crispy1978
Member
I went over to Liverpool recently for a week's holiday, and travelled nearly every day to our various locations, so thought I would summarise them in to a quick report.
Day 1 (Mon 5/10/15) - travelled from home (Scarborough to our hotel which was near Moorfields, which was our "base station"). Travelled on 185142 from Scarborough to Liverpool South Parkway (High Level), everything ran on time - but we struggled to find where the Merseyrail service went from until I saw a platform some way in the distance, and realised that's where we needed to be. We missed our 7 minute connection (which would have been tight in anyone's book) and was instead a 22 minute one as we jumped on 508114 for the short trip to Moorfields, and walked round the corner to our IBIS Styles hotel.
Day 2 (Tue 6/10/15) - we planned to go to Chester Zoo, so we jumped on the Merseyrail Wirral Line to Chester, jumping on 507007 which was a couple of minutes late leaving Moorfields, but arrived bang on time. A great day was had at Chester Zoo until the thunderstorm arrived around 15:30 and we called it a day and headed back jumping on 507003 back to Moorfields.
Day 3 (Wed 7/10/15) - we just hung around Liverpool, visiting the Radio City Tower and Albert Dock (including the Maritime Museum), and walked it all day, so no trains!
Day 4 (Thu 8/10/15) - the original plan for today was Southport to visit the Model Railway Village, but some vandals had made a bit of a mess apparently, so it wasn't going to be open until Sunday. We spent a long time on Wednesday evening trying to work out what to do - nothing appealed in the local area, so we sourced around North Wales, and both being suckers for animals we found the Welsh Mountain Zoo at Colwyn Bay; this meant another trip to Chester, this time on 507031, before jumping on the Virgin service 221105 & 221117 - both services bang on time again. After a good day animal watching, it was time for home again, this time on the Arriva Trains Wales service 175007 to Chester which was a couple of minutes late, and the Merseyrail 508134back to James Street this time, as we wanted to look at the Liverpool One, and the Liverpool FC store for a couple of gifts.
Day 5 (Fri 9/10/15) - back on the original plan, today was a trip to Ellesmere Port to the Blue Planet Aquarium (did I mention we liked animals?) - we just turned up on the Wirral Line platform and took what was going, which happened to be a Chester service 508125 and a change at Hooton in the stunning sunshine to jump on 507033 to Ellesmere Port - the fact we were 9 minutes late leaving, and 6 minutes late arriving wasn't too concerning as we basked in the October sunshine! After a good day with the fishes, we headed back home jumping on 507020 back which was again on time.
Day 6 (Sat 10/10/15) - today was a long day, we'd pre-sourced the 53rd Furness Model Railway Exhibition at Barrow-in-Furness. After umming and arring on the best way to get there, we decided to allow National Rail Enquiries to be our guide, and went from Moorfields to Liverpool Lime Street on 508128 before jumping on the Northern Electrics 319374 to Wigan North Western, arriving 3 minutes early. Train 3 was from Wigan North Western to Lancaster on the Virgin service 390042 (left 4 mins late, arrived 7 late) and then the Northern service to Barrow on 156448 which arrived 3 minutes late. After gorging ourselves on model railways, which is my new hobby as rail-tours like this are not on the agenda anymore unfortunately, it was again time for home. Transpennine Express 185149took us from Barrow to Preston, and some much needed phone-charge before we had fun and games locating platform 3C at Preston. Having just got Northern train 142031 to Ormskirk (4 minutes late leaving and arriving) on what I must describe as the bumpiest track I have ever travelled on, and then 508114 back to Moorfields, it was time to relax after a long day out.
Day 7 (Sun 11/10/15) - Southport back on the menu. There were engineering works from Liverpool Central to Bootle Oriel Road, so we had a rail replacement bus to deal with which wasn't too onerous - 508115 took us there, and we had a good time round the model railway village, which is well worth a look. After a chippy lunch, and an explore of the town, it was time for home again on 507008.
Day 8 (Mon 12/10/15) - home time - a quick jaunt from Moorfields for the last time to Lime Street on 508123 and the Transpennine service 185137 got us back to Scarborough 5 minutes late.
All in all, a great holiday - and I managed to tick off 74 new stations (I count stopping at a station sufficient!) taking me to 472 stopped stations, and 258 stations merely passed through.
