Blog - 1970s

Chester "General" railway station as it is today in the 21st century

Apart from the last few years - 2007 onwards -  the early 1970's was the busiest time of my life for travelling by train. In September 1969 I started going to school in Birkenhead by train, catching the 7.55 am train from Upton-by-Chester to Birkenhead Central, changing at Rock Ferry. I then returned on the 4.30 pm train from Rock Ferry if I was lucky. If I missed that it was a 3/4 hour wait until the next train at 5.15pm. Nine times out of ten the unit would be a Metro Cammel DMU. I would do this journey six days a week, including Saturdays, though usually we finished at lunchtime on a Saturday. This lasted until 1976 when I finally left school, so you could say I was a schoolboy commuter. The early 70's also saw me as a keen train spotter, travelling frequently all over the north west of England, with occasional train trips to London, Birmingham, Derby, Sheffield and North Wales. There were also holidays in Kent, Hampshire and in the West Country, which led to the Western Region of British Rail becoming my favourite BR region.

Over the next few years of my railway blog, I have tried to included details of train times as well as depots visited and any special events that took place. Luckily I kept a diary during these early years of the 1970's.  It would be interesting to hear from anyone whoever vsited the same places as me around those times, or even if you were a train spotting companion of mine........      

1970

21/3/70 - Chester to Crewe and return

6/4/70? - Chester to Shrewsbury and return

7/4/70 - Chester to Llandudno and return

8/4/70 - Chester to Shrewsbury and return

9/4/70 - Chester to Shrewsbury and return. Chester to Llandudno Junction and return

10/4/70 - Chester to Shrewsbury and return, Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton and return, Wolverhampton to Birmingham New Street and return

14/4/70 - Upton-by-Chester to Rock Ferry and return. Rock Ferry to Liverpool Central and return. (Train Spotting at Liverpool Lime Street and Exchange Stations)

19/4/70 - Chester to Crewe and return - (Crewe Electric Depot Open Day)

20/4/70 - Upton-by-Chester to Rock Ferry and return. Rock Ferry to Liverpool Central and return. (Train Spotting at Liverpool Lime Street and Exchange Stations)

4/7/70 - Chester to Crewe and return

10/7/70 - Upton-by-Chester to Rock Ferry. Rock Ferry to Liverpool Central. Liverpool Lime Street to Edge Hill. Edge Hill to Allerton. Allerton to Runcorn. Runcorn to Chester via Frodsham

14/7/70 - Upton-by-Chester to Chester and return. Chester to Manchester Victoria. Manchester Oxford Road to Chester. (train spottong at Manchester Piccadilly)

17/7/70 - Train spottiong at Bristol Temple Meads and Winterbourne? ??

24/7/70 - Newquay to Par and return (pulled by D808 Centaur)

3/8/70 - Upton-by-Chester to Hooton and return. Upton-by-Chester to Chester and return. Chester to Bangor and return.

5/8/70 - Upton-by-Chester to Rock Ferry and return. Rock Ferry to Birkenhead Hamilton Square. Liverpool Central to Rock Ferry. (train spotting at Liverpool Lime Street)

6/8/70 - Chester to Llandudno and return?

13/12/70 - Chester to Crewe and return - went round diesel depot, but not the works on this occasion

1971

This has got to be my busiest ever year for railways in my whole life. Apart from travelling daily between Upton-by-Chester and Birkenhead Central during term-times I went on the following journeys:- 

1/1/71 - 16.40 Chester to Upton-by-Chester

31/3/71 - Visited Birkenhead shed on my way home from school

9/4/71 (Good Friday) - Went up to Preston by car from Chester to visit my Aunty Joan. Whilst there I visited Lostock Hall shed.

18/4/71 - 10.15 Chester to Crewe. 16.40 Crewe to Chester. Train spotting at Crewe for the day, including visits to the diesel depot and the works.

9/5/71 - Drove to Welshpool and went for a trip on the Welshpool and Llanfair railway

30/5/71 - train spotting at Chester railway station

2/7/71 -  Visited Birkenhead shed on my way home from school

8/7/71 - Visited Birkenhead shed on my way home from school

11/7/71 - 17/7/71 Went away for the week to stay at my Aunty Joans in Preston. Each day I would go and walk round Lostock Hall, as well as wlking across the fields to train spot on a cutting next to the West Coast Main Line.   

1972

1973

1974-1979

28/8/74 - Grange Park to London Kings Cross and return. London Paddington to Slough and return. Slough to Windsor & Eton Central and return. On holiday in London. Went to visit the Windsor Free Festival for the day.

20/8/76 - Chester to Watford Junction. Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey Went down to stay at relatives befpore going to the Knebworth Fetsival to see the Rolling Stones.

22/8/76 - St Albans City to London St Pancras. London Euston to Chester 

17/9/76 - Chester to  London Euston. Went down to London for the weekend to see Queen in Hyde Park

19/9/76 - London Euston to Chester 

22/10/76 - Oxford to Birmingham New Street. Birmingham New Street to Crewe. Crewe to Chester. Chester to Upton-by-Chester

24/10/76 - Chester to Crewe. Crewe to Birmingham New Street. Birmingham New Street to Oxford.

5/11/76 - Oxford to London Paddington

7/11/76 - London Paddington to Oxford 

Chester to Crewe. Crewe to Birmingham. Birmingham to Oxford.

Oxford to Reading. Reading to Basingstoke. Basingstoke to Bournemouth (and return)

Oxford to Didcot and return. Didcot to Swansea and return.

Oxford to Didcot and return. Didcot to Swindon and return.

Oxford to London Paddington and return. London Kings Cross to Cambridge and return.