Regent Road showing Union Cold Storage Co, 1978

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fatboyjoe90
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Regent Road showing Union Cold Storage Co, 1978

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Regent Road showing Liverpool Maritime Terminals Ltd, 1978



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Regent Road showing East Alexandra Brach Dock warehouse, 1978
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Last edited by fatboyjoe90 on Tue Mar 30, 2021 9:04 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Cheers Joe.
bob. b
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Joe again fantastic pictures some of my family worked in the cold storage,
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Mack
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Thanks Joe :D

Great piccys :)

Mack
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your comments Bob,and Mack. :wink: :)

Two of my mates used work in the Alex cold store, and I knew some of the lads who worked in Bridle Road cold stores as well. :wink:
Cheers Joe.
Bill fawcett
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Great pictures.
My father worked for the Union Cold Stores opposite The Playhouse until they closed down.

Bill
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks Bill. :wink:
Cheers Joe.
bob. b
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Joe they had a footy team if you scored a goal you got some chicken pieces.
bboardman
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Great photos Joe--My very first job after leaving St Georges School,was as a messager for the shipping company Ellerman and Papayani and their office was based in the Alexander Dock.Your pics had me walking through the dock gates again--Great memories,thanks Joe---Billy
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fatboyjoe90
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Bob, thanks for letting me know they got paid in chicken pieces. :wink: :lol: :lol:
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks Billy, it’s my pleasure, that the photo of the Alex Dock gate brought back some happy memories for you. :wink: :) :)
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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Alex Dock Kiosk.does anyone know the lad behind the counter? :wink:

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Last edited by fatboyjoe90 on Fri Jan 10, 2020 9:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cheers Joe.
vinny
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great pics Joe :D
bob. b
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Joe Fantastic Pictures great one of the lad in the shop
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fatboyjoe90
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The Gladstone Dock station entrance looking north-east at the time of opening in 1914. The LYR was obviously very keen to promote their station as evidenced by the large sign above the entrance gateway. The ticket office can be seen at the top of the steps.
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Looking north from the south end of Gladstone Dock station in September 1914. A train is seen arriving and a group of passengers are waiting to board it.
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Gladstone Dock LOR station looking south from street level in the 1930's.
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A passenger line, the Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR) which opened on 6 March 1893 served the area the nearest station being at Seaforth Sands (opened as part of an extension on 30 April 1894). The LOR ran south along the full extent of the dock system passing through the city centre. During the electrification of 1906 live rails had actually extended west along the branch from North Mersey Branch Junction to make a connection with the LOR at Rimrose Road Junction to the east of Seaforth Sands. This had been done to allow through running of services between the two systems (From 2 July 1905 many LOR trains continued to Seaforth & Litherland station where connections with Liverpool and Southport line trains could be made).

Many suburbs had grown up in the Bootle area to the north of the city and the LYR considered that there would be demand for a link to Gladstone Dock. To serve a new station at Gladstone Dock required only a short length of electrification from the junction with the LOR at Seaforth Sands to a point on the branch adjacent to Regent Road and its junction with Shore Street.

Gladstone Dock station opened on 7 September 1914. The station was located on a curving section of a brick arch viaduct on the west side of Regent Road. There was only one platform which was on the west side of the viaduct. It was a timber construction that protruded out from the viaduct supported by trusses. Access was via a set of steps that led up from Shore Street. Facilities were basic there being only a simple timber booking office.

The line through the station was double track but only the up line which served the platform was electrified. To the north of the station a crossover allowed electric trains approaching the station on the down line to access the up line which was bi-directional and thereby reach the station. Goods trains passed through the station on their way into and out of North Mersey Goods via the appropriate line. The line at Gladstone Dock was controlled by North Mersey High Level signal box. It was located on the south side of Shore Road on the west side of the line. The box opened with the station on 7 September 1914 replacing an earlier one dating from 1886. It was a small LYR box with a twelve lever frame.

Gladstone Dock was served by trains that ran to and from Aintree LYR. In 1922 the LYR was merged into the London & North Western Railway (LNWR). In July 1922 there were seven trains in each direction Monday-to-Friday and eight on Saturdays as shown in the table below. The journey to Aintree took only seven minutes. There were no trains on Sundays.