Have attached some photos of Hooton and Barrow stations:
Hooton 1, Hooton 2, Barrow 1, Barrow 2, Barrow 3
Also - the pics from the Furness Exhibition and the Southport Model Village are in my Flickr album per the links
Day 1 (Mon 5/10/15) - travelled from home (Scarborough to our hotel which was near Moorfields, which was our "base station"). Travelled on 185142 from Scarborough to Liverpool South Parkway (High Level), everything ran on time - but we struggled to find where the Merseyrail service went from until I saw a platform some way in the distance, and realised that's where we needed to be. We missed our 7 minute connection (which would have been tight in anyone's book) and was instead a 22 minute one as we jumped on 508114 for the short trip to Moorfields, and walked round the corner to our IBIS Styles hotel.
Day 2 (Tue 6/10/15) - we planned to go to Chester Zoo, so we jumped on the Merseyrail Wirral Line to Chester, jumping on 507007 which was a couple of minutes late leaving Moorfields, but arrived bang on time. A great day was had at Chester Zoo until the thunderstorm arrived around 15:30 and we called it a day and headed back jumping on 507003 back to Moorfields.
Day 3 (Wed 7/10/15) - we just hung around Liverpool, visiting the Radio City Tower and Albert Dock (including the Maritime Museum), and walked it all day, so no trains!
Day 4 (Thu 8/10/15) - the original plan for today was Southport to visit the Model Railway Village, but some vandals had made a bit of a mess apparently, so it wasn't going to be open until Sunday. We spent a long time on Wednesday evening trying to work out what to do - nothing appealed in the local area, so we sourced around North Wales, and both being suckers for animals we found the Welsh Mountain Zoo at Colwyn Bay; this meant another trip to Chester, this time on 507031, before jumping on the Virgin service 221105 & 221117 - both services bang on time again. After a good day animal watching, it was time for home again, this time on the Arriva Trains Wales service 175007 to Chester which was a couple of minutes late, and the Merseyrail 508134back to James Street this time, as we wanted to look at the Liverpool One, and the Liverpool FC store for a couple of gifts.
Day 5 (Fri 9/10/15) - back on the original plan, today was a trip to Ellesmere Port to the Blue Planet Aquarium (did I mention we liked animals?) - we just turned up on the Wirral Line platform and took what was going, which happened to be a Chester service 508125 and a change at Hooton in the stunning sunshine to jump on 507033 to Ellesmere Port - the fact we were 9 minutes late leaving, and 6 minutes late arriving wasn't too concerning as we basked in the October sunshine! After a good day with the fishes, we headed back home jumping on 507020 back which was again on time.
Day 6 (Sat 10/10/15) - today was a long day, we'd pre-sourced the 53rd Furness Model Railway Exhibition at Barrow-in-Furness. After umming and arring on the best way to get there, we decided to allow National Rail Enquiries to be our guide, and went from Moorfields to Liverpool Lime Street on 508128 before jumping on the Northern Electrics 319374 to Wigan North Western, arriving 3 minutes early. Train 3 was from Wigan North Western to Lancaster on the Virgin service 390042 (left 4 mins late, arrived 7 late) and then the Northern service to Barrow on 156448 which arrived 3 minutes late. After gorging ourselves on model railways, which is my new hobby as rail-tours like this are not on the agenda anymore unfortunately, it was again time for home. Transpennine Express 185149took us from Barrow to Preston, and some much needed phone-charge before we had fun and games locating platform 3C at Preston. Having just got Northern train 142031 to Ormskirk (4 minutes late leaving and arriving) on what I must describe as the bumpiest track I have ever travelled on, and then 508114 back to Moorfields, it was time to relax after a long day out.
Day 7 (Sun 11/10/15) - Southport back on the menu. There were engineering works from Liverpool Central to Bootle Oriel Road, so we had a rail replacement bus to deal with which wasn't too onerous - 508115 took us there, and we had a good time round the model railway village, which is well worth a look. After a chippy lunch, and an explore of the town, it was time for home again on 507008.
Day 8 (Mon 12/10/15) - home time - a quick jaunt from Moorfields for the last time to Lime Street on 508123 and the Transpennine service 185137 got us back to Scarborough 5 minutes late.
All in all, a great holiday - and I managed to tick off 74 new stations (I count stopping at a station sufficient!) taking me to 472 stopped stations, and 258 stations merely passed through.
Have attached some photos of Hooton and Barrow stations:
Hooton 1, Hooton 2, Barrow 1, Barrow 2, Barrow 3
Also - the pics from the Furness Exhibition and the Southport Model Village are in my Flickr album per the links
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