Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Mollington St. sheds - Train Sheds

does any1 remember the old railway sheds off argyle street my dad took me there in the 80 s an he remembered bein there as a boy in the 60s

your talking about Mollignton Street see the two pics for a view

Yes, I remember Mollington St. sheds well. Sometimes used to get a footplate ride from Woodside to the sheds, then be given a handful of cotton waste & something to polish. An idea of the extent can be got from this map.

Cheers, Chris

Which can be found here Click Me

me dad was on the last freight train from the docks (brake van)but got interestin the most famous buffet car in the world.

THE BERWYN TUNNEL...

31/12/1966 mollington st. more to follow

these are dumped in the coal yard next to the shed where the industrial estate is now. argyle st. is in the background. 23/4/66

thanks joe, know what to do now, when scanning anyway

no problem.

Quality pictures mate, any more?

obviously this is woodside, my dad is one of the three heads leaning out of the first window

heres an old one, other side to follow

part 2, check out the date, its very delicate and am scared to handle it really. (the leaflet)

try again

slightly off topic, this is rock ferry c1900, note the canopy being built. scanned from an original

Interesting to note that this is a Mersey Railway loco, with the condenser system, designed to minimise steam in the tunnels, apparently not very successfully. The line was extended from Green Lane to Rock Ferry in 1891. You have some fine pics. there, rentaclown.
Like your Cheap Day Ticket leaflet too. I wonder why the difference in fares between Central & James St. is sometimes nothing, sometimes 1 or 2 pence.

If you have been following the 'Woodside Station' thread (see Woodside Station )here on WikiWirral, you will know that I have a number of railway related photographs taken by a mate of mine in the Birkenhead area in the late 1960's. They have never been seen elsewhere, so this a 'premiere', so to speak.

Some are of Mollington Street MPD, and I thought it would be good if I shared them here - my mate has no objections, so thanks to him. They were all taken on a primitive 'pre-box brownie', so the quality isn't fantastic, but I think they show quite nicely some of the atmosphere of those days.
I'll put them up in batches, as and when.

First of all are some 'Panoramic' views...

Cheers,
Billy.

heres some more views

Thanks 8HBob - some great shots there. Thought it's about time I put some more up.

Cheers,
Billy.

great pictures,2nd picture down shows scrap yard green lane, I can tell you the owners name.

The coal smoke smell was pretty powerfull in that area, with the gas works as well!

That smell from the gasworks was pretty pungent, especially when you went on the gasworks side of the shed.

Bob.

The 9F loco on the left of the bottom photo is a Crosti boilered 9F, it was supposed to be a better steaming design.

David Shepherds preserved 9F ( 92203 ) came from Birkenhead depot.

Here's the last of the photo's my mate took in 1967 at the shed - the next lot will be down at the docks (and on a different thread).

Cheers,
Billy.

The Steam Age! Hear and smell the action in that '2 Class 9Fs' photo!

I used to have to go to Mollington Street sheds to do maintenance on a lot of the equipment in the steam days. The ash plants and the coaling plant. The ash plant used to take the ash after it had been dropped from the steam train into a pit. It was then lifted in ahuge bucket up to the hopper inside the ash plant. then when full a wagon would be brought underneath and the ash would be dropped into it and taken away.

The coaling plant filled up the steam train tender with coal. The hopper was filled froma coal wagon that was lifted on a platform and it's contents dumped into the hopper. When either of these plants broke down I would be one of those who went to fix it. I also worked on much of the water services including the two water tanks that were there.

Found this diagram dated 1944 of Mollington St sheds, and thought it would complement Chriskay's map on page 1 of the thread.
Not the greatest of scans, and might have to zoom in for the details, but possibly of interest?
Cheers.

some very fond memories looking at these photos, i was a driver on the steam and diesel tractions at mollington street and was also a fireman at bidston shed where i started in 1951
eventually ending up on the merseyrail underground.
sadly we will never see the like again

I wonder if you can help me boyoboy. When I was very young I'm pretty sure that I saw a GC 04 2-8-0 on a John Summers ore train at Bidston dock (they were usually 8Fs at that time.) I haven't had contact with anyone else who saw one so doubt my memory. Were you at Bidston in the period 1955-60? Did you see such a thing?

The GCR locos were quite frequent visitors - but not usually used on the John Summers run - which was normally run by Bidston allocated locos at this time - as you suspect 8Fs - but replaced by 9Fs by the late 50's.

The loaded John Summers trains were the heaviest unbraked trains on BR (no vacuum/air braking) and the Brush class 47 diesels that took over at the end of steam were not up to the job braking wise..!

Billy's plan show some of the improvements driven by war requirements - a new 70 foot turntable big enough for any loco and tender and the old LMS and GWR coaling sheds being dismantled - to be replaced by the concrete coaling and ash (2) plants and the large water tank seen in the scrapyard pic. new ashpits next to the Hinderton road coalyard replacing a small turntable and extra roads put in between the Gasworks and shed side where the old GWR turntable had been.

The plan also shows the cutback roof of the old LNW/LMS side - previously it was exactly the same size as the GWR side.

I was told by a fitter at the shed that on one of the early trials of the 47s the brake gear suffered serious damage caused by it's efforts to stop. If I remember correctly 8Fs did turn up occasionally right up to the end of '66 and possibly early '67.

You confirm that use of the O4s would be unusual but has anyone any idea just how unusual?

The 47's also apparently had trouble with loose tyres, obviously caused by having to brake a heavy train on downhill gradients & with none of the wagons, except the guard's van, having any form of braking.The 9F's should have been kept longer, many of them being less than 10 years old when scrapped.

Bob.

To confirm - Bidston Shed still retained some 8F locos after the 9Fs were given the Summers run - so they would be back-up, with the 04 being very rare, if at all on that run....

Hahaha I can remember going there with a pram to get some coal; we used to make a hole in the fencing and we helped ourselves.