SOUTHPORT LORD STREET LOCOMOTIVE SHED

[Source: Paul Wright]

Notes: The locomotive shed at Southport Lord Street opened with the Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway (SCLER) on xxx 1884. The shed was provided to serve Southport Lord Street station and its adjacent goods yard. The shed was located to the west of the passenger station and on the south side of the goods yard.

The SCLER was operated from the start by the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) with which there was a close relationship. The CLC was a joint railway made up of three partners, the Great Northern Railway (GNR), the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) and the Midland Railway (MR). The CLC had its own rolling stock but it did not have any locomotives, the partners having reached agreement that the MS&LR would provide them.

The shed building was a brick structure with two roads and it could house four locomotives. There were watering and coaling facilities to the south-west of the shed building.

At the time of opening Southport Lord Street was a sub-shed of Walton-on-the-Hill and, as such, did not have an allocation of locomotives of its own. It did have a complement of train crew who operated the services that ran from Lord Street. Locomotives prepared, turned and serviced at Southport Lord Street would have included Walton-on-the-Hill engines sent up to work trains as well as engines from further afield that had worked to Southport.

By 1921 Southport had been reallocated as a sub-shed of Liverpool Brunswick, only to return to Walton-on-the-Hill in 1923.

Very little would have changed at Southport Lord Street until Nationalisation of the railways on 1 January 1948 when it became part of British Railways (London Midland Region). On xxx Lord Street was made a sub-shed of Southport Derby Road, the ex-Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (LYR) locomotive depot.

In the late 1940s Lord Street had a complement of eight staff, four drivers and four passed firemen. If additional staff were needed they were sent from Derby Road. A typical working for the shed was the 08.xxam service to Liverpool Central. Staff would book on for the service at xxxx and prepare a locomotive. It would then back onto its train at Lord Street station and work it Liverpool Central. Upon arrival at Liverpool the locomotive would be turned and would work a stopping service to Manchester Central. It then worked back to Liverpool. The Southport crew would then take the engine to Brunswick Shed for servicing. They would travel back to Lord Street as passengers via the Liverpool Overhead Railway and the ex-LYR line to Southport Chapel Street. An afternoon crew would then travel to Brunswick following the same route in reverse. They would take the engine from Brunswick to Liverpool Central and back it onto the 6.12pm all stations train to Southport Lord Street. They would then work the train back to Southport where the engine would be returned to the depot.

The shed closed on 7 July 1952 when the former SCLER line closed completely between Southport and Altcar.

Sources:

  • An illustrated History of The Cheshire Lines Committee, by P Bolger, Heyday Publishing 1984.
  • Shed Side in South Lancashire and Cheshire, by Kenn Pearce 2012.
  • The Cheshire Lines Committee Then and Now, by Nigel Dyckhoff 1984.

See Also: Southport Lord Street


Southport Lord Street Locomotive Shed looking south-west in 1929.
P
hoto from the Roger Griffiths collection

Southport Lord Street Locomotive Shed shown on a 1909 map. To the east of the shed is the goods station. The end of the platforms of the passenger station can be seen to right.


A view looking south-east at the Southport Lord Street Locomotive Shed in 1950. The goods shed can be seen to the left. In the distance above the goods shed can be seen the clock tower of Southport Lord Street station.
Photo from the John Mann collection


An aerial view of Southport Lord Street Locomotive shed seen in the summer of 1947.
Reproduced with the kind permission of Simmons Aerofilms Ltd


Southport Lord Street Locomotive Shed seen from the air in 1948. To the south of the shed can be seen the Southport Flower Show with its huge crowds. The show would have generated extra traffic for Southport Lord Street. To see a larger version click here.
Photo from the Southport Visitor Archive

 

 

 

[Source: Paul Wright]




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