Culcheth railway station

Culcheth
Site of the station in 1996
Location
Place	Culcheth
Area	Warrington
Coordinates	53°27′00″N 2°31′49″W / 53.4499°N 2.5303°WCoordinates: 53°27′00″N 2°31′49″W / 53.4499°N 2.5303°W
Grid reference	SJ648949
Operations
Original company	Wigan Junction Railways
Pre-grouping	Great Central Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Platforms	2[1]
History
1 April 1884	Station opened
2 November 1964	Station closed to passengers
4 January 1965	Station closed completely[2]
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GCR Lines to St Helens and Wigan
Legend
Wigan Central Wigan Darlington Street Springs Branch Ince Lower Ince Hindley Southport to M'cr Pemberton, avoiding Wigan Springs Branch Jct "The Whelley Loop" (Lancashire Union Rly) Strangeways West Jct Hindley South Strangeways East Jct Platt Bridge Manchester & Wigan Rly Bickershaw and Abram Park Lane Halt West Leigh and Bedford St Helens Central (GCR) St Helens Central Liverpool to Wigan Line Haydock Haydock Colliery Tunnel Ashton-in-Makerfield Haydock Park Golborne South WCML Golborne North LSH&SLR WJR Lowton St Mary's Jct Lowton St Mary's Kenyon Junction Chat Moss Line Culcheth Newchurch Halt Glazebrook Liverpool-M'cr CLC

Culcheth railway station served the village of Culcheth, then in Lancashire, later in Cheshire, England.^[3] It was situated immediately west of the bridge whereby Wigshaw Lane crossed the railway.^[4]

History

Culcheth station opened on 1 April 1884^[5] along with six other stations on the Wigan Junction Railways (WJR), which was backed by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR).^[6]

The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 to the Great Central Railway (GCR). The GCR absorbed the WJR on 1 January 1906.^[7]

The WJR line ran through Lancashire from Glazebrook West Junction to Wigan Central^[8][9][10] but was also a part of the bigger MS&LR/GCR network and therefore trains were originally provided by the MS&LR.

Services

In April 1884 there were seven trains in each direction per day, all running between Manchester Central railway station and Wigan Central. Of these six called at Culcheth. Two trains each way ran on Sundays, calling at all stations en route.^[11]

From 1900 until 1952 Culcheth was also served by passenger trains running to St Helens Central,.^[12]

In 1922 six "Down" (towards St Helens and Wigan) trains called at the station, "Weekdays Only" (Mondays to Saturdays.) These all ran All Stations from Manchester Central to St Helens via Glazebrook and Culcheth. It is difficult to be certain from the timetable whether these trains split at Lowton St Mary's with a portion proceeding to Wigan Central, or whether passengers for Wigan had to change, but in either event those same six trains also took Culcheth passengers All Stations to Wigan. Given the dwell times for St Helens trains, it appears that theirs was a through service.

A lone All Stations Manchester to Wigan train - 18:42 from Culcheth - had no St Helens connection or portion, serving the Wigan Central line only.

Three Down trains, one Fridays and Saturdays only and two Saturdays only, appeared to start at Culcheth calling All Stations to Wigan Central, with no St Helens portion or connection. It may be that these trains originated at Liverpool Central, turning West to North at the triangular Glazebrook West Junction, but the timetable doesn't seem to confirm this.

The "Up" service was broadly similar, but the mix of all week and Saturdays only/excepted was more complex.

No trains ran on Sundays.^[13]

In WW2 the line through Culcheth was more frequently used, though after 1945 the line started to deteriorate.^[12]

The services to and from St Helens came to a halt when that line closed to passenger traffic on 3 March 1952.

The station closed to passengers on 2 November 1964^[5] and to freight in 1965 although the line survived as freight only until 1968.

The line through Culcheth was also a diversionary route and a route by which traffic such as Summer Saturday holiday specials could bipass busy spots, such as Wigan. Pixton, for example, has a fine 1961 shot of a Summer Saturday Sheffield to Blackpool train at Lowton St Mary's which will have passed through Culcheth. It would bear right at Hindley South onto the Whelley Loop and then join the WCML at Standish, bipassing Wigan altogether.^[14]

By far and away the most heavily loaded, but sporadic, passenger trains through the station were for Haydock Park racecourse.

The Station Site

The station was demolished in 1977 to be replaced by Culcheth Linear Park. The remains of a rear wall of one of the platforms can still be identified opposite the Linear Park's car park.

Location map

1911 map showing the location of Culcheth station (bottom right) on the GCR line from Glazebrook Junction to Wigan Central

Routes

Preceding station	Disused railways			Following station
Lowton St Mary's Line and station closed		Great Central Railway Wigan Junction Railways		Newchurch Halt Line and station closed

Notes

1. Fields, Gilbert & Knight 1980, Photo 124
2. The station via Disused Stations UK
3. Sweeney 2013, pp. 23-30
4. The station on a 1948 OS Map via npe maps
5. Butt 1995, p. 74.
6. Dow 1962, p. 104.
7. Dow 1962, p. 105.
8. Conolly 1976, p. 45, section C3.
9. The line and mileages via railwaycodes
10. Smith & Turner 2012, Map 45
11. Dow 1962, p. 354.
12. Wright.
13. Bradshaw 1986, pp. 714–5
14. Pixton 1996, p. 119

References

• Bradshaw (1986), Bradshaw's July 1922 Railway Guide (reprint), Guild Publishing London
• Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
• Conolly, W. Philip (January 1976). British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer (5th ed.). Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3. EX/0176.
• Dow, George (1962). Great Central, Volume Two: Dominion of Watkin, 1864-1899. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1469-8.
• Fields, N; Gilbert, A C; Knight, N R (1980), Liverpool to Manchester into the Second Century, Manchester Transport Museum Society, ISBN 0 900857 19 6
• Pixton, Bob (1996), The Archive Photographs Series Widnes and St Helens Railways, The Chalford Publishing Company, ISBN 0 7524 0751 1
• Smith, Paul; Turner, Keith (2012), Railway Atlas Then and Now, Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN 978 0 7110 3695 6
• Sweeney, Dennis J (2013). The Wigan Junction Railways. Leigh: Triangle Publishing. ISBN 978-09550030-5-9.
• Wright, Paul. "Culcheth". Disused Stations. Retrieved 4 April 2012.

External links

• The station via Disused Stations UK
• The station on a 1948 OS Map via npe maps
• The station on an interactive 1909 OS map via National Library of Scotland
• The line and mileages via railwaycodes