From The Independent of Saturday 18 July 1992

IT IS perhaps not the most desirable residence in Stockport. The main Manchester-London railway line runs on an embankment along one side of the garden. On the other, a heavy duty goods line [ shown in red on the map above] passes within 60 feet of the house.

Nearly 300 trains a day thunder beside the bedroom windows of 15 Buttercup Drive, Adswood. It so close to the railway lines that the crockery rattles about once every four minutes and the windows are triple-glazed to keep out the noise.

But to a train spotter, the house is paradise and five Stockport members of the Thermos fraternity have clubbed together to buy it. Initially, it will be a place to hang up their anoraks and observe passing Class 60 locomotives. Eventually they plan to turn it into a shrine to Tizer, notebooks and Brownie cameras.

Mel Thorley, 45, a British Rail train driver, watched the house being built from the cab of passing suburban trains. This year he, his uncle Eric, 78, and three friends raised pounds 56,000 to buy it as a train-spotting base. Eric Hobson, who sold his own house, will live there. 'We want the house to be a shrine to the memory of everyone who has stood at this place in the past with their Tizer and crisps,' Mr Thorley said.

'This is one of the prime train enthusiasts' spots in the country, and the first time for 33 years we have had a chance to move in on it.'

The house, named 'Crossbridges', stands at the intersection of two major rail lines. The triangular garden is bounded on one side by the old London North Western Railway, from Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, which still carries all the main south-north passenger and freight traffic.

Along the other edge of the garden is the old Midland Railway from London St Pancras to Manchester Central. It was closed to passenger traffic in 1968 but still carries three freight trains a day. At the apex of the garden the two lines cross at a bridge.

In the 1930s the intersection was open pasture and a big draw for train spotters but in the 1940s a housing estate was built, blocking access. Last year Stockport council demolished it and sold the land to a housing developer.

After putting down a deposit, the train spotters persuaded the developer not to screen the railway lines with embankments, trees or fences. The result is an uninterrupted view of diesel electrics, track maintenance vehicles, freight trains and excursions for 22 hours a day. 'It is great. There is only one window of the house from which you can't see any trains,' Mr Thorley said.

'There is triple glazing, but we usually leave at least one window open so that we can hear the trains coming.

'This must be one of the best spotting places in the country. Nowadays we don't write the numbers down, but we always have a look to see what's passing. There is always something new. Occasionally even the Midland line can still turn up a train we've not seen before. Once we had a Scottish loco go past, and that was really exciting.'

At 10.5 miles long and 200 feet deep in places, Windermere is both the largest lake in England and an official public highway. 

Lady of the Lake, built by Richard Ashburner of Greenodd for the Windermere Steam Yacht Company, was the first steamer to operate on an English lake and was originally designed as a screw steamer. However, the water at Newby Bridge was too shallow so paddles were used to reach to the terminus at the Swan Hotel along the River Leven.

 Lady of the Lake was 80 feet in length with a beam of 11 feet 6 inches, a depth of 6.4 feet and a 20 bhp steam engine. Built of wood with a short bowsprit and white figurehead, her tall slim funnel - placed aft of the paddle boxes - was painted black with a broad white stripe. Her hull was finished in black and gold and those among her 200 passengers travelling First Class were able to enjoy a luxurious saloon fitted with mirrors and carpets.

The band of the Kendal Cavalry entertained passengers on the maiden voyage to Ambleside and dancing took place on the top deck.  Lady of the Lake continued in service until 1865.

The Windermere Steam Yacht Company launched a similar steamer, Lord of the Isles, in 1846.  Unfortunately she was destroyed by fire in 1850 while moored at Bowness Pier.

The Windermere Iron & Steamboat Company commissioned a second vessel, the Dragonfly -pictured above - which was launched in November 1850.  She was the largest steamer on the Lake, 95’ in length and 16.5’ wide. 

With the arrival of faster ships, competition between the companies began in earnest.  Fares were slashed, touts employed at the piers (later to be banned by the Bowness Local Government Board) and thousands of handbills were distributed.

Lady of the Lake was slower than her rivals and often when Dragonfly passed her on Windermere, the latter’s band struck up “The Girl I Left Behind” – a popular song of the day – much to the amusement of those on board who hurled amiable insults at each other as they drew level.  After years of wasteful competition the two companies joined forces as the Windrmere United Yacht Company in 1858.

