More Culture

507 019 seen here at Ellesmere Port is another unit that has been finished in Capital of Culture livery.

This time it is in red and advertises Sport as it's theme.

Capital Of Culture

This is the second Merseyrail train to be outshopped in the 2008 Capital Of Culture advertising garb, this is 507 008 as seen on the 15th March 2008 at Bidston.

The first one to take to the rails was 508 134, there are to be a total of four Merseyrail unit in this scheme and I believe two Northern Rail DMU's are to be done.

Steam On The Wirral (Put the kettle on)!!

An afternoon down in Royden Park, Wirral found these minature Steam (and a Diesel) running.

I haven't seen these for years, they also have a new track on the ground that runs into some fields, although the old track that was raised from the ground was still in situ in the woods. That has seen use from the 1960's.

There were 4 engines in use that day.

Helpful & Compassionate Passengers ...

Looks like any normal winter's evening, except for it was raining at this point !!

The guard on this train was getting quite a bit of stick from passengers, who on the way home towards West Kirby had been delayed at Conway Park for 11 minutes, due to an 'Incident on the line ahead of this train'.

It turns out that someone in the Wallasey area had tried to commit suicide by lying on the rails, luckily the train driver had seen him and been able to stop before any damage had been done to said person. Due to this the electricity is cut off to prevent people getting a good old frying, they then switch it back on section, by section and get other trains and lines back to normal as soon as possible.

Certain passengers were very disgruntled and told the guard so, that the person trying to kill themselves was selfish and they had delayed them getting home to their sad little lives !!! Was it going to be back to normal later, will there be cancellations ??? Why did they have to try and kill themselves in the peak hour, why didn't they do it when it was a bit quiter and they wouldn't inconvenience many people !! Yes, this is absolutely true.

To be honest, I would shoot those that showed the compassion of a battering ram !!

So here is a word of advice ..... If you ever plan to kill yourself, think about others first and don't inconvenience them !!

Welcome to 2008, Liverpool, Capital of Culture year

Happy New Year and welcome to 2008

What did I do ?

I had to go to work, no fun and frivolity for me last night :(

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 .. . . . . .