19/04/2020
Another great review of our recent Midland Railway Outpost (Lancaster, Morecambe, Heysham) by Michael Blakemore in the April issue of Backtrack. Brighten up your day with a good book. Available now from our website along with other colour albums: https://www.willowherbpublishing.com/
Picture albums of variable quality come and go, but Willowherb has produced some good colour ones and this is another. The Lancaster-Morecambe-Heysham line is, perhaps, a short one to be the subject of its own such book but its significance is that in 1908 it became one of the electrification pioneers when the Midland Railway instituted a service using a 6,600V ac overhead system. Sadly this had gone, it seems, before colour photography had captured these electric cars and in 1951 the system was abandoned, but in 1953 the line was re-electrified by BR using converted ex-LNWR third rail vehicles as a testbed for the high voltage ac overhead system which was to become the standard we know today. Fortunately, they are able to feature prominently.
However, there is more to this album than just the section identified in the title. Covering begins at the erstwhile junction station at Wennington where the line to Carnforth diverged from the direct route to Morecambe which closed, with the electric service, in 1966. However, through trains from Leeds produced serious motive power, one fine shot depicting a 'Peak' with six coaches and two parcels vans, passing a sign at Halton listing the tolls over the railway-owned toll bridge across the River Lune. Carnforth is featured and the importance and generous provision of the Morecambe Promenade station is clearly shown, as is that at Heysham, once the MR's port for Ireland. Branch lines pictured include the Glasson Dock branch from Lancaster, one view showing an Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0 apparently stranded rail-less in the completely overgrown siding just before closure. Motive power is the expected LMS steam and BR diesel types; a brief mention might be made of one of the odd and unsuccessful Metro-Vic Co- Bos — before moving on.
There is a splendid selection of photographs featuring the steamers from Heysham on the Irish and Isle of Man sailings, my choice being a splendid shot of no fewer than seven turbine steamers at Douglas having crossed to the IOM from English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish ports. Morecambe is still rail-served, just, with a new two-platform basic station having replaced the Midland's multi-platform Promenade; it suffices for what in recent times has often been no more than a two-car 'Pacer'. The LNWR once had its own station there, Euston Road, as well! Heysham as a port is still busy but the railway plays very little part in its traffic. This is a quality production by the author, the publisher and the Amadeus Press.
