Hi Marty! I oftrn wondered what this station looked like! My Uncle worked at Mollington Street, as a Fireman, on the John Summers 9Fs. I would like to get some more information on this area, the Blackpool Street signal box, and its junction with Cammell Lairds- when was the bridge to Lairds lifted?
The connection into Laird's was, at the end, controlled by Green Lane Junction signal box and was taken out of use about 1981. I think the bridge lasted a few years after that before it was demolished. The area of sidings shown on the map going off to the right (a mixture of carriage sidings and goods wagon sidings) was used by Lairds as a steel stockholding ground. They had three diesel self propelled cranes to shunt the remaining sidings.
The connection into Laird's was, at the end, controlled by Green Lane Junction signal box and was taken out of use about 1981. I think the bridge lasted a few years after that before it was demolished. The area of sidings shown on the map going off to the right (a mixture of carriage sidings and goods wagon sidings) was used by Lairds as a steel stockholding ground. They had three diesel self propelled cranes to shunt the remaining sidings.
Before Cammell Laird finished with internal rail traffic (around 1980) they had 2 4-wheel diesel shunting locos. One of these was sold to Steamport museum , Southport & the other for further use in industry somewhere in South Cheshire I think. Prior to these they had Sentinel 4-wheel vertical boilered gear driven steam locos. I think they originally had about six of these. One survived until late 1969 ,maybe early 1970. As I worked there I was interested in this & actually enquired in the yard's buying office how much they wanted for it. The answer was £95.00, but the main problem was finding somewhere to keep it. It was scrapped shortly after this. There were still steam powered travelling cranes working in the yard for some years after this. Due to the camera ban in the yard photographs of any of these are hard to come by.
That appears to be the back wall of the original Mersey Railway carriage shed. The loco shed was at the other (Green Lane) end of the site & was demolished in the 70's.
That is the top of the back gable end of one of the running sheds. All repairs and maintenance of the Mersey Railway stock was carried out at Birkenhead Central until 1956/7 with the withdrawal of the early electric stock. B'head North M.P.D. took over then. Two of the three sheds were demolished, leaving the present one. This was used for stabling stock and light maintenance until recent times. The flat roofed brick building was built around the time of the above demolition as far as I can recall. I "think" this was a booking on point for the motormen and guards. Maybe someone can confirm this ?
Are there any photos available of this area (Green Lane, Blackpool Street, and the bridge over to Lairds?
There's a picture taken underneath the Lairds Bridge (3rd picture) at: Clicky
And this is the nearest photo I've got of the area, taken from the top of either the Coaling Tower, or the Ash Plant at Mollington St Loco depot - 1966 Ian Allen Tour.
Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
I remember the bridge on Hind street, when we were kids we used to play round there one time we walked along the outside of it luckily no one fell but being kids we never saw the danger.There were also some railway buildings round there,they were abandoned so we used to play in them also.
