half miley tunnel, bootle pics and help

this tunnel under marsh lane and strand road/bootle new strand station, used to be a railway line, running from langton dock to fazakerley north junction, when it closed in the late 1960s it has been filled up to street level, it used to be much deeper



http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...DSCF0014-1.jpg

this pic of how it is today is from this site
http://www.bootlehistory.com/bootle_gallery.html

and how it used to be
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...lanetunnel.jpg



looking under stanley road to the tunnel mouths of the half miley which you can still see the top of next to the tyre garage on marsh lane, this tunnel runs under the marsh lane and under the canal before emerging under hawthorne road

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9.../halfmiley.jpg

both pics looking west, taken from " an illustrated history of liverpools railways" and "backtrack" railway magazine




im looking for pics of this line around the western end of the half miley tunnel, around the hawthorne road, southport road, walton prison area, and the branch that went into linacre lane gasworks over the canal and over hawthorne road near the old peoples ford garage, if anyone can help please, i have seen one or two pics from the air of the area

cheers

mike

the tunnel in the last picture, can be seen in the left middle of this pic (arrowed green)
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...delz/007-2.jpg

taken from bootle history website, marsh lane runs across the pic, above the canal, the other tunnel entrance can be seen to the right at the junction with hawthorne road (arrowed blue), also can be seen the line over the canal and hawthorne road into the gasworks, (arrowed red)

mike

:handclap::handclap: Fantastic pics once again :handclap::handclap:

thanks kev, my dad was brought up on fernhill road in the 60s and used to watch the steam trains struggle up from the docks, blasting loud out of the tunnel, which is why we are searching for pics of that particular area,

cheers

mike

Excellent pics. I never new it was a old railway line or it been filled.

Learn something new.

Hi Mike

Very interesting pics and information. Thanks!

Chris

Amazing pics :handclap:

Have a look into that Bootle web-site folks - there are some fantastic archive pictures in there. I love the old family photographs. Brilliant. :handclap:



thanks Mike for posting that link.

Yes, you're right Lindy, thanks Mike.

About a year ago when I found out about the Marsh Lane tunnel, I was more than surprised. It seemed hard to believe that a railway had run right through there. Thanks for the pictures - I had no idea the tunnel under the main line was that deep!

Also, I never realised that the gas works branch went over the canal, rather than through a tunnel. Somewhere I have an old map of the area that shows the route of the line. I doubt there's much trace left, although I think the trackbed and Marsh Lane tunnel still exist. Not sure what state they're in though.

I used to run along the canal from the Eldonian Village through to Litherland, having to cross over the footbridge at Bootle Strand and then come back via the roads. At the Stanley Road/Commercial road junction in Kirkdale there is a great feat in engineering with a myriad of cross-overs whereby the railway goes over the canal and then the roadway goes over both.

if it tells you anything,

the course of the line in bootle is completley filled up,

wheras as soon as you get to the border with liverpool, the trackbed is still at the original depth,


you can see this past the prison, under broomfield road, over the liverpool to ormskirk railway, over rice lane, and then over the kirkby to liverpool line (the only bridge to be taken away as it was the first from the junction so as to sever the line,basically an attitude of take it away before someone says leave it and open it up again)


where it used to meet up at hartleys hill with the cheshire lines to halewood.


mike

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mike delamar

this tunnel under marsh lane and strand road/bootle new strand station, used to be a railway line, running from langton dock to fazakerley north junction, when it closed in the late 1960s it has been filled up to street level, it used to be much deeper



http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...DSCF0014-1.jpg

this pic of how it is today is from this site
http://www.bootlehistory.com/bootle_gallery.html

---

Hi Mike

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed looking at the photographs of the murals in the Marsh Lane Time Tunnel on the Bootle website you cited. A wonderful project to get the community involved in "owning" a piece of their neighbourhood, and so instill in everyone pride in ownership, and to help educate about the history of the area at the same time. Excellent.

All my best

Chris

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mike delamar

if it tells you anything,

the course of the line in bootle is completley filled up,

wheras as soon as you get to the border with liverpool, the trackbed is still at the original depth,


you can see this past the prison, under broomfield road, over the liverpool to ormskirk railway, over rice lane, and then over the kirkby to liverpool line (the only bridge to be taken away as it was the first from the junction so as to sever the line,basically an attitude of take it away before someone says leave it and open it up again)


where it used to meet up at hartleys hill with the cheshire lines to halewood.


mike

---

I always wondered where the Rice lane bridge led to.They should open it up like they did with the loop.

