A couple for old bus fans!

[johnoakes]

Very interesting.When did the trams stop running to Prescot?

I have no memory of the tram lines up the hill but remember distinctly the route up past the college.
Was it a phased closure or just a quick stroke of a beurocrats pen and the whole line finished|?

Nice to think that at least one of the trams is preserved at Crich.I visited there many years ago and was amazed at the hard work these enthusiasts had put into it.They deserve every success.

I also saw trams at the open air museum at Beamish.All very laudable.

051 was always necessary from St Helens--that rough place next door to Huyton.LOL.

Trolley buses--yes 8 was clockwise 9 anticlockwise and 7 just to Rainhill and return. Didn't miss them until they were gone.If you grew up with them as I did they didn't seem spectacular.But they were --and rare too.Are any trolleybuses preserved I wonder.

I think there are still trolleybuses in France--maybe Lyon or Grenoble.I will look out for them next tiime I visit.

[ronturner]

According to the following, 1949 was the date of the last tram to Prescot. I would have been under 6 years old. Strange that I have such vivid memories of those trams climbing up the hill, and racing down. I remember buying the 1d all day ticket. I must have been more than 5 years old.

liverpolitan.im/tram/ldroute.htm

[RICEY]

theres a museum for trolley buses in sandtoft. they have an ex st helens one which is currently on loan to st helens museum.
www.sandtoft.org.uk/picviewer.shtml?buses/sthelens387.jpg

[mooneyncp]

nice to see the pier head as it used to be before it all got flattened and made modern i.e. no cars except for the chosen few .lol,and old garston ,did not know the tram lines but knew the office and shed .

[Beemer]

"I never went to St Helens very often, People said they were a rough lot down there".
Be very careful what you say, I lived there then. ;D

[mooneyncp]

did not go st helens often they talked funny. lol

[RICEY]

they still do lol. i got to college there

[johnoakes]

Well that was all very interesting.
My tram trip in 1951 must have been from Page Moss.
I do remember catching a bus from Prescot before we got on the tram.
The Page Moss trams ran until that time and after so the bus must have been from Prescot to Page Moss.-- after the trolly to Prescot(these days this would be a transport fan's dream-followed up by the ferry to New Brighton--wonderful days.)

The tram made a much greater impression.

The old StHelens trolley bus on the link was a real surprise--what a cracker--it really took me back to the days as a child when they thrummed up Prescot |Road-- a feat the petrol buses could not achieve because of their power weight ratio.

My family who still live there tell me the petrol buses get round it now by using what was the back streets in my day.

AS for StHelenians talking funny---It all sounds scouse to me these days when I encounter my brother and sisters.

Is that an improvement?Possibly.LOL

[RICEY]

it is a cracker of a bus that trollleybus. after seeing it in the museum it looks at home even though it cant go anywere due to there not being wires for it. gonna have to go to the trolley museum when its back there to see it going round

[ronturner]

Hi John,
When you were at C.F.Mott college, to exit the campus to get to the A57 main road, you had to cross over a small tree lined area of land. That was were the tracks were for the number 10. The central reservation came all the way up from somewhere near Old Swan/Queens Drive past Page Moss, Dovecot, Longview, Lyme Cross, right up to the bottom of Prescot Hill, where it was single track up the middle of the road.

Not only do I remember these trips, I also remember some of the trams were old ones, i.e.not Green Goddesses, with a sort of spiral staircase to get onto the top deck.

Ron

[ronturner]

On the subject of a transport fan's dream...when I was a kid....

We caught the Crossville 119 from the top of Lyme Cross Road to Pier Head. Ferry to Birkenhead, Crossville Number 1 to Chester, raced across Chester to catch another Crossville to Wrexham and finally a change to catch the Crossville bus to Oswestry which we alighted from just past Chirk. We then walked up a massive hill with our suitcases, just like the lad in the "Hovis" advert, where we found our grandparents cottage. It took all day and we spent all of our holidays there. (Easter, Summer, Christmas.)

When our mum could afford it, intead of three buses, we caught a train direct from Birkenhead Woodside to Chirk (The line to Paddington). The downside of this was that we had a hell of a long walk from Chirk station, along the Llangollen canal, along the acquaduct over the Ceriog valley. (scary. looking down all that way with just a rusty chicken wire fence for protection. )Thankfully it was all level ground. Alongside the aquadeuct ran the viaduct cayying the train, and if you were lucky a train would pass, steaming and thundering along. waving to the driver. What would people pay for a thrill like that today?

[johnoakes]

Yes I remember that "end of line" section well.I think that that caused my confusion.I thought that we travelled along that section past the Old Swan to the Pier Head.

As I have worked out it was Page Moss where we caught the tram and we bypassed that section on the way to the Old Swan depot where I still have a vivid memory of loads of trams being readied for a day's work.
In my memory the lines to Prescot had been removed.--but existed to past the then college to the bottom of Prescot hill.

The joys of the extended family were not wasted on us.Its a pity that it seems to exist less these days.Uncles, Aunts and Grandparents were great providers of holidays and extra parenting.

I was packed off to Leigh on Sea in Essex with my Grandma to help an uncle on his milk round.

Super days--usually finished work by noon then off for the day.My Grandma--Bless her--even took me to France on day trips from the end of Southend Pier in the days of one day passports.(In boats that rescued our troops from Dunkerque--named the "Royal Iris and the Royal Daffodil-a coincidence with the Mersey ferries names or not?)
She little knew what she started.

If there is a Heaven she will be up there chuckling at my move to France.LOL

[davel]

If you want to see the St. Helens trolleybus at the North West Museum of Road Transport you will have to be quick. It is moving on April 28th and going to the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft nr Doncaster, where it will be put in running order on their Trollybus exibition routes.
By the way I'm living in St. Helens and I've never heard anyone talking funny!! (Could it be because I'm originally from Dingle)

[Deleted]

Apr 3, 2009 9:41:58 GMT 1 davel said:

By the way I'm living in St. Helens and I've never heard anyone talking funny!! (Could it be because I'm originally from Dingle)

What? You must be going round with your ears shut. As a young lad I had a job with Palmer & Harvey delivering sweets/tobacco and St Helens was part of my run. I'll never forget the first time I walked into a shop to be met by the owner - a great big guy built like Mike Tyson - who greeted me with a smile and said "hello love" Boy was I eager for him to sign my delivery sheet and get out of there sharpish. On another occasion (possibly the same day) at a different location another bloke said to me "put wood in hole love" - What? I stood there dumbfounded until he eventually said "close the b****y door.

It wasn't long before I realised there wasn't anything strange going on and after two years on the job got well used to the natives lingo ;D ;D ;D

[davel]

Ste that must be a long time ago! The've been civilised since they came under the Merseyside umberella. Some are still kicking and fighting though! ;D