Nice one Bob and team:-) I'm fairly certain I rode a train with my father to the North Wales coast via the Halton Curve, as a child in the Seventies. Went from Liverpool Lime Street. Can remember it being a hot afternoon and seeing the traffic below on the M56.
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The train was nothing special, just one of Northern Rail's DMUs, but the run was celebrating the 150th year of running between Hooton and Helsby. (See my video Hooton to Helsby for additional footage.) The Halton curve is a rarely used stretch of track hence the interest in this cab ride.
Bob Brown was the driver checking with the signaller at the curve about that signal coming off? Looked to me to only come off half mast. All irrelevant now as it has a colour light signal these days.
I imagine the driver is playing the overlaid music in his head while having the scenery, in going about one's day job in a trance state induced by the music, go past him at four times the speed it normally would. I thought it was thoroughly digable, thank you.
I worked the original boxs at Hooton North and Hooton South as a Signalman in the late sixties including , Bromborough , Port Sunlight , and Rockferry, every box including James St P S B .
sometimes i go Liverpool Lime Street to Frodsham on Transport for Wales to meet a friend and have a drink. perfect for me this route nice scenery love THE bridge crossing and after a good few pints in Frodsham sit back and relax. why would anyone drive if a train can get you there and back?
Fantastic video. Any plans to release the realtime video without the music? Would love to see that. In any case, one of the better quality cab ride videos out there! Thank you!
Very enjoyable and interesting; curious, the "neither here nor there" positions of some of the semaphores, and how weedy and shabby-looking even busy mainline stretches appear. I enjoyed the music, too. Thanks for sharing this fun ride.
Austerity and anti-rail (pro-car) politics have ravaged the North and her railways. The sheer amount of abandoned and destroyed railways along this route alone would make your jaw drop. Profit has been and always will be the greatest destroyer of railways, as it is to most things.
As random as the signal placing may seem, it is quite interesting learning why they were placed there. Many semaphores reflect layouts that have long since gone and signals left because it saved cost. As for shabby looking trackside, that is pretty standard all over the country, sad to say. It would be something that could only be managed with a good computer system. Track maintenance is hard enough.
Titles should be edited. Ethelfleda Bridge. Wavertree junction starts 11:38 - 11:40 Downhill sidings start on the left at 11:54, Edge hill Carriage sidings further left but out of shot. The remains of "Viaduct junction" are at 11:59 The joining of the old L&MR alignment start at 12:01 with The Bootle Branch ending and the Tuebrook sidings starting on the furthest right 12:06 left on the screen, ramp starts for "Viaduct junction" further left, out of shot would be the start of Downhill and Edge hill C.S 12:09 left of picture is Gullet sidings, Tuebrook sidings to the far right. 12:13 left of shot Wapping tunnel headshunt starts. Spekeland road good station would have been in the distance, now beyond the treeline. 12:14 starts Edge hill railway station. The worlds oldest railway station that is still in use as a railway station and is still close to its original condition.
On the approach to Lime Street, the tunnel names are a bit awry. You missed one out after the Smithdown Lane Tunnel, I think it's called the Crown Street Tunnel. Thereafter the names are one out, so the Russell Street Tunnel appears too early, leaving the actual Russell Street Tunnel, immediately adjacent to Lime Street Station, unnamed in your captions.
It certainly was - With double junctions at both Halton and Frodsham Junction - Railtrack singled it in 1994, as a precursor to closing the line completely. Alas, it is now to be reinstated with junction accessing both directions again at boths ends, but will remain singled....... at least for the time being.
Yes, used to be double track. I used to travel often from Frodsham to Runcorn or Liverpool LS via the Halton Curve and travelled on the last train in 1975 over the route. It was a real loss. I always knew that there was potential for a service from LLS to Chester via the curve and I'm so pleased it has reopened in 2019 with a good service calling at Frodsham and Helsby.
May be should be direct from Hooton station extra platform station to Liverpool Lime Street main line station via Halton Curve through via Ellesmere Port with either Class 150 or Class 195 DMUs or maybe rebuild the new modern classes 101, 123, 124, 115 with four cars compartments 6x6 seaters with fitted table and bin near bottom underneath the window and free wi-fi each corner seats usb and plug chargers in the near future dmus.
The Warrington to Chester route is still accessible via Warrington Bank Quay and the Chat Moss Line into Liverpool, if it was required - However, as the parliamentary service only ran once a week, the train was likely too form another Northern service from Lime Street to elsewhere on the network, as opposed to returning back to where it came from. (The service use to run empty stock via Warrington to get too Hooton / Ellesmere Port in the first place) And there are no plans to double track the Halton Curve - It will remain single, however there will be crossovers put back in at either end at Halton Junction and Frodsham Junction, to enable Bi-direction running once again.
Is the Halton curve, with its extremely sparse one direction only utilisation, so rarely used so as to encourage people to use Merseyrail to get to Liverpool?
stephen crowther Actually that isn’t really true. Although TfW will use 100mph trains, they’ll rarely, if ever, use that speed, and will also go the long way round. It takes 20 minutes from Runcorn to Liverpool at the moment, plus another 15 to Frodsham from Chester. The parliamentary service that used to use the line then took another 10 minutes from Frodsham to Runcorn. That’s 45 minutes anyway, which will likely run less frequently as well, and stops at Lime Street, further from the city centre than Merseyrail which goes almost right where you want.
stephen crowther I live in Liverpool. I use Merseyrail all the time. Merseyrail stops at James Street and Liverpool Central, which are closer to the main attractions such as Liverpool ONE and the Waterfront, whilst Lime Street is a good 10-20 minute walk away. And if you change on to Merseyrail, you’ll likely get the same train you would’ve got if you went via Merseyrail in the first place
Hi Jerry, Sorry, not able to download in real time, I no longer have the original footage. It would have taken up too much of my computer's memory. Glad you enjoyed the video, Bob.
The soundtrack doesn't go with the film. It's a nice soundtrack but too off-putting in this case with this film. Best to not have any music. Let the footage speak for itself and have captions every so often.
Thanks for the vid dude. I too am making train journeys but I need a few tips to make my vids better. Great vid BTW. If you could check my train vids out and give some constructive criticism that would be great. I definitely could do with your input.
