Chester Station

Chester is a major junction station at the start of the North Wales coast line, with lines going to Holyhead, Shrewsbury, Liverpool, Manchester and Crewe. In the late 70s, there was a great variety of trains with loco hauled and DMU passenger workings, and much parcels and freight activity. There were also a large number of semaphore signals around the station area.

47534 at Chester 15/07/77 (s1219.jpg)

47534 passes through Chester on the centre-road with 1D42, the 10:00 from London Euston to Holyhead, due to pass Chester at 12:47, and due in Holyhead at 14:23. Above the train, the strange shed like construction built into the retaining wall is in fact Chester No.3 Signal Box.

24082 at Chester 15/07/77 (s1220.jpg)

As soon as 1D42 passed, 24082 moved out of the yard alongside the station with a short freight, under the signal gantry controlled by Chester No 3A signal box. No 3A did not control the main through and platform lines, which were worked by the tiny Chester No 3 box. 15th July 1977.

40086 at Chester 16/07/77 (s1249.jpg)

The next day 40086 is seen ready to leave Chester on a service from North Wales to Manchester. Notable are the last pair of LNWR lower-quadrant semaphore signals at Chester. Worked from No 2 box, they controlled the divergence of the lines to Manchester and Crewe. They were soon to be replaced by colour-light signals, seen already installed in fromt of the semaphores, but still at that time to be worked from the existing signal box, seen in the background.

24082 at Chester 04/07/78 (s1715.jpg)

Almost a year after the earlier picture, 24082 is seen at Chester in a more prominent role, working the 09:42 from Llandudno to Manchester Victoria on the 4th July 1978; The sticker on the front reads "Class 24 The Final Few". In the bay, a Metro-Cammell dmu waits with the connecting service to Crewe.

Ticket (ticket1.jpg)

It wasn't just the signal boxes that were numbered at Chester, as this platform ticket shows.