Various Post Scripta.

Our trip to Lime Street station

will appear tomorrow.

Wapping Goods depot

Remember that "hole" at the road junction?

fbb guessed that this was an opening in the Wapping Tunnel (Liverpool) but he could offer no supporting evidence. Two things appeared after the blog was posted. Firstly, the old boy read some of the articles more carefully, one of which referred to "a short piece of  extra tunnel at the docks end of the line.

Then he spotted this picture on the dreaded Google.

This shows the tunnel mouth viewed from the depot itself, and there beyond the goom is the daylight from that little triangle of visibility as seen in the aerial view.

Nice for the old man to guess right, for a change.

Waterloo Good Depot

Towards the end of the depot's life, and after the closure of Riverside station, a number of railtours visited the branch. Here is one such ...

... having exited the Waterloo tunnel via the "Grand Arch" and passed under the old Great Howard Street bridge, it now proceeds slowly past the debris of the demolished depot.

Here is another (?) excursion, leaving the confines of the depot and crossing Waterloo Road.

This manoeuvre meant that a man with red flag had to precede the train as it crossed Waterloo Road before it entered a gate which took it on to the private Docks and Harbour Board's extensive railway system.

That rather forboding warehouse is now, guess what, a huge block of flats.

Trains ran between wall and building, an area now a car park. Also running along Waterloo Road was the Liverpool Overhead Railway and trains to Riverside station ran under and alongside the tracks-in-the-air.

Here we see a goods train veering towards Riverside station, having passed the warehouse block (looking from the opposite direction to the above) ...

... with the Overhead's girders centre right.

Snippets:-

Signs Of The Times

Bus companies are hurriedly programing their destination display to explain why your bus to your essential work place has just zoomed by your stop without stopping.

Will you know when the next one is due?

Education, Education, Education

Oh dear! Some people do pronounce the organ of the mouth as "tong" rather than "tung".

Ooh Look, There Is A Layout There!

fbb's problem now is to work out where to put all the junk he has removed from the environs of Peterville station! Station appurtenances are replaced soon.

Hauled By An Aardvaark  - Not!

The Class 89 was a prototype design for an electric locomotive. Only one was built in 1986, by British Rail Engineering Limited's Crewe Works. It was used on test-trains on both the West Coast and East Coast Main Lines. It was fitted with advanced power control systems and developed over 6,000 bhp (4,500 kW). It was given the nickname Aardvark.

fbb was on his way back from a business meeting somewhere "oop north" and joined a GNER train from Leeds to Kings Cross. He was very excited to be hauled by the unique Class 89.

Dead on time, the train pulled slowly and gracefully from the station and accelerated to a crawl, coming to a halt on the pointwork at the station throat. After three more short creeps, the guard announced that the train was a failure and it reversed back into the station, disgorged its passengers who were directed to the next train.

fbb had travelled approximately 300 yards hauled by 89001; a haulage experience never repeated.

But, following the trend set by other unique locomotive models (GT3 and the "Fell" diesel) an OO gauge model of 89001 is proposed.

Rails of Sheffield is currently evaluating the level of interest before committing to having the model made.

Five-Pole motor with two flywheels

Metal Helical Gear box for maximum

       performance and slow speed running

Gearing arranged so locomotive can achieve

       minimum scale top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h)

DCC ready with PowerPack capacitor for uninterrupted power

All wheel drive (sprung centre axle) and all wheel pickup

Fully detailed Lighting Pack, including:

Directional lighting, DC and DCC

Switchable Red and white marker lights

Separately switched cab lighting and illuminated,

      driver’s desk, auto/off on movement

fbb can barely understand the specification, but he can understand the price - £180

Yet again - Ouch!

Talking Of Lavish Expenditure ...

... impressed with this illustration from the latest edition of the celebrated fashion magazine "Vague", Mrs fbb has just bought a brand new frock.

£15 from Morrisons on line. How does this compare with fbb's recent expenditure on his model railway?

Some financial re-balancing may be needed!

 Next Lime Street blog : Friday 22nd May