Other vessels introduced during the second half of the 19^th Century included the Rothay built by the Lancaster Shipbuilding Company in 1867 as the last paddle steamer for service on Lake Windermere.  The components were taken to the port of Greenodd by the steamer Duchess of Lancashire and transported by horse and cart to Newby Bridge for assembly.  The ship had a rudder at each end to help it navigate the shallow waters of the River Leven at Newby Bridge. Rothay was scrapped in 1891.

In 1871 the Furness Railway Company purchased the cargo steamer Raven from Seath and Company to carry mail, coal, timber, farm produce and general cargo to the houses, hotels and businesses around the lake and to railway warehouses at Bowness and Ambleside. During the winter she acted as an ice breaker for the steamers which operated an all-year-round timetable until 1921.  In 1922 Raven was withdrawn from service and sold to Vickers Armstrong of Barrow in Furness for testing mine-laying equipment.  Eventually, after being abandoned at Lakeside for many years, she was saved for preservation, restored and is currently exhibited at the Windermere Steamboat Museum.  She is the second oldest ship on Lloyd’s Register and the oldest with her original machinery.

In July 1878 the Board of the Furness Railway resolved to build two more steamers at a cost of £ 3 400 each “there being £ 12 000 in the steamer depreciation account.”  The contract was awarded to the Barrow Shipbuilding Company who constructed near identical vessels, Cygnet and Teal, which were launched at Lakeside in 1879 as the first steel hulled vessels on Windermere.  Teal,  launched on 5 June, weighing 52 tons and measuring 100' long by 14' wide, was fitted with a two cylinder steam engine able to propel 336 passengers at 11.5 knots and was scrapped in 1929.

Cygnet was converted into a paraffin powered motor vessel in 1923 before being withdrawn from service in 1936.  However, she was used for occasional charter and relief work until the Second World War and, in 1947, was used during the summer season when government austerity restrictions called a temporary halt to the running of coal fired steamers

A small ship by Vickers standards, Teal - the first new passenger steamer on Lake Windermere since 1900 - measured 141' long, displaced 250 tons and was powered to 11 knots by two diesel engines.  She operated as a two class ship with first and second accommodation for a total of 877 passengers on three decks. Her moment of glory came in August 1956, when she carried Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh from Ambleside to Bowness.  In 1990 the Queen kindly consented to resign the photograph displayed on the ship to commemorate her visit.

For many years control of the steamers was in the hands of Captain A.E. Willmott DSC, the District Marine Manager and Harbour Master at the Port of Heysham, Lancashire.  His Windermere based assistant was Marine Engineer Foreman Richard Jones.  After serving as an engineer on Elders and Fyffes banana boats, Mr Jones joined the LMS and was posted to Windermere in 1935.  Other than wartime service as a RNR officer ( when he was decorated ) he remained with the steamers until his retirement in 1967.

Passenger numbers increased dramatically in the years immediately after the Second World War and the Windermere steamer fleet passed into the custodianship of the British Transport Commission on 1 January 1948.

In the 1950s British Railways ran regular excursions including one from Birmingham on summer Sundays for £ 1.00 per adult return.  Passengers joined the train in the morning for a trip to Windermere station where they were allowed time for shopping before boarding a steamer at Bowness for a lake cruise via Ambleside before boarding their return train at Lakeside, arriving back at Birmingham at 0100.

On 1 January 1963 the British Railways Board, under the Chairmanship of Dr Richard Beeching, took over responsibility from the BTC.

The branch line railway from Ulverston to Lakeside closed on 5 September 1965 leaving the steamers without a direct main line rail link.  However, this branch was re-opened as the preserved Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway with the first train running on 5 May 1973.

In 1970 British Rail’s marine division was renamed Sealink and the Windermere operation rebranded “Sealink Windermere.”  In 1984 Sealink Windermere was privatized and passed into the ownership of the international shipping conglomerate Sea Containers who renamed it “The Windermere Iron Steamboat Company” thus resurrecting a name from 1847.

Control of The Windermere Iron Steamboat Company passed to the Sea Containers subsidiary Orient Express Hotels and in May 1993 the company returned to private local ownership with the Bowness Boating Company.  Today historic steamers sail alongside elegant launches such as Miss Lakeland, Miss Cumbria and Queen of the Lake.  Collectively the company operates under the Windermere Lake Cruises house flag and services operate all year round.  The 1/48 scale models of MVs Swan and Tern pictured below are on show at Bowness pierhead.