Does anyone know where the bridge over Ormskirk road goes to?The one just past the racecourse entrance.

Hi Stan

I think (if my memory serves me correctly) that this bridge is on is the old Cheshire Lines Extension to Southport, which is now the Cheshire Lines Cycleway.
This bridge, I think is located between what was Aintree Central (Closed 1960) & Sefton & Maghull stations (Closed to passengers in 1952, along with all other stations, up to Southport Lord Street, however the line did linger on for a while for goods).
After the bridge across the A59, the line then ran along an embankment to Sefton & Maghull.
Hope this helps, rgds, SiM.

[QUOTE=stan;53927]I always wondered where the Rice lane bridge led

hi stan

its a single line into the old british enka works, where there was a few sidings and they had there own little loco :) mainly coal would go in there

mike

hi stan

its a single line into the old british enka works, where there was a few sidings and they had there own little loco :) mainly coal would go in there

mike

Thanks for clearing that up.The Aintree bridge looks as though the Cheshire lines route branches off it looks as though it used to go through the racecourse.Just beyond that is a bridge that goes over the Alt which runs parallel to the alt viaduct (Leeds Liverpool canal).
On the subject of the loop,I took a ride down to maghull yesterday and noticed workmen erecting a fence ,closing off the track.When I asked why fences were being erected,they said "Sefton and Liverpool have been arguing over it".
Effing marvellous.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mike delamar

hi stan

its a single line into the old british enka works, where there was a few sidings and they had there own little loco :) mainly coal would go in there

mike

---

Yes, the road that it leads to is actually called Brenka Avenue.

no probs

this one that went under bootle strand station, been searching for years for more pics of it, and cant find any,

it went under where the police station is, next to the strand bus depot, an was in a cutting under what is now the peugeot garage,

does anyone know of any pics of this area say before the 60s?

around strand road, stanley road area?

cheers

mike

this is the end of the tunnel, marked blue on the map above these days

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9.../viewphoto.jpg

can just see the two archways above the trees

mike

WOW thats amazing ive walked thoght that tunnel 1000 of times.

were there any stations along this rout or was it just fright?

always freight only this one :)

wow thank you so much for them photos i have been looking everywhere for photos of this branch so i proves the land has been filledup a lot since the shopping centre was built so does this mean the other end of the tunnel is now blocked underground?

yep you can still see the top of it in the corner of the kids park, next to the tyre garage on marsh lane/beecher steet,

think they keep one end clear in case of any problems,

theres a underground walkway for the gasworks that goes across the tunnel underground, my dad said you could hear the workers walking above you if you where in the railway tunnel

think the line was still there when the strand shopping centre was there, it snaked between that and the police station,

what year did the strand open?

because i know the line didnt go till around 1969-70, and my arl man reckons it didnt get filled for a few years later,

mike

I've seen pictures of the walkway inside the tunnel on this forum somewhere...

I've got 'The Autocar' for 28 August 1959, and have photographed what was probably the first report on the Mini.
If anybody wants the original photos, pm me, because they're 2.5 Mb each.

Kev, if I've put this in the wrong place, would you move it, please?

I can't unload the 6th pic at the moment.
"Error 500 - Internal server error".
I'll try later.

Success at last!

Now, I can't delete this post!

Mike, check out this link - http://www.british-history.ac.uk/map.aspx?compid=55207 or just go to British History Online/Maps. It's a collection of maps of Liverpool/Bootle from 1893. Open up the individual map tiles & the one for Bootle clearly shows the route of the branch from the docks to Hartley's Jam Factory. In addition it clearly shows the dozens of streets that then existed in & around Marsh Lane/Stanley Road/Strand Road etc.

That's a useful link-thanks!

Dave.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mike delamar

hi stan

its a single line into the old british enka works, where there was a few sidings and they had there own little loco :) mainly coal would go in there

mike

---

Indeed my old Dad worked there. It was a fireless loco. I have a distant dim memory from the 70's of a few mineral wagons standing on the exchange siding just outside Aintree station.

Love to see a pic of that loco. Or the works when it was turning out Bristol Fighters during ww1!

Me, Snowy Higgins and Marty Sheridan walked through it,aged 11:PDT11

I've recently been looking at the urban exploration web site 28dayslater. Its interesting to find people still wanting to explore all those old tunnels that we used to go through when we were kids.

John