the arrangement of the water shut off rod he would not be able to reach it from the loco and if he were on the ground and the tank overfills he would have got a dam good soaking ..... The fact that the water tower would appear to have been the only source of water supply throughout the main station area would suggest that all locomotives came onto shed for watering. Very early maps of the station platform areas do show a water crane on platform one but I have never seen any photographic evidence of this. Locomotives that were turned using the triangle would have been able to take water from one of the three water column's situated at the platforms at Liverpool Road and as a youngster I can remember seeing this from my bedroom window, The coal hoist was the only bit of labour saving device that the loco crews had at this shed as all other duties required back breaking shovel work. The shed alongside the coal hoist housed the ash pit and this had been erected during the war under the 'blackout' regulations. It was the positioning of this 'new' structure that gave me some clues to the development of the water tower facilities as on the 1908 maps it clearly shows the water tower covering the second road leading to the turntable What exactly this structure was I'm not sure as even more recently found images do not give a great deal of detail If anyone reading this thread has any additional information I would be very interested to hear from them

Those photographs of the old goods yard at Colwyn Bay are very interesting and I was unaware of the extent of the goods facilities, would make a nice model on it;s own

unless covered in

a windy bottom

I was looking to build some of these kits when I was planning an 'oo' gauge layout based on Liverpool Road station at Chester West Junction and went to Winnington sidings in March 1996 whist they were still in service on the ICI limestone traffic flow you will have to excuse the quality as they were taken pre-digital age I never actually purchased any of the kits as further research showed that these ICI hoppers did'nt go as far as Chester but it was known that the John Summers hoppers would have on occasions run through to Dee Marsh on a service train after maintenance. The information that I found out at the time was that they commenced service back in 1935 continued right through to the late 1990's. Haulage from the start was by the then new Stainer 8F based at Northwich CLC shed with trains of 14 to 16 hoppers plus an LNER 20T brake van. The hoppers ran on diamond framed bogies but most of these had been replaced by 1950 and had been re-bogied or built from new on plate framed bogies. These formations changed little during steam days and at the end rakes of 18 hoppers were run behind class 37;s without brake vans. Hope this information and pictures are some use to those who might to thinking of purchasing a rake from Hattons in the future .

Only just picked up this layout thread very impressive ..... it's amazing with some thought and planning what you can get into 3m x 2m room will be following with interest. Like your approach to improving the look of peco track by opening up the sleeper spacing, been a few layouts recently on here where this has been done and it does make a great visual improvement. I noticed in some of your pictures that you had used some track templates and was wondering as to where these are from .

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