Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History The railways of Wirral, 1830s to present day.

Fascinating timetable in many respects. The journey would have started by ferry to Monks' Ferry, that being the only Birkenhead station at that time. Rock Ferry hadn't been built, but there was a station at Rock Lane. Sutton must have been the earlier name for Ledsham & it was an important station, since all trains stopped there, even those which didn't stop at Hooton. Capenhurst & Upton by Chester not yet opened. Final point of interest is that a day return between Birkenhead & Chester cost more in 1854 than in 1948, when it was 2/3 (two shillings & three pence).

Also got a couple more (snaffled) pictures of Rock Ferry Station (some Birkenhead Woodside to follow, too).

...and the Birkenhead Woodside ones.

Well snaffled Christo ! Good to see the Mersey Railway cars at Rock Ferry. The first one would taken in the early/mid '50's I would guess, due to the BR Lion & Wheel emblem on the motor car and still using the 4 rail system. The second one shows an open-ended car - real Wild West stuff ! Long before H&S crap was ever dreamt of !

Thanks.

A couple of newspaper clippings of my uncle who worked for BR, not sure what year the larger clipping is from.

Colin Bracewell was the Area Manager when I started on the railway on 9/9/1974. He left after being promoted a couple of years later.

I know this is not about Wirral but there seem to be many railway enthusiasts who I am sure would be interested in this video. The Americans are building a high speed rail link between Chicago and St Louis and they are using one of only two machines of this kind in the world to lay the track, one is the one in America the other is in Europe. I think you will agree that it is a far cry from the guys who built the tracks in Wirral!

http://www.wimp.com/traintrack/

I seen the bricked up windows in the wall of the station in the entry of lees ave recently, I was told this was part of the entrance to the old football stadium Bedford Athletic I have now found an old ordanance survey map of this area which I can share, I used to train spot in this entry between 1964 1967

New to the site can anyone tell me how I add pictures

These windows were the waiting rooms on platform 1.

Bob.

Interesting piece in this month’s historical railway journal ‘BackTrack’ (August 2013 - Vol 27: No 8) called “The Closed Stations of Wirral’s Passenger Railways” – a 6 page article with some good illustrations (albeit one that is captioned wrongly stating that the tunnel leading from Birkenhead Woodside led to Birkenhead North… :o)

A question arises from the author in it, which I quote here:


So, does anyone here know the answer? Anyone got photos? Any guesses?

I only check these forums quite infrequently and think this may actually be my first post..! That was my article in BackTrack though, I first noticed those squat, rounded pillars of granite embedded in the ground maybe 5 years ago. I assume they're still there, some kind of primitive marker post was my best guess. I have never seen anything written about them and they are quite odd. They do appear to have been quite intentionally inserted in an upright position, evidently a long time ago. The ground level around the site of Town Station seems to have been infilled and raised somewhat. But if you go north towards Grange Lane it doesn't seem quite so disturbed. I have some photos somewhere and will try and dig them out.

That caption on the photo of the tunnel at Woodside is an editorial error grrr, was a little annoyed about that. I did tell them that it leads to Town...

Rowan

Nice article Rowan - right up my street, and thanks for posting your reply. Of all the railways on Wirral, that area around Grange Lane/Town I find is the most mysterious, probably due to the dearth of photos and the fact that both stations closed such a long time ago (although I travelled to and from Woodside many times as a child, I can't remember anything about passing through the derelict station at Town).
If you find the photos, it would be great if you could share them on here. Thanks.

Christo.... Where did you "snaffle" the picture of the 1903 3rd Class Motor Car from? (First of the two Rock Ferry Station pics.) Wouldn't mind trying to get a decent copy of that.

Good to see you back again billy!

Thanks.