HELSBY – PHILIPS PARK

Dear Mike,

Phillips Park was actually on the L&Y, hence its absence from the Northern Division WTT. The nearest passenger stations were Miles Platting or Park. The train in question would have continued through Manchester Exchange and Victoria stations and up Miles Platting bank, turning off the L&Y main line at Miles Platting Junction to reach Phillips Park; in other words, following the same route as the LNWR Liverpool to Leeds express passenger trains.

Pocket Nook seems to have been an important marshalling yard in LNWR days. It was situated to the north of, St. Helens and from there was a, presumably goods only, line direct to Pleasey Junction on the St. Helens Junction line allowing goods trains to avoid St. Helens station. By 1937, according to the LMS Divisional Appendix it had been reduced to a single line between these two points. Strangely, in the Signalling Record Society’s ‘British Railways Layout Plans of the 1950s’, Vol.9, it is still there but as Up and Down Through Sidings. The last time I passed through St. Helens I could see no trace of either Pocket Nook or the direct line.

Don Rowland

D.312 / D.313 Corridor Brake Thirds

Dear Mike,

If the photo of BTK M6174 on page 264 of the March Journal is typical of the cove roof D.313 carriages, then they had 4+4 panelling in the van section on the

compartment side even if, as stated in the text, they had 3+4 panels on the corridor side.

Peter Davis

Philip Millard replies:

This is an embarrassment! As Peter says, the first D.313 carriages had 4 + 4 panelling. This idiocy has arisen because of a misguided global ‘search and replace’ in the text, which has altered 4+4 to 3+4 where it was not wanted.)

RAINHILL AND LIME STREET TURNTABLES

Dear Mike,

In Journal No.8 John Hughes asked whether a 4-6-0 and tender would fit on a fifty-foot turntable. The answer is ‘yes’. The following are taken from my retained LNWR (LMS) diagrams:

Experiment, Prince of Wales and 19in Goods 48ft 4¼in.

Probably the ability to use such turntables would have been a specification on the Civil Engineer’s list which, when met, would save a lot of money. Whilst browsing through the diagrams I might as well quote the 8-coupled engines too. Some difference in lengths may be attributed to different tenders:

Class F, the 2-8-0s with a coupled wheelbase of 17ft 3in, like all the other 8-coupled LNWR engines, totalled 46ft 1½in.