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Southport to Liverpool specials.

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Loop Line

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Having travelled on a South Wales diesel trip from Southport via Burscough, I wondered if they ever travel south via the north Mersey Branch. I've seen one from a while back on YouTube. Four trains an hour would make it tricky to slot in perhaps but is it ever done?
 
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I'm sure that there was one or more specials run in connection with the open golf at Birkdale a good few years ago. I seem to remember that they ran with 156 or 158 units via the Bootle dock branch onto the Merseyrail network at Bootle and up to Hillside station, only a short walk to the golf course.
 

M28361M

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I'm pretty sure the signalling on the Southport line can support more than 4tph (at peak hours there are extra trains slotted in around the base 15 minute frequency) so as long as you're prepared to accept a slow journey pathed between Merseyrail stoppers it would be perfectly possible to send a railtour that way.

The key issue would be what rolling stock is cleared for that route; I've seen a variety of locos on engineering trains, but would a Mk3 coach be OK?

I have a memory that at some point (late 1990s I think) a railtour using a Southern DEMU made it to Southport via the Bootle branch and the Northern Line. I'm sure I saw a photo online showing the unit passing through Birkdale.

However, I can find no photographic evidence of that train now, and the Hastings Diesels website makes no mention of it, so maybe my memory is faulty. If anyone could confirm that I'm not going mad, that would be great.
 

Loop Line

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The footage of the journey through the bottle branch in YouTube shows the old slam door carriages so it must be doable.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
With regards to the extra trains slotted in, I'm sure I've seen those in occasion but none of the online schedules I've looked at include them. A couple of times today and yesterday I rode semi fast services from Southport to Sandhills, stopping only at Birkdale, Formby and Waterloo. Also Central to Hunts Cross non stop. This was owing to lateness as was a non stop service from Hall Road to Southport non stop which I left at Hall Road but would have enjoyed. I wonder how many express services ran this route per hour when they existed.
 

Ploughman

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Pre 30th April1977 When Exchange Stn shut and services were transferred underground.
There was a regular DMU service from Lime St to Southport which I assume used this line.
Was it hourly or less frequent than that?
Last time I used it, would have been about 6 months before the service stopped.
 
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Welshman

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Pre 30th April1977 When Exchange Stn shut and services were transferred underground.
There was a regular DMU service from Lime St to Southport which I assume used this line.
Was it hourly or less frequent than that?
Last time I used it, would have been about 6 months before the service stopped.

IIIC it ran only once or twice per day, to provide connection to/from London Euston.

Before electrification of the Lime St - Euston line,certain London trains contained Southport portions, attached/detached at Edge Hill, but this practice stopped when the AC service was introduced, hence the dmu connection to/ from Lime St.
 

jamesst

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The footage of the journey through the bottle branch in YouTube shows the old slam door carriages so it must be doable.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
With regards to the extra trains slotted in, I'm sure I've seen those in occasion but none of the online schedules I've looked at include them. A couple of times today and yesterday I rode semi fast services from Southport to Sandhills, stopping only at Birkdale, Formby and Waterloo. Also Central to Hunts Cross non stop. This was owing to lateness as was a non stop service from Hall Road to Southport non stop which I left at Hall Road but would have enjoyed. I wonder how many express services ran this route per hour when they existed.

0748/0803 Southport to Liverpool and 1713 Liverpool to Southport (Mon to Fri only) are the only additional trains outside of the standard 15minute service.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Back in the day (early 1980s) the preserved 503 (or was it a 502?) unit ran occasional specials between Southport and Liverpool Central. A rare example of a preserved EMU running on the national network, only the Ilford 306 (and, I think, the blue VEP) have managed it besides.
 
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