Manor Road

When I was a kid, I used to use Manor Road station, near Hoylake quite a lot as my nan lived near there.

I visited again quite recently and took some photographs, it still retains it's olde worlde charm, a nice pleasant place.

Although the Booking office has been refurbished with a larger window to serve people, the old brass, I don't know what it is, a seat or a luggage holder is still there after all of these years, it takes me back to happier times as a child ......

De-Railers

Photobucket Album

These yelow things are locked into place on the track, when a train is already occupying a place in the shed etc., if a train is routed there by accident, these de-railers will do exactly as it says on the box ... will get the train off the tracks to ensure that there is no collision between units.

The Naughty Bits

These are the bits that the tourists don't usually see !! The electrical pick up shoes that collect power from the third rail and take it to the traction motors to enable it to power the motors and make the train drive.

Lots of electric 750 volts to be exact, so you would be very dead if you licked it.

Hooton 6 Car

In the 1980's there was a band that played the local Merseyside music scene, I am sure that their name was 'Hooton 6 Car' well this is the genuine article, so to speak, the very rare appearance of a 6 car train....

Heading towards Chester on an evening peak working during the summer of 2007.

In The Beginning ..............

In the beginning there was steam .................. In 1886 the Mersey Railway started a rail service between Rock Ferry and Liverpool, also Birkenhead Park to Liverpool.

They originally used steam powered locomotives to pull the carriages, this was most unsatisfactory as most of the lines were underground and steam/smoke and tunnels dont give much chance for oxygen to circulate !!

The result - A failure and people went back to the Ferries .

They later went on to use the new fangled electricity to power the trains from a 3rd rail next to the existing running rails, now this was better, people could now breathe in the air underground.

I might use this blog to give anecdotes of history, if I can be bothered to, or it may just be my experiences at Merseyrail, we will see what happens.

Come back soon .. . . . . .