Old slam door trains in Liverpool
 

Hi first post! Can somebody tell me what were the old slam door trains which used to operate on the City Line in Liverpool until the late 80's?

I'm 25yrs now and only have some vague but fond memories of these trains I'd love to see some pictures of these again if poss!

Thanks in advance,

Stuart.

HI Stuart, and welcome to the forum. :)

I'm not that knowledgeable about the railway on Merseyside. I've only ever been there by train once, and that was into Lime Street from Euston. Were the units you remember electric or diesel?

When I moved to Southport in 1975, DMUs were used from Southport to Lime St, while 3rd rail electrics went to Liverpool Exchange. The DMUs gave a direct link to passengers for Inter-City services.

Years earlier the Lime St service was operated by steam, but I don't know when the change to DMU occurred.

Malcolm Chisholm

Wasn't there some LMS designed 3rd rail units in use on Merseyside until the late 70's/ early 80's? I don't think that they were slam door though.

Hello Stuart and welcome to the forum.
I am assuming that the "City Line" in Liverpool is the one to Hunts Cross that continues on to Warrington Central and Manchester. If so, the "slamdoor" trains you refer to were probably Class 108 Diesel Multiple Units or even possibly Class 115's. If you follow the links from this page you will find more details of both classes.
I could be wrong but I have a sneaky feeling that the mainline from Lime Street to Runcorn and Crewe was also called the "City Line" at one stage in which case the "slamdoor" trains could have been Electric Multiple Units of Class 304. Picture here
Hope this helps you to track down some more info.

Hi Stuart,

Welcome to the forum.

As a small boy I lived on the Wirral and remember the electric trains going to Wallasey, New Brighton and out to West Kirby. The Stock working on the lines to New Brighton and Wallesey were I think slam door and had a rather American look.

My principle memory was the change in colour from Crimson Lake to Green!

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Just had a look through an old ABC, and the third rail units on Merseyside (Classes 502, 503 and 507) are all described as having air operated sliding doors.

Class 502 (Liverpool - Southport) and Class 503 (Wirral and Mersey) were introduced in 1939 and do have a bit of an American look about them. Would they be the ones that you remember John?

Here's a pic of a preserved Liverpool-Southport 2-car set in LMS livery.
Attachment 114

Thanks for all the help everyone. I'm pretty sure it's the Class 108's that used to run on the City Line.

There are 2 branches of the City Line that run out of Lime St one running through Hunts Cross / Allerton the other through Huyton (my local station) to destinations such as Blackpool, Yorkshire, Manchester and Warrington. I imagine the trains must have been the same types on both branches back then as they are today. (plus Inter City / Virgin trains also use the Allerton branch).

I was always very fond of these trains and much prefer them to the awful class 142 pacers they were replaced with in the late 80's. It was annoying that other parts of the country kept their slam door trains a lot longer than we did.

I rember class 108's on the Liverpool - Wigan "City Line"

On the Runcorn Line they ran clas 304's up untill about 1990 ish pre Central Trains.

John,
You're forgetting the Class 303's from Scotland that replaced the 304's on the Liverpool/Manchester - Crewe services.

http://www.johnwhitby.fotopic.net/p23170581.html

Oh yes of course i did't realise that they were 303's i just remeber them being slam Door 's.

I can rember in my School Days i used to go fro a ride From Garswood To St Helens Ctl on the Loco hall that came from Blackpool i used to go along and help the Gaurd and Platfrom Staff close the Doors. "oh what fun that was"

Tecnialy the class 142 units can be called a slam door train as they do slam shut if you notice carfully.

Four years late in replying but I only came across this question while searching for something else.

It was class 304 emu's that ran between Lime St and calling, if I recall correctly, all stations to Crewe. Those days the term City Line only went as far as Allerton, now rebuilt and named Liverpool South Parkway.

If I remeber correctly the Merseyside slamdoors had a similar appearence to the Cl305s & Cl308s on the Great Eastern. These were the Class 504s.

http://www.railbrit.org.uk/images/19000/19309.jpg

Hope this helped. :)

Doent the East lancs railway have a cls 303 in Resoration process ?

Do you mean Cl305/308? Cl303s 'Blue Trains' were the sliding door units:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...pril_1984).jpg

I know the Electric Railway Museum had a Cl308 stored at Pump House, in Walthamstow but it was moved for some reason, can't remeber where exactly though.

But now you mention it I think they might have one under restoration.

Its a Class 504 at the ELR Beleo is an extract from wikiapieia.
Electric Multiple Units
BR Class 504 unit 65451+77172 (Stored at Buckley Wells carriage shed, currently being restored as Hauled Coaching Stock, but the Restoration Group in question has little funds