'Ghost' sign at Chester station

Earlier this year I posted a photo of an old sign at Chester railway station and today's post is another from the same place.

One of my interests (one of many!) is what are known as 'Ghost' signs, typically they tend to be painted onto brick or stone walls and over the years have weathered to varying degrees of illegibility

'Ghost' sign at Chester railway station, 30/6/14

This particular sign is (or was) tucked away at the western end of the station, behind platform two and points the way to the 'Second Class Refreshment Rooms' looking distinctly out of place amongst the modern signs advertising 'Costa Coffee' and 'caféxpress'.

I may be wrong but I got the impression that the station building was undergoing some work at the time of my brief visit back in June so the sign may be no more…

More of my 'ghost' sign photos can be found on Flickr.

From the (digital) archives - part 1

I've mentioned before that I tend to focus on the less 'mainstream' aspects of railways and I think that this particular post pretty much confirms that…

I'm trying to get my digital photographic archive in some sort of order at the moment and in doing so this image caught my eye.

Great Eastern Railway station seat from Yarmouth South Town, displayed at the NRM, 11/8/10

This is a Great Eastern Railway station seat from Yarmouth South Town station that was on display in the Station Hall at the National Railway Museum when I visited in 2010.

The station closed on 4 May 1970 and for more information I can do no better than point you in the direction of Nick Catford's Disused Stations website.

For hundreds of years Great Yarmouth was a major fishing port and the decoration on this seat reflects that: ropes, nets, fish and seashells all feature on the cast ends… Did the GER use this design anywhere else I wonder?

I was only… 85 miles from Holyhead

(To the 'Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa' tune obviously…)

Sign at Chester station showing distances to London and Holyhead, 25/6/14

This sign hangs on the wall between platforms 3 and 4 at Chester station, now orange in colour I suspect that it was once painted London Midland Region maroon and over the years the weather has taken its toll…

Its location, high on a wall beside the fast line through the station probably means that it will never be repainted again and so it lingers on, a reminder of the days when railways still erected signs like this one, of little or no use to the railway itself and of only casual interest to passengers using the station.

(The dead bird will probably be there for a while too…)

A Norfolk Ramble, part 2 - North Norfolk Railway

As usual, a trip to Norfolk means a visit to the North Norfolk Railway, easily one of my favourite heritage lines.

The warm weather had certainly brought plenty of visitors and even the first train of the day (the 09.45 from Sheringham-Holt) was pretty full. NNR stalwart 8572 (a London & North Eastern Railway B12 class 4-6-0) had no problems with its train of four coaches and one parcels van though.

LNER B12 class 4-6-0 8572 runs round its train at Holt, 11/04/14

The NNR is home to all sorts of beautifully restored items, from locomotives, carriages and buildings right down to this set of fire buckets, complete with Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway cast sign.

Fire buckets at Sheringham station, 11/04/14

A return visit was made the following day (more on this later) as I was hoping to photograph BR Standard class 4MT 2-6-0 76084 in action (I'd missed getting a shot of it the day before) but it wasn't to be… Great Northern Railway N2 class 0-6-2T 1744 (visiting from the Great Central Railway) was out and about instead.

GNR N2 class 0-6-2T 1744 departs Weybourne with the 13.44 service to Holt, 12/04/14

I thoroughly recommend a visit to the North Norfolk Railway if you're in the area, I'd even go as far as to say make a special trip if not! The combination of steam, sea views and (if you're lucky) sunshine really is unbeatable!