 Hello, thanks for joining me. I'm on a Mergy rail, class 507, number 507, and we are on our way to Ellsby Port. We're not actually going to Ellsby Port, it's not a final destination. We're going to Hellsby. There's not many trains to Hellsby from Ellsby Port. There's only one free a day. It's a parliamentary service. It's not always been like that, because the Mergy rail runs a fairly regular service from here up to Liverpool. What used to happen was there used to be a fairly regular service between Hootland and Hellsby, stopping at Ellsby Port, and then what happened? When they decided to make this section of the line part of the Mergy rail network, they electrified it, they cut back the other side. So not many trains go beyond there. As I said, there's only three a day. There's too early in the morning, and there's this one now at, it's about, well, we're just pulling into Ellsby Port now, and we're due to arrive at six o'clock, and I think the train goes out at about 19 minutes past six, so... And I've never been here before, so I'm not quite sure how it's going to be. It looks like it's at two platform stations. I'll have a better look when we get off. So there's quite a few people waiting here, but very much doubt any of them are going to be going in this election. Well, I'm going. There's not even that many people on this train. There's only ever one other person in this carriage. So here we are. That is Ellsby Port. I'm just waiting for the doors to open. There we go. Now if we go up here, we can see where we're going to go. So here's our unit. It's an unusual window. You've got an electric platform on this side and an all-electrified platform on the other side, looking that way. There's a semaphore signal, so it's got quite an old-fashioned appearance. On that side, there's some tower block, so it's fairly, gives us a very urban feeling. There's also, oh, good shed has survived. I believe this line opened in 1863, so what will we do? We'll go up to the other end, because it looks like we have to do that to get to the other platform. And just have a look at the station, and then we'll wait for our northern train to come. So we've finished with Mersey rail now for today, and then we're going to get to Ellsby on the northern train. Haven't got that much longer to enjoy the 508s and the 507s. They're all due to come out of service soon when they're replaced by these new Stadley units. Nice station building with Dutch Gables. So how do we get out of the station? So there's an exit to the station there. I'm going up here over the bridges, so the footbridge is entirely for the railway, I think, is it? I don't know, you can get out that way. My guess is, I might be wrong, that bridge looks sort of certainly more recent than the railway. Wouldn't like to get exactly when, but definitely more recent than the railway. I suspect there was probably a level crossing here once. So I can get out of the station that way, but that's not my plan. I'm going to go down here and get the Ellsby train. What I'll do is I'll wait up here rather than wait on the platform. So I want to see the northern unit come in and see the northern diesel unit and the electric Mersey rail unit side by side. So it means the Mersey rail units can only use this platform, but the northern rail units, I suppose, could use both platforms. Although there's no starting signal at that end, but the track is... Yeah, I am actually, yeah. Someone just asked me from a YouTuber. So we're going to wait for our train to arrive. We'll see both of them together. Oh, we're up here. That is the old station hotel. There's the tower blocks. There's a new building, new flats under construction there. So let's wait and see what happens. I'm not sure if this train waits for the northern rail unit to arrive. So if people can make the connection, like I'm making the connection in that direction, it'd be interesting to see if people can make the connection in the opposite direction. And it's also going to be interesting to see how many people actually use this service. The Mersey rail unit has departed. I'm now the only person at this station. Very lonely, completely all to myself. I'm the only one here. It's a nice station building. Looks like it's in use of offices. As I was saying about all the distilleries, there's some artwork on this side. You can see there's a coolant tower and tower, so we'll see all that from the train. And there's a drawing of a Class 150, 211. If only that 150 actually did turn up. I think that one is probably one of the Transport for Wales 150s. So it probably won't be that one. It's going to be interesting to see what kind of train it is. It could be anything. Any of what northern run, really. It could be a Pacer. It could be a 150. It could be a 156. It might be a 158. I somehow don't think it will be. It could also be one of the new Class 195s. So we'll have to wait and see. We might have to wait too much longer. Maybe we'll be able to see it. No yellow line on this platform because if nothing ever comes through here, there's no need to say please stand behind the yellow line. Might as well walk to the end of the platform and have a look at the semifour signal before we depart. Hopefully our train will arrive very soon. You can see quite a few signals in the distance. I could see a second box when I was up on the bridge, so it's quite exciting. So far it looks like I might be the only person. It would be interesting to see if we pick anyone up at any of the two intermediate stations. I was also looking at what the diagram for the stock is. It runs empty from Chester, presumably after working a train from there. And then it goes empty to Allerton Depot afterwards. I've just noticed