The Hooton to West Kirby line- a couple of questions.

[Mogz]

When reading a book about the Hooton to West Kirby branch line (GWR/LNWR joint) on the Wirral, I read two oblique references that got me curious.

One referred to aborted pre-war electrification plans for the line (presumably off the back of the LMS electrification of the former Wirral Railway lines).

The second referred to an attempt by local preservationists to buy the line in 1963, which was thwarted because BR wanted too much money for it.

Does anyone have any further information about either of these stated facts?

 

[Calthrop]

@Mogz: Haven't we been here before, rather, a few months ago? You started a thread concerning the failed preservation venture -- "Hooton -- West Kirby branch steam railway" -- on the "Speculative Ideas" sub-forum, on 16 / 1 / 2020.

I'd do a link here, back to that thread; only, my computer skills are poor, and on these Forums anyway, I seem not to have the knack for links. The Hooton -- West Kirby line is one which I have long loved. In my response to your post in the abovementioned January thread, I gave a pointer, with Web address, to a brief publication by a local society (not a specific railway-interest group; seemingly, one concerning itself with local history in general), viz. a short history of the branch; including a line or two about the abortive preservation attempt: saying that it took place just in the 1960s; and that BR required as purchase price for the line, an unachievable approx. £100,000. (I have just logged on to this society's Web address re the article in question, which address I furnished in my post in the January thread: it worked now, as it did three months ago.)

I'm afraid I have no knowledge of electrification ideas floated pre-WWII, re the line: the first mention of such that has come my way, is that in your today's post. I hope you'll be able to get more information re both matters -- from whatever source -- than is at my command.

 

[30907]

Found it:
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/hooton-west-kirby-branch-steam-railway.198524/#post-4388123

 

[Mogz]

@Calthrop - many thanks for your response.

Unfortunately the link did not work for me (see screen shot of the attached, which is all that pops up when I try the link) and the thread rather died a death, it seems.

The publication that rekindled my curiosity is entitled “The Hooton to West Kirby Branch Line and The Wirral Way.” It was published in 1982 by the Merseyside History Group.

I attach a snap of the cover and the references in question, lest anyone have any further information to share.

 

[Taunton]

We moved from Somerset to The Wirral, actually West Kirby, somewhat after the line had closed, but on earlier visits I recall the track and signalling appeared still complete, but rusty/weedy. After closure it had apparently been used as a very long siding for dmu driver training from Chester and Birkenhead. I think at this period, after the Talyllyn and the Titfield Thunderbolt film, quite a lot of volunteer proposals, characterised more by the enthusiasm of the few rather than the revenue potential of the many, surrounded a number of line closures.

Some of the enthusiasm must have carried on, to two projects, one being conversion of the whole route to the Wirral Way footpath by Cheshire county council, completed just before they lost responsibility for much of the route to the new Merseyside, and the other was the restoration of Hadlow Road station along the way to a small static museum, which was done about 1970 and has lasted for 50 years pretty much as done then; inevitably over that time its maintenance has risen and fallen. It is somewhat protected from vandalism by being, like a number of the stations along the line, in the middle of nowhere.

The line served no real destination of consequence, most of the places it served focused on Liverpool, and to a lesser extent Birkenhead (notably more of a commercial centre then than nowadays) and Chester (the reverse). It had a long history of running with 0-4-2T tank locos and a single coach. Even the competing, later replacing, Crosville bus services along parallel roads, which unlike the train ran through the middle of the main population centres, were rather infrequent and random, and mostly empty. The main remaining traffic was scholars to the two Grammar schools (one for each gender) in West Kirby from Heswall and Neston, the boys' school requiring a subsequent daily mountaineering walk from the sea level station at Kirby Park station up to the school on one of the highest points in Wirral. The replacing buses, which started at the school gate, must have been notably welcome.

Unfortunately the link did not work for me

a little tweak :

Hooton to West Kirby Railway

describes the Hooton railway line

www.ashtonpark.btck.co.uk

unfortunately rather a lot of inaccuracies.

