Railway Drive has been blocked to vehicles for some time as the 'Midland Metro' at last constructs its extension from the present inconvenient St. George's terminus in Bilston Street to the railway station. A light rail system for the West Midlands was mooted in the 1960s but it was 1981 before serious studies were made and 1999 before trams on a single route from Wolverhampton to Birmingham Snow Hill started running. In my 2016 post Grand Central and Birmingham New Street Station I described progress on the extension at the Birmingham end to Birmingham New Street station and that is now in use. As I hustled to the station, I could see that track laying (using inset track) had started in Railway Drive - a mere 20 years after the opening of the light rail system.
Although the 09:20 was on time, I was able to catch it after all and I would have enjoyed the ride apart from a 'Hen Party' of a dozen ladies and one man who noisily crowded into my coach with their plastic wine glasses, a large bottle of prosecco and various mixers, celebrating a birthday (I couldn't determine whose) in a particularly noisy fashion which continued unabated until our arrival in Liverpool.
We stopped in platform 11 at Crewe, as usual, and I admired the polychrome brickwork I'd commented on in an earlier post here. There's a brief description of Crewe and the architecture of its station in the post Crewe Station.
Crewe Station 17-Nov-2018: A close-up of the polychrome brick supporting wall flanking platform 11 (apologies for the reflection of the carriage lighting).
As we continued to Liverpool, we passed considerable re-signalling work in progress. I couldn't determine the present extent but some new colour light signals were in use, with the control code 'WE' and 4-digit signal numbers so I concluded that at least part of the line has now transferred control to the Manchester Rail Operating Centre. I still have trouble grasping that we'll end up with just 14 such Operating Centres in the country (Derby, Gillingham, Cardiff, Saltley, Edinburgh, Ashford, Didcot, Glasgow, Three Bridges, Manchester, Romford, York, Basingstoke, Rugby). Halton Junction signal box seemed to have gone and the Air Raid Precautions signal box structure at Runcorn had the windows papered over so presumably is no longer operating. Ditton Junction, Speke Junction and Allerton Junction appeared to be still in use but no doubt their days are numbered. We swept past Edge Hill signal box and descended through Edge Hill Cutting where new signals were in evidence. Lime Street station re-opened in July 2018 following a period of complete closure allowing the modernisation work to be completed. There's more information about the work undertaken in a 2016 article from Rail Engineer here.
Liverpool Lime Street Station, 17-Nov-2018
I purchased a 'Saveaway' ticket allowing travel on buses, trains and ferries within Merseyside that day and descended by a series of escalators to the underground 'Mersdeyrail' platform at Lime Street Station. The first train took me two stations to James Street, where one of a series of lifts returned me to street level. It wasn't too warm but the sun was shining brightly so it was a pleasant walk to the Waterfront. I judged I'd not have time to catch the 11.00 a.m. Mersey Ferry, so I watched 'Royal Iris of the Mersey' slip way from Pierhead before entering the Museum of Liverpool where I checked that the star exhibit, the locomotive 'Lion', was still safe. I walked around the outside of the Museum to take a photograph of the Old Pilotage Building.
Liverpool, 17-Nov-2018: The Old Pilotage Building.
Next to the Old Pilotage, I found a massive display of 'Love Locks'. There's an article on this phenomenon here.
Liverpool, 17-Nov-2018: 'Love locks' overlooking the Mersey.
The clocks on the Liver Building were once again working and my picture shows the bright sun and blue sky on the day.
The 'Three Graces'.
It's become a tradition that I take the Mersey Ferry when in Liverpool, so I boarded the ferry which left at noon. Once we set off, the wind on the river was quite fierce, but with jacket zipped-up and gloves on, I was fine. The ferry first heads downstream on the Liverpool side whilst the pre-recorded commentary describes the north docks. We passed a number of small motor vessels moored with groups of men rod fishing. A large vessel was approaching us mid-stream and, as it came closer, I identified the passenger/car ferry 'Ben-My-Chree' returning from Douglas, Isle of Man. Once she'd passed us, our ferry turned to port to cross behind 'Ben-My-Chree' and head back upstream on the Birkenhead side. As we crossed through the wake of the larger ship, there was a fair amount of pitching. We berthed at Seacombe Landing stage with another vessel already moored.
Liverpool, 17-Nov-2018: View from Mersey Ferry 'Royal Iris of the Mersey' approaching Seacombe Landing Stage with catamaran Njord Magni already moored at the south end. In the background, 'Ben-My-Chree' is berthing at Twelve Quays.
After passengers had alighted and boarded at Seacombe, we set off upstream past the moored vessel - crew transfer vessel 'Njord Magni', one of the high-speed catamarans which services the various offshore windfarms established in the Irish Sea. We passed the northern berth at Twelve Quays whilst 'Ben-My-Chree' was still docking. The southern berth was occupied by 'Stena Forerunner', which I don't believe I've seen before, apparently currently operating the Belfast service.
Liverpool, 17-Nov-2018: Twelve Quays, with 'Stena Forerunner'.
We docked at Birkenhead Woodside Landing Stage, where I left the ferry before it completed its triangular cruise by sailing back to Pierhead, in time to form the next departure from Liverpool Waterfront at 1.00 p.m.
I made the usual walk to Hamilton Square Merseyrail station and descended to the underground concourse serving the three platforms using one of the series of electric lifts. After a few minutes wait, I boarded the next train to New Brighton. New Brighton's Victoria Road led me to the Old Town, where I purchased a fish cake and chips which I ate as I walked to the Marine Promenade. I sat in one of the delightful Victorian shelters to finish my meal. The bright sun had encouraged lots of people to 'take the air' and there was quite a holiday atmosphere. I decided to patronise the ice cream van selling soft ice creams before continuing west. I passed Fort Perch Rock but decided to defer my visit to the weekend museum based there. Their website is here. I continued past the Marine Lake, admiring the decommissioned New Brighton Lighthouse (a Grade II* listed building) and entered King's Parade, with its modern shopping centre on my right and New Brighton Lifeboat Station, where they operate a rigid inflatable inshore lifeboat (a 'B' class 'Atlantic'). Then I turned left into Atherton Street to return to the railway station, noting that the local signage seems to have adopted the dreadful modern importation 'Train Station'. A stiff climb took me back to the attractive, welcoming and warm Merseyrail station and, somewhat exhausted, I thankfully took my seat on the waiting 3-coach train.
This time, I stayed on the train all the way to Liverpool Lime Street, noting that the journey between Hamilton Square and James Street stations had taken just over five minutes - considerably quickly than my enjoyable surface journey in the opposite direction a few hours earlier! A Birmingham service was already in platform 7 and I was happy to take this train back to Wolverhampton after a pleasant, if short, trip to Merseyside.
Related posts on this website
To view all my posts on Merseyside, click here or, alternately, select label 'Merseyside'. Posts are displayed in reverse date-of-posting order.
My pictures
This album includes pictures taken during this trip:-
Liverpool.
