Lime Street Re-opens

Lime Street re-opened this morning after eight weeks of work, so I took a quick look round.

Platform 1 has track, but is closed off by barriers - It is scheduled to open in October.  On the left, the old platform 1 stands trackless:

Further up, the far end of platforms 1 and 2 also awaits completion:

On the concourse, Virgin's First Class Lounge has gained a frontage, although a lot of work remains to be done:

And what of the train service, I hear you ask?  Writing at 4pm I note that at Huyton we have had eleven cancellations and twelve trains more than fifteen minutes late.  I suspect most of these are due to Northern's continuing crew problems, rather than being the fault of the new signalling.

Goodbye Lime Street Signal Box

Lime Street signal box was built in 1948 to a wartime LMS design. It has a Westinghouse 'L' power frame with 95 miniature levers. This is one of only two miniature lever frames remaining on Network Rail, the other being at Maidstone East.

The last passenger train to be controlled by the box is scheduled to depart at 19:49 this evening.  In due course the signalling will be decommissioned.  The area will be controlled from the Rail Operating Centre at Ashburys, Manchester when it re-opens on 30 July.

Elsewhere in Lime Street station, there was very little activity visible in the southern train shed this afternoon, most of the work going on was at the throat end of the station:

All over the station new signals are up and ready, and already lit.  These are the 'starters' for platforms 3 and 4 (new numbers):

LS91 stands at the end of platform 1 with just a few more hours of operation ahead: