Tuesday 5 July 2011

Track Sketch: Fleetwood

Fleetwood Station in B.R. days.

Fleetwood station buildings were of typically Lancashire and Yorkshire railway grandeur - I attempted a very simple sketch of the facade but the picture below may give a better idea.

Sketches done on site are often hard to follow. Normally, I'd make a fair copy when I returned home but, in this case, I don't believe there is a better copy. The first sketch shows the terminal station at Fleetwood, the second shows the first station out from the terminus at Wyre Dock.


(Click on either sketch to enlarge)

D - Doll (reduced-size goods line arm)
DW - Doll (reduced-size goods line arm) on wooden post
DT - Doll (reduced-size goods line arm) on tubular post
T - Tubular post
TP - 'Tubular Peculiar' Tubular post of a different pattern
W - Wooden post
L - Lattice post
WT - Water Tank (parachute tank)
FB - Footbridge

The cryptic note 'As BN - 7 at base' I think means that the large Lancashire and Yorkshire pattern signal box at Fleetwood was similar to that at Blackpool North, with a brick base of seven bays. When I made the sketches, a number of signal arms had already been removed (arm shown dotted on the sketches), indicating a process of "rationalisation" which ultimately resulted in the total loss of railway facilities at Fleetwood.

You can find more detailed track and signalling diagrams of the area in the excellent series of publications from the Signalling Record Society 'British Railways Layout Plans of the 1950's'. Fleetwood area is included in 'Volume 5: ex-Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Lines in West Lancashire' (ISBN: 1 873228 04 X). This publication gives the date of closure of Fleetwood signal box as 17th April 1966, after which a service was retained to Wyre Dock station (renamed 'Fleetwood') until 1970.