West Lancashire Railway
Not to be confused with the West Lancashire Light Railway, a heritage narrow-gauge railway in Tarleton.
The West Lancashire Railway was set up to connect Preston and Southport, and had its own termini at each end. It closed in 1964, and very little remains of the route, and this page tries to catalogue what can still be seen. For photos of it when it was still a railway, here is a good place to start.
It started at Fishergate Hill station, at the bottom of Fishergate Hill, Preston. the station opened in 1882, and closed to passengers just 20 years later, when the railway was taken over by Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, with trains then using the L&Y main station at the top of the hill. It remained as a goods depot until 1965, but has now been demolished, and even the embankment it was on has gone. The south end is not a park, allowing the space where the station was to be made out.
The north end has disappeared under houses and shops.
Out of the station, the railway crossed Riverside, and then the Ribble.
The bridge has mostly gone, but the piers are still there to support a pipe, which I think carries gas, and was renovated just a couple of years ago, so is still in use.
On the Penwortham side of the river, the railway headed southwest, and crossed Leyland Road. The bridge is gone, but the parapets are still there.
There was a triangle allowing connection to the L&Y network, which passed under the LNWR line (now the WCML). This connection is now a footpath, as is the L&Y approach into Preston. This is the east side of the road, the embankment hidden in the trees, with the footpath up to it. There is no sign of the embankment on the other side.
The Southport line continued straight, passing under Cop Lane, where there was a station. This part of the line is now the A59, as far as the Booths roundabout. This is looking back towards Preston from a footbridge over the A59 - the road follows the course of the railway as far as the bend to the left in the distance.
This is the view from Cop Line, looking the other way, where the station used to be.
It crossed Lindle Lane at a level crossing, the point just visible as the road bends at that point, and there is a footpath along it back east.
The other side of the field looking back.
There is a footpath from this point into New Longton.
Past the Bowling Club, which is using the old trackway as a carpark.
To Station Road, where there was a level crossing. The house on the left was the crossing keeper's cottage, and the railway went through the house on the right.
There was a station, originally called Howick as there was nothing here, on the other side of the road, behind this shop. Now obliterated under a housing estate.
When the line was taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire, the station was renamed Hutton and Howick. A town grew around the station, and became known as New Longton, and in 1934 the station became New Longton and Hutton.
Then under Brown Hill Lane, and even the bump is gone, but just beyond you can see a line of trees where the line went.
It then went into Longton, where there was a brickworks as well as a station (called Longton Bridge for some reason), before crossing over Liverpool Road; the bridge abuttment is still there. The platforms went right over the bridge.
And then over Hall lane.
It curved back to the southwest, with a station at Hoole on Station Road, not especially close to Much Hoole.
It curved to the right to cross the River Douglas on a swing bridge; the parapet is still visible on the east bank.
There was a station in Hesketh Bank, near where Booths is. The West Lancashire Light Railway is just north of here. This is the view from the bridge over the railway looking west, where the station used to be.
There was a short branch that headed south along the river, and connected to the Rufford Branch of the Leeds Liverpool Canal. It was open for passengers for just over a year, and closed altogether in 1930. The photo is probably more-or-less along the course of the track.
There was a station at Hundred End as the railway curved to go more southwestward, and a further one on Guinea Lane in Banks.
The railway then came to Southport. Crossens station is now an estate called the Mallards; and the road still rises to cross the railway.
The line from Crossans was electrified in 1904 as part of the service from Liverpool.
There was another station, Churchtown, where the railway went over Cambridge Road. all that remains is the strange angle of the sides of the buildings either side of the road.
It went though suburbs, skirting Holy Trinity Sports Ground, under Roe Lane - the parapets are still visible. Passing under a footbridge, it joined the WLR line to Liverpool at a triangle, with Moels Cop station to the south east - which was also electrified at one time, with EMUs reversing both here and at Crossens. electrification was removed in 1970. There was a carriage repair workshop inside the triangle to service the EMUs. There is a school there now.
It gets a bit complicated now... there were three railway companies who had lines from Liverpool to Southport. The Cheshire Lines Committee had Lord Street Station; easy enough. The L&Y had Chapel Street, and a line to Wigan, blue on the map. The WLR had Central station, and trains ran adjacent to the L&Y before diverging at St Lukes, with the Liverpool line heading first northeast before going south.
When the L&Y took over the WLR, they closed Central, and re-aligned the track so all trains went into Chapel Street. Blowick station closed in 1939, and that bit of line closed in 1965, so trains to Wigan start on the L&Y line, then go briefly on the last remaining bit of the WLR, before reverting to the L&Y.
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