Ditton railway station

Ditton
Location
Place	Ditton
Area	Halton, Cheshire
Grid reference	SJ487846
Operations
Pre-grouping	London & North Western Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway London Midland Region of British Railways Railtrack
Platforms	5[1]
History
1 May 1871	New station opened as Ditton Junction, replacing Ditton Mill
7 May 1973	Renamed (Ditton)
29 May 1994	Closed
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St Helens & Runcorn Gap Railway
Legend
Liverpool and Bury Railway Rainford Junction Skelmersdale Branch Liverpool and Bury Railway Rainford Village Rookery Old Mill Lane Crank Halt Moss Bank Pilkington Glass Gerards Bridge Liverpool to Wigan Line to Wigan North Western St Helens Central (original GCR station) St Helens Central Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway Liverpool to Wigan Line to Liverpool Lime Street Peasley Cross Hays Chemicals Sutton Oak Robins Lane Halt Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Manchester Victoria St Helens Junction Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Liverpool Lime Street Clock Face Union Bank Farm Halt Farnworth & Bold Appleton Ann Street Halt Warrington and Stockport Railway Vladivar Vodka distillery Warrington Arpley Birkenhead Railway Warrington Bank Quay High Level • Low Level Chester to Manchester Line Whitecross Sankey Bridges Fidlers Ferry & Penketh Fiddlers Ferry power station Cuerdley Widnes Loop to Sankey Tanhouse Lane Widnes Central Cheshire Lines Committee (Liverpool to Manchester) Hough Green Widnes South Runcorn Gap(2nd) Runcorn Gap(1st) swing bridge Widnes Dock Ditton Mill London and North Western Railway to Weaver Junction & Euston Runcorn Bridge Ditton Junction Halebank Speke 1864 extension to Liverpool Church Road Garston Garston Container terminal Garston Dock Garston and Liverpool Railway to Hunts Cross Hunts Cross chord Liverpool South Parkway to Liverpool Central Allerton West Allerton Mossley Hill Sefton Park Wavertree Liverpool and Manchester Railway Edge Hill Liverpool Lime Street

Ditton railway station, earlier known as Ditton Junction, was in the town of Widnes in Cheshire, England. It was located on Hale Road on the border between Ditton and Halebank. The station opened in 1871 on the London-Liverpool line. It replaced an earlier station named Ditton Mill which was inconveniently located off the then new main line some 230 yards to the east. Ditton closed to passengers on 27 May 1994.

On 17 September 1912 15 people were killed when the 17:30 train from Chester derailed while crossing from the fast to the slow line at speed.

The station was the first to be closed by Railtrack following the privatisation of British Rail in 1994. Passenger numbers declined during the 1960s and 1970s with the steady withdrawal of services. The Ditton Dodger to St Helens Central was the first withdrawal in 1951, followed by services to Manchester Oxford Road in 1962 and to North Wales via the North Wales Coast Line and Chester in 1975. The station was left with an hourly shuttle between Crewe and Liverpool. By the late 1980s even this service had begun to omit Ditton from its schedule and dwindling passenger numbers eventually led to its closure.^[2]

As of 2015 the platforms survive and can easily be seen from passing trains.

