Talk:Mersey Ferry

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[edit] Moved from article: Interesting Points

Funnel Colours;

Wallasey Ferries - Black cap and white stem.

Birkenhead Ferries - Black cap and orange stem with black base and band (except on Overchurch which only had a black cap and orange stem.

Funnel colours post merging of both fleets;

1. Light blue cap and primrose yellow stem.
2. Black cap and green stem.
3. Black cap and red and white stem.
4. Current colours of black cap, red stem and printed logo either side.

The port side docking telegraphs and binnacle aboard Woodchurch. Also the a whistle control can be seen fastened to the window along with various switches. The bottom of the siemens rudder guage can be seen.

The bridge on Woodchurch (shortly before refit) looking towards the port wing. Originally, there were three cabs - two of them docking stations and a central control centre/wheelhouse, which housed the vhf radio, helm, binnacle, switches for the navigation and deck lights, telegraphs, speedometers, whistle controls and a clear view disk. The side cabs contained an identical telegraph pair to the wheelhouse (the telegrpahs were linked so they moved in tandem )a binnacle and whistle control, along with a rudder guage fastened to the forward bulkhead. The cabs also contained various items which there was no room for in the main wheelhouse, such as flares and spare navigation lights which could be fastened into a steel container and hoisted up to the cross member on the mast if the main light was to fail. There was also a small wooden pull stick which enabled a life ring to be ejected immediately behind each cab. Laterly searchlights were fitted above the wing cabs along with halogen lighting. There bridge on Overchurch was very similar to the two sisters, however she only had one Binnacle and compass and some slightly different instrumentation. The picture illustarets the 1990's plated bridge, and if you look a slight variation in the windows can be seen where new sections have been added. The old windows could be pulled open in hot months for cheao air conditioning. After the 1990's refit, radar, sonar, a new radio, and many other up to date navigation devices were added. This was not due to new advances in technology, indeed radar and sonar had been around for many years, however lack of investment saw ferries running with out of date radio. The bridge on Woodchurch was identical to Mountwood.

Above can be seen the new navigation bridge on Royal Iris of the Mersey during routine servicing, hence the mess. Compared to the old bridge, the bridge is much larger and all the modern navigation equipment can be see, such as the Fruno radar screen on which the captain can view weather reports, ship tracking and many other features. Unlike with the old Crossley diesel engines, the new engines can be managed directly from the bridge from the control unit in the centre. This means that only one engineer is needed and ferries can be in operation very quickly. The small telegraph systems can be seen, which are interestingly made by the same company who manufactured the original telegraphs. The bridge is also fully air conditioned and provides panoramic views of the surroundings through much larger windows. The original idea by Mersey Ferries was to use the Mountwood's original bridge in the re build with some extensions added, as in Royal Daffodil. However, when bieng removed rust revealed the bridge to be very unsafe so it was taken down, stripped of its fittings and then scrapped. The three binnacles (one on each wing and one central) are all from the ships original bridge, as is the helm.

[edit] Reads like a guidebook

Huge masses of text, unsuitable for online reading. Very few Wikilinks. A heap of unsorted facts at the end. And worst of all, no mention at all in the History section of the ferry service's close escape from complete withdrawal in the 1970s! 86.143.55.162 15:27, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Cleaned up article. Broken up text with headings & paragraphs, added wikilinks, removed Trivia section (as per WP:TRIVIA), expanded History section to include mention of 1970s considered closure. Hopefully the article now has a better structure to it. Snowy 1973 20:56, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Further revised and expanded, April 2008. Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:18, 18 April 2008 (UTC)