On 1 January 1923 the LNWR became part of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS). Gladstone Dock station had not lived up to the expectations of the LYR and was used by only a fraction of the passengers that used the LOR Seaforth Sands station. For this reason the LMS closed Gladstone Dock on 7 July 1924. The station can clearly be seen on a 1927 1:200 scale map but on subsequent maps it was absent. The station was still in-situ in 1937 but it had been demolished by the following year. The North Mersey High Level signal box closed sometime between March 1937 and 26 September 1938. The line between Gladstone Dock station and Rimrose Road Junction was de-electrified after the passenger service had ended.

Goods services continued to pass through the site of Gladstone Dock station until 2 February 1971 when the line between North Mersey Goods and North Mersey Branch Junction was closed completely (The LOR had already closed on 30 December 1956). North Mersey Goods closed in 1973 trains having to access it from the south by the dock board railway after 2 February 1971.

Since 1973 the area has been substantially altered and in 2013 the site of Gladstone Dock station was inside the Liverpool dock estate. Nothing survived of the station nor the line on which it had stood. :wink: :)
Last edited by fatboyjoe90 on Fri Jan 10, 2020 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cheers Joe.
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Alexandra Dock opened with the line as ‘Atlantic Dock’ on 5 September 1881. The dock after which the station was named was going to be called Atlantic Dock by the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board (MD&HB). A few days before it was due to have its official opening the MD&HB decided to rename it Alexandra Dock after HRH Princess Alexandra. The LNWR followed their lead renaming the passenger and goods station on 10 September 1881.
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Alexandra Dock passenger station was located to the south of the goods station. It was on the east side of Regent Road which was part of the main dock road that paralleled the Liverpool dock system. The station was provided with a single-storey brick building. A long single platform to its rear was within a trainshed for almost its entire length. Between the passenger and the goods stations a line exited onto Regent Road, crossing it and curving north to connect with the MD&HB railway. To the south of the passenger station, there was a goods yard. At the east end of the platform, an LNWR type 4 signal box with a 45 lever frame controlled traffic movements into both the goods and passenger stations.
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Looking east along the platform at Alexandra Dock station in the 1930s.
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Looking west at Alexandra Dock station in 1959.

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From the start, the passenger service ran between Alexandra Dock and Liverpool Lime Street calling at all intermediate stations. The service was well used as it provided a valuable link between the docks and the rapidly developing suburban areas of Liverpool. This service was interspersed between Canada Dock - Liverpool Lime Street trains; the services between the city centre and the two dockland termini had a similar frequency.
On 6 March 1893, the Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR) opened an elevated electric line between Herculaneum Dock (at the southern end of the dock system) and Alexandra Dock. The LOR opened a station on the opposite side of Regent Road and a short distance north of the LNWR’s Alexandra Dock station. The LOR ran right by the commercial centre of Liverpool and offered a far more direct route than the LNWR line. The LOR was extended further north to Seaforth Sands on 30 April 1894.
On 1 January 1923, Alexandra Dock became part of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS). By summer 1932 the majority of trains running between Liverpool and the Bootle branch were operating to Alexandra Dock, leaving only a handful to serve Canada Dock. There were thirteen arrivals and eleven departures Monday-to-Friday with one less arrival on Saturdays.
The passenger service remained much the same throughout the 1930s. During the Second World War, the Liverpool dock system was extremely busy. It was also in the direct line of fire. The first bombs fell on 4 August 1940 and the last on 10 January 1942. May 1941 was a particularly bad month. Alexandra Dock goods station was severely damaged during the bombing but traffic was able to continue running. Nearby Canada Dock was so badly damaged that the passenger service was withdrawn on 5 May 1941 leaving only the Alexandra Dock and Liverpool Line Street service.

After the war, the service never recovered the LMS Summer 1947 timetable showing six departures Monday-to-Friday only five of which went forward to Lime Street (one terminated at Edge Lane. There were five arrivals and no trains ran on Saturdays or Sundays
On 1 January 1948, the station became part of British Railways (London Midland Region). British Railways withdrew the passenger service between Alexandra Dock and Liverpool Lime Street on 31 May 1948. It saw passengers once again on 6 June 1959 when the Merseyside railtour visited. It hosted another railtour, the Liverpool Suburban on 13 June 1964.
Alexandra Dock station looking west from Derby Road on 13 June 1964 during a visit by the

Liverpool Suburban railtour. The former passenger station is to the right of the train.

