Exploring The Borderlands Line!

[@123penfold]

Upton has a very frequent bus service to Liverpool by Arriva. Heswall is miles away from Heswall Town centre.

[@stephenmcculley7]

The present Heswall station was originally called Heswall Hills and is quite a distance from the centre of Heswall itself.

[@stephenmcculley7]

If you had gone the other side of Neston station, you would have reached the Town Centre which is literally just across the road from the Bidston bound platform.

[@nickmendes5458]

If you fancy a pleasant walk or two Neston is a good starting or finishing point for the Wirral Way, along the old railway to Hooton in one direction and West Kirby in the other, with Merseyrail to complete the circuit.

[@Stettafire]

It is indeed. I'd recommend not going too late in the day though cus travel services become non existent of an evening

[@83838four]

you can tell how much nick loves the 507s and 508s when he has trouble resisting from a ride

[@SiVlog1989]

The Borderlands line gives me an idea for a suggestion for pointless journeys, Shotton High Level to Shotton Low Level

[@Rail_Focus]

Ah my local line. So sad to see the Class 230s parked up at Birkenhead North ☹️. Heswall about 1 mile from the town centre, it's certainly the nice part of the Wirral 😉

[@isaactimmins8959]

That line would also be a good start for one of your pointless journeys, Shotton to Shotton.

[@toml4511]

I visited these stations last year, had forgotten how much I liked Heswall until I saw this. Great video!

[@TheCaterhamBusGuys]

i absolutely love Nick’s sarcastic “yay”s lol

[@Floortile]

Another wonderfully whacky, idiosyncratic, video! 👍🏻

[@The_Burglar]

Looked like a drain not a canal, always suspect that long paths that have little incline might have been railways once

[@NickBadley]

Ahh, drain would indeed make more sense. Also yes I did feel like they gave a sort of disused-railway vibe!

[@mcollier4566]

The River Birket is the river from which Birkenhead gets its name.

[@tramcrazy]

I feel like there is 'A PATH' montage that needs to be made!

[@tramcrazy]

By the way, how do you make those cool animations with your face on the maps?

[@NickBadley]

Adobe After Effects!

[@NickBadley]

Well, before I recently got Adobe Creative Cloud, what I'd do was draw out the full map using Paint.net and would "animate" the head on top of the map using keyframes. However, now I just do everything with After Effects; the map animation, the head, everything. Since it allows me to do proper map animations.

[@ChineseTrainGuy]

Nice! Never stop exploring :D

[@tylerdavidson1387]

Great video Nick! Thanks for showing us around. And the collar was (mostly) impeccable!

[@NickBadley]

😅

[@Rheilffordd]

I enjoyed this! Just wondering around random places surrounding rail lines I’ve never been to, keep at it with your videos!

[@brandonbuckley5390]

Here’s a bit of local knowledge regarding the niceties of the Wirral, the rule of thumb is that the further you get away from Birkenhead, the nicer, more affluent and more civilised it becomes😂

[@ianstoyan]

It's a good general rule, but the people of Oxton and Noctorum are nice, and some Neston no-neckers are rough.

[@Stettafire]

Not true. Ellesmere Port is not affluent, it's a lot like a second Birkenhead. And Hoylake is actually kinda nice. Plus Neston isn't really affluent, but areas of it are council.

[@0530evan]

like these videos.....get to see some of the countryside/villages

[@davebinsweden]

Very nice and relaxing. Possibly more pointless than the pointless ones but enjoyable anyway. The nice part of the Wirral anyway ... At least you didn't end up in Wrexlam 😱

[@Sim0nTrains]

Do love Bidston Station but never been down the Borderlands Line. Great Video

[@Class777]

Excellent video! Bidston is a interesting station. I do like TFW 150’s for having plug points and at least comfy seats. Heswall is also interesting too. I need to see that Arriva logo in person!

[@SamsVlogstrainsmore]

Very nice vlog Nick. I’ve done Bidston now last year but still need to do this line!

[@MichaelSebastianTodd]

Brilliant video im loving Heswell and Neston and ive head a bit about the Borderlands line but never rode it and it looks like a nice line to ride keep up the awesome work

[@sterlinghartley2165]

Very nice video as always. Would love to see you brave it down to Cymru, maybe even into Wrecsam. Never been to Wrecsam myself, would be nice to see you explore it.

[@stephensmith1553]

Your an inspiration with what your doing keep up the brilliant work

[@uingaeoc3905]

You will have to redo this trip when Borderlands introduces Battery 777s to integrate with Merseyrail on the Wirral Loop and a joint service with some new intermediate stops to Bidston.

[@ianstoyan]

Has it been confirmed that battery 777s are going to run along this line?

[@uingaeoc3905]

@@ianstoyan Yes, the need is to electrify and government refused support ('levelling down') for third rail or overhead. Merseyrail worked with TfW to test the 777 Battery system on the extension Kirkby-Headbolt Lane. Both Merseyrail and TfW want this and are cooperating. Batterification is a matter of acquiring rolling stock rather than capital infrastrucure and is actually easier to implement.

[@Stettafire]

Won't happen on Boarderlands like. TfW is owned by the Welsh gov and they're dragging their heels about any kind of electric train businesses.

[@richard-mtl]

Did you manage to catch your train home?

[@mattevans4377]

What do you think will happen to the line now considering the situation with the class 230s?

[@kevinellis8869]

Background music seems familiar??

[@ReubenAshwell]

Brilliant video Nick, I've never been on the borderlands line myself but I've heard about it. Also who on earth decided to build these things that allow you to walk onto the M53? Sounds a bit dangerous to me.

[@sterlinghartley2165]

I think it a by-product, I think if you looked under that concrete slab you'd see some pipes poking out each side. I assume the slab is there for support or safety reason but other than that I don't understand the lack of a fence.

[@richardcrawley9614]

I think it probably pre-dates the motorway. The stream is the River Fender by the way. My primary school was named after it and I played around it as a kid while the M53 was being built.

[@terrymoore9388]

Hi Nick Thanks again for a great video. Just for information and i know why people say it but Heswall is pronouced Hesall. In the same way Kirkby is pronounced Kirby

[@mcollier4566]

I've only ever heard it called Hez-wool by anyone who lives/works there. Never heard it called Hesall! (I am from Neston).

[@richardcrawley9614]

No it isn’t!

[@clareashton5027]

try walking into the village in upton rather than judging it from noctorum road, there's a lot more there than you're showing

[@callumcohen7007]

Do shotton high to low pointless journy