the cooling tower that we saw in the picture. So there is the semifour signal, the upper quadrant semifour signal. On that side there's an interesting sign that says electric trains stop here because if they didn't stop there they might be able to coast on a bit further, but there's no further trail. So yeah, electric trains don't go any further that way. Just got to wait now. There's a train to arrive. The train's coming. It's Class 156. I like 156s. They're probably my favourite type of sprinter unit. That's an Estelle Railway Class 156 now. That's also quite funny because when I did my Minute to Railway Britain series we started off at Chester Station. We saw this unit in the Bay Platform so it sat there all day and now it's come here to work this service. I'm going to go and get on it. So, off we go. I am the only passenger. I have a whole train to myself. So I don't have to worry about whether to sit at this table or this table or whether I get a window seat. It's quite exciting. It's like my own little charter train and I'm the only person. So this is a parliamentary train. You know what I'm looking forward to seeing is how many people get on off or off at the intermediate stations. There's quite a lot of new houses built along here but obviously none of the people who live there want to travel in this direction. Feels a bit like going on a goods line because all the bubblies are hitting the sides of the trains. We're just doing the crossover now. So we're now... I don't know if we can call this up or down because we're not really heading to or from London. I said about a signal box. I'm just crossing the canal. There's that signal box. So I'll do a little update each station we pass through, see what we see. It's rather a surreal landscape we're passing. Chimney's everywhere and oil pipes. There's a few cooling towers. It's quite an interesting journey. It's certainly different. We're coming up now to Stanlow and Thornton. It's a very quiet station. Only 92 people used it last year. So that is less than one a day. It's not even quite two a week. I assume the people who use it must be workers at the distillery. So sort of not distillery, refinery. We'll go up to Scotland and do video on distilleries another day. So here's Stanlow and Thornton. It's a very ghostly atmosphere the station. I can't see anyone is on the platform. So it looks as though I'm still the only passenger. I did wonder the fact there's two early morning and one at this time. If any of the people use the trains to get to work. It's possible they might do. I don't know. But it is a Saturday today. So I suppose that might have something to do with it. It's very strange. We're just waiting to go. Permission to depart. So it's funny I'm actually outnumbered by staff. Because I'm the one passenger and there's two staff. There's a driver and a guard. I like these quirks though. They do run these ghost trains or parliamentary trains. Whatever you want to call it. Usually they're like this. They only get a few people like me. They get very few genuine users. And then if they ever do stop running them. Like when they stop running the Paddington to West Ealing train. Suddenly every enthusiast went on it. So they wanted a chance to do the last trip. I did it back in... They replaced that one with a South Ealing train. I did it back in the summer. I didn't make a video. And there were seven of us on it. It was me and my girlfriend. And there was five of our enthusiasts. So it was quite funny. It was actually busy for once. Because today it really is me on my own. To Intzan Elton. This station's in the cutting. You can see the bare rock outside. Now again I didn't see anyone on the platform. So I'm assuming no one is going to get on. Now unfortunately what I've done today. Today's ticket isn't actually contributing at all to the passenger numbers. Because what I've got is a Cheshire day ranger. So it's brilliant for doing the Wirral lines of Mersey Rail. And I can do South of Liverpool. I can't go up to Southport or Omskirk. But I can do various lines between Liverpool and Manchester and the Wirral. Including this one. So what I thought I'd do one day. Is if I could find a way of getting to Intzan Elton. I'll buy a return from here. To Stanlow and Thornton. So I could go on this train and get out of Stanlow and Thornton. And wait for this train to come back. This has a few more passengers than Stanlow and Thornton. There's even a little barrow crossing there. So passengers are still permitted to walk across the track. Which is another thing which is becoming very rare in Britain. So now I'm just going to enjoy the last couple of miles to Helmsbury. And we'll see what happens there. From there the train goes empty up to the depot. So we'll get a probably a slightly busier train. I should think from Helmsbury where I won't be the only person. So we are now approaching Helmsbury. They just said all change. They might as well have said the one passenger change. And it's so strange being the only passenger. So we saw the Class 156 depart. I just wanted to finish the video by seeing a view. And there's this. I wish more railway stations could have gardens. It just makes them a bit more exciting. And that makes them not just a place to get on the train. But makes them actually a nice place that people want to visit. It's a little garden through. So I think I can use that bird feeders. So yeah, wish more railway stations had gardens. It seems to be a bit of a thing that's dying out. Anyway, here's some overgrown sidings. There are more seven or four signals. And there's the view off the station. So I hope you enjoyed our trip on the ghost train from Helmsbury Airport. Thank you very much for watching.