Friday 4 October: new technology on the railway. The recently-opened station at Headbolt Lane, near Kirkby, Liverpool, forms a short extension of Merseyrail. It’s a 3rd-rail electric network, but the third rail has not been extended beyond Kirkby. Instead, as well as pick-up shoes for the 3rd rail, some of the brand-new class 777 EMUs have been built with traction batteries. (Seems a lot of trouble just to avoid extending the 3rd rail by less than a mile. I’m sure there was a good reason for it…). Anyway, we had a ride on battery power during our day out yesterday: a full account will appear on Geoff’s Rail Diaries in a day or two, meanwhile here’s a taster.