Liverpool Lime Street

I have a special affection for Liverpool Lime Street station. It was the departure point for so many of our train spotting adventures in the 1960s. We witnessed the official end of BR steam there in August 1968, yet within weeks of that event we welcomed the Flying Scotsman to the terminus on a special train.

As schoolboys, we even had a guided tour of the signal box, which was perched on the cliff wall at the tunnel mouth and towered above the platform ends. This trip was courtesy of Ray Smith, father of our friends, John and Tony. Ray’s role with the Post Office was sufficient to swing it for us. It was a generous thought on his part - the kind of thing you never forget.

We watched as the Princess and Coronation Pacifics heading the Merseyside Express and the Red Rose began their assault on the steep climb through the tunnels to Edge Hill, the bark of the engine echoing off the walls long after the train had actually left the station.

On one occasion, we even helped the members of the Scaffold pop group clamber aboard the last carriage of our London-bound express, with the departure whistle already poised and the green flag in hand.

Lime Street has become a meeting point for friends arriving from different parts, most recently, in our case, on the weekend before the tunnel wall collapsed. A convenient focal point has been erected on the concourse to facilitate such rendezvous, in the contrasting forms of Sir Ken Dodd and Bessie Braddock.

It is with some surprise, therefore, that I can find little photographic evidence of my many visits over the years. Perhaps it seemed to be such an unremarkable part of the local scene in the early days that we overlooked it.

Anyway, welcome back, Lime Street station. You were very nearly up and running at the start of it all, with getting on for two centuries of useful service achieved already. I bet you have been much missed, even if it was just for a few days.

English Electric Type Four No. D277 is hiding behind assorted structures at Liverpool Lime Street on 11/3/67. The signal box we visited was perched on the back wall to the left of the locomotive.