FRIENDS OF THE 502 GROUP

If you have picked up the October 2018 issue of The Railway Magazine, you may have spotted that our humble Class 502 is featured in a special four-page report, written by one of our members, Martyn Hilbert.

A small taster of the article can be found online at www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/class-502-back-from-the-brink, but for the full story, with lots of great pictures, buy a copy of the magazine from your local friendly newsagent, or get the digital edition.

As the article introduction states, preservation of electric multiple units is often overlooked. We’re glad that The Railway Magazine has redressed the balance a little.

Recently posted to our Facebook page, the image below shows the amazing progress on the cab exterior which has been completely rebuilt.

You will have your chance to see the completed work up close at the MTT Open Day on 8th July! Hope to see you there.

A date for your diary: the Merseyside Transport Trust open day will be held this year on 8th July from 10.30am until 4.30pm.

As well as the usual array of vintage road vehicles, the Friends of the 502 Group will of course be there. The 502 vehicles will be open and available for people to inspect our work over the past year.

Many vintage buses will be running, including a service from Ormskirk bus station and Burscough Bridge railway station for those arriving by public transport.

More information will be published closer to the time here and on the MTT website – mttrust.co.uk.

A (slightly belated) happy new year to all our members and supporters!

The first event of the 2018 calendar is the 70th Anniversary of British Railways event taking place on 13th January at Crewe Heritage Centre. This event has been organised by the Woodhead Railway Heritage Group to commemorate the anniversary of the railways’ nationalisation on 1st January 1948.

The Friends of the 502 Group will be one of many organisations represented at the event, and of course all the Heritage Centre’s regular attractions will be on view as well.

The Heritage Centre is located on Vernon Way, Crewe, CW1 2DB. It is just a short walk from Crewe railway station. It is open from 10am to 4pm and admission is just £3 for adults and £1 for children.

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The Annual General Meeting of the Friends of the 502 Group will take place on 18th November at 4pm, at the MTT building in Tollgate Road, Burscough.

The AGM is open to members only, so if you wish to attend and are not currently a member, please see our Membership page for details of how to sign up.

Many of our readers will be aware of our sister unit, the Wirral Class 503 EMU, part of the SERA fleet, which has been housed at the Electric Railway Museum (formerly Coventry Railway Centre) for many years.

Unfortunately, as we reported back in July, the museum site is to be closed and cleared. The collection will be scattered to various sites across the country.

The final open day at the site was held on 8th October, which was the last opportunity to see the museum’s collection of electric trains in one place. The event was well-attended, with over 1,000 people reportedly attending.

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We have reached the point of needing to acquire some new hand tools and tooling – particularly “Whitworth” spanners and sockets.

Our Unit was designed and built in late 1930s using the established British Workshop equipment, well before the influx of American tooling during Second World War and subsequent movements into Metrication.

Does anyone have (or know of) any old tool boxes and their contents that might include Whitworth open spanners, ring spanners, sockets or socket sets that might be donated to us please?

Everything that holds doors in place, pipework attached to frames, substructure of seat bases etc is Whitworth threaded. We will arrange to collect if that would help.

Please contact our chairman at chairman@class502.org.uk if you can help. Thanks.

We were saddened to hear about the forthcoming closure of the Electric Railway Museum in Coventry. The museum announced in a Facebook post that they will close to the public after their final open day on 8th October.

The museum has a variety of rolling stock, but of most interest to readers of this web site will undoubtedly be the 502’s sister unit, the Wirral Class 503, which operated over the LMS/Mersey Railway electric network (now the Merseyrail Wirral Line) from 1938 until 1985.

The last surviving 3-car set is now part of the collection of the Suburban Electric Railway Association. SERA also owns Liverpool Overhead Railway trailer car, no.7, one of only two LOR vehicles in existence and the only surviving example of a vehicle renovated under the railway’s modernisation scheme.

With the closure of the museum, the future for SERA’s fleet is once again uncertain. SERA is exploring alternative sites, but to meet the costs of moving all their vehicles, they will require funding.

A JustGiving page has been set up at justgiving.com/crowdfunding/savethetrains to try to raise £10,000 towards the costs of moving all the vehicles to new homes.

Over the years, SERA and its members have been very supportive of the Friends of the 502 Group. To return the favour, please help them out by donating if you can, and spreading the word on Facebook or Twitter.

Meanwhile, why not take the opportunity to visit the museum in Coventry, while you still can? The museum will hold its open days as planned on 13th August, 8th/9th September and 8th October. For more information see the ERM web site at electricrailwaymuseum.co.uk.

More information is also available on the Facebook pages for the Class 503 Unit and the Electric Railway Museum.

UPDATED on 7 July with public transport information – see end of post.

It’s almost that time again! On Sunday 9th July 2017 the Merseyside Transport Trust will be throwing open their doors to the public. Come and see us – the event is open from 10:30am to 4.30pm on 9th July, and admission is free.

As always, the 502 will be open for you to inspect the progress we have made over the past year, and members of the Friends of the 502 Group will be on hand to answer all your questions (and accept your donations).

The usual collection of heritage vehicles will be on display, with visiting vehicles from all over the country. There will also be sales stands where you can pick up a bargain.

Bus links will operate from Ormskirk and Burscough Bridge stations to connect with rail services. If coming by car, the MTT is located just off Tollgate Road, Burscough, L40 8TG.

For more info see www.mttrust.co.uk

UPDATE: Bus times for the free bus link, operated by the Merseyside Transport Trust.

From Ormskirk Bus Station:
1020, 1050, 1120, 1150, 1220, 1250, 1320, 1350, 1420, 1450, 1520, 1550, 1620.

From Burscough Bridge Station (opposite Tesco):
1033, 1133, 1213, 1313, 1413, 1513, 1613.

Please note that due to industrial action on Northern Rail, there will be no trains to Burscough Bridge on Sunday. An alternative, for people travelling from Wigan or Southport directions is Arriva bus service 375 which calls at Ormskirk bus station.

Merseyrail is not affected by strike action on Sunday and trains from Liverpool to Ormskirk will run as normal.

On 2nd May 1977 the Merseyrail underground opened to the public. The first departure was the 6.05am service from Liverpool Central to Southport. Passengers, including Ralph Jackson in this photo from the Science and Society Picture Library were presented with a commemorative certificate of their journey.

On that first day, only the Northern Line to Moorfields and Central was in service. The Wirral loop opened a week later, but initially only served James Street and Central in the city centre, as the Wirral Line platforms at Moorfields and Lime Street were not ready. They opened later in 1977.

Photo by Peter Whatley, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (Original)

The following years saw the network extended, starting with the reopening of the former CLC route to Garston and Hunts Cross. Then electrification was extended on the Wirral side, first to Hooton, then onwards to Chester and Ellesmere Port.

Sadly, some of the proposed schemes (such as the Gateacre line, the Wapping Tunnel and the Outer Loop) never came to fruition, but Merseyrail can nevertheless be considered a success story of which the city region can be proud.

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