 

[Calthrop]

@Taunton -- thanks for making the link possible: as said upthread, on this site anything to do with links has been totally defeating me in recent times.

I had a -- sadly, only slight -- first-hand acquaintance with this line while it was still running. My parents came originally from the Chester area; as a family, we sometimes went on holiday in the 1950s / early 60s, to stay with relatives who had continued to live in that part of the world; including some who dwelt a little way south of Neston. It must have been in summer 1955 -- only months before the line's passenger services ceased -- that my mother and I were in Neston one afternoon: humouring my fascination, from infancy, with anything railway-related, she consented to dropping in, purely "on spec", at the Hooton -- W.K. line's Neston (South) station. We had no idea of the timetable: struck lucky in the arrival while we were on the station, of a working in the direction of Hooton -- my first conscious memory of an encounter with a push-and-pull train (one coach, indeed); and with a GWR type 0-4-2T. No travelling on the train -- Mum wasn't that indulgent ! -- we just witnessed, and marvelled at, its arriving and then departing.

 

[John Webb]

The line has been covered on the 'Disused Stations' website, for example Hadlow Road Station which has links to other stations on the line.

There are also pictures ancient and modern on the 'Geograph' website (click on photos to go to the larger originals):
Hadlow Road Station, 1960

© Copyright Alan Murray-Rust and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Hadlow Road Station, Willaston

© Copyright Sue Adair and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Although these pictures have rather less history attached to them!

 

[Taunton]

There was a lengthy discussion of the line a while back, including bits by self, here

Wirral trip reports

Hello again all, Today, I finally got around to doing the third and final of my intended series of three Wirral daytrips. As I mentioned in the first post in this thread (back in June!), daytrip three would cover that part of the geographical Wirral Peninsula which is in the "Cheshire West and...

www.railforums.co.uk

I didn't see the line used at all, but met plenty of older inhabitants who recalled it well, particularly from their juvenile years for those school trains mentioned. Besides the morning northward flow mentioned, there was also a southward one to a major private school at Parkgate, and elsewhere, and the two crossed on the loop at Thurstaston station where a variety of high jinks reportedly occurred between the adjacent carriages. Both compartment stock so it was a chance who you were pulled up alongside. Presume the guards both had to check the offside doors were secure before departure. The morning walk up from Kirby Park station to the boys' school, over the intervening National Trust heathland hill, was apparently also characterised by the smokers having a quick puff before arriving at school; occasionally a deputation of masters would be concealed behind the gorse bushes and would catch those doing so, who would then be lined up and thrashed in front of the whole school at morning assembly a few minutes later, apparently with no later impact on the practice.

 

[Ducatist4]

My mum used the railway from Neston South station to West Kirby every day to go to school. She lived on Bendee Road which ran parallel to the railway which was in a deep cutting at the end of the garden. I don't ever remember trains running on the line but I can remember the boarded up Neston South Station which was knocked down and Station Road on the new Mellock Lane estate was built. I can also remember the Wirral Way being created and I've cycled along it many times although not in the last twenty years or so as I no longer live locally.

 

[Calthrop]

A tiny bit of family anecdotage about the line concerned: from manuscript of an unpublished autobiography of a late uncle of mine (lived 1918 -- 2010). Tells of a mid-1920s family day-trip -- his parents, himself, and his four siblings -- from Chester where they lived, to the seaside or at least "estuary-side" at Parkgate. "We entrained [at Chester General station] for Hooton Junction, a good eight miles away; changing there for Neston and Parkgate. Third class was full, so the family commandeered a first class compartment. A sharp debate ensued between the guard and my father -- our side won, seven to one."

I rather relish the thought of my paternal grandfather -- who died long before I was born, but whom I've generally heard described as an exemplary citizen and person of great rectitude -- in a situation rather appropriate for the "Disputes & Prosecutions" sub-forum; and one in which I would reckon that many posters here, would consider him to be in the wrong, and the Birkenhead Joint Railway as the injured party !