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The passenger station survived intact until the late 1960s. The goods station (which was rebuilt in a simpler form after the war) continued to handle traffic until 1988. By the mid-1990s, there was only a single track at Alexandra Dock that connected to the MD&HB lines. The line between Alexandra Dock and the MD&HB system had fallen out of use by the mid-1970s but was brought back into use in 1980 to serve the Seaforth container terminal. In the second half of the 1980s coal traffic also began to run on the line and this was followed by other traffic flows. The line up to Regent Road was re-doubled in the late 1990s and in 2013 was a very busy stretch of freight railway. Nothing remains of the original passenger station.
Last edited by fatboyjoe90 on Fri Jan 10, 2020 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cheers Joe.
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Not Regent Road but it’s the continuation of it.
The Liverpool Overhead Railway 1956.
James Street bottom left, Phone boxes outside White Star building. :wink:

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Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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More Leyland's This is how they used to do it. :wink:

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Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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Sadly this is the way i remember the Dock Road. :cry: :(
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Cheers Joe.
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filsgreen
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Don't be sad joe, they've just moved that image to Dunningsbrige Road and Church Road ;-)
WatsonTommy
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they were all council houses till maggie sold them of :twisted:
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fatboyjoe90
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Gladstone Dock Seaforth 8th February 1949. :wink:

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fatboyjoe90
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RMS Lustitania entering Canada graving dock. :wink:
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Cheers Joe.
lynne99
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Joe, All I can say is "WOW" Thanks for posting.
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filsgreen
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Great photo, Joe. Thanks for posting.
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fatboyjoe90
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The Mammoth loading the Flying Scotsman as it headed for America 1969.
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Cheers Joe.
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filsgreen
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Great photo Joe. Two fantastic feats of engineering. I remember the sign 'No arms to Nigeria"
lynne99
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Joe , where do you find them? Another great photo. Is the flying scotsman still in America or has it come back?
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Invicta
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Hi Lynne,
My Wife saw one passing through Wigan station about 18 months ago. She was returning from visiting her Sister and wondered why the platform was so crowded with people with cameras, she thought a celebrity was arriving :lol: Ken
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fatboyjoe90
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Image :wink:
The Flying Scotsman takes to the air courtesy of the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board floating crane Mammoth. It is being swung aboard Cunard Line's freighter Saxonia in Liverpool, bound for the US, on September 19, 1969. :)
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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lynne99 wrote:Joe , where do you find them? Another great photo. Is the flying scotsman still in America or has it come back?

Hiya Lynne, In January 1963 Alan Pegler bought Flying Scotsman. As part of the deal, Pegler negotiated a complete overhaul of the locomotive. It was converted back to single chimney condition and repainted to London & North Eastern Railway livery. The tender was exchanged for a corridor type, and an agreement made that enabled it to run on the main line. In a blaze of publicity, Scotsman ran its last train for BR on 14 January 1963.

In May 1968 on the 40th anniversary of the first non-stop run, Flying Scotsman travelled non-stop from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh.

In 1969 Flying Scotsman headed for America. The first year tour broke even, but the second lost money. To try to balance the books Pegler arranged for the train to travel to San Francisco. Trading was good but sponsorship didn’t materialise. Alan Pegler was forced into bankruptcy and for now, at least, Scotsman was stranded in the USA. However, in 1973 Flying Scotsman was brought back to the UK after William McAlpine heard about the situation in the USA and promptly put together a rescue plan.

Following a successful tour of Australia, Scotsman ran special trains around Britain. In 1993 it received an interim overhaul and pop impresario Pete Waterman bought a 50% stake in it. In February 1996 businessman Tony Marchington bought Scotsman outright for £1.25 million. :wink: :D :D
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your comments Phil and Ken. :wink:
Cheers Joe.
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Great pics Joe, i actually stood and watched the whole thing happening. Regarding the floating crane Mammoth, i was brought up on tales of how she was stolen from the Germans and then stolen back by the Germans only to be stolen again by the British before ending up on the Mersey. (All a complete myth of course) she was in fact built for the Russians, (in Holland) (but the 1917 revolution put an end to the sale and she ended up being sold to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in 1920.
During the war she was sunk during an air raid on the Birkenhead side of the river, it was said that because of the importance of the Port of Liverpool and the role the Mammoth played in it that Winston Churchill himself ordered the immediate salvage of the vessel (it took about 12 months for her to be back in service).
I can also remember 2 other smaller floating cranes, Sampson and Atlas. JJC.
lynne99
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Joe , Thanks for the info. I thought I had heard of it doing trips, but I' m likely to get mistaken. Good to know it came home. Thanks again Lynne
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fatboyjoe90
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No probs Lynne. :wink: :D
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Cunard liner Ivernia, in Canada Dock Liverpool July 1955. :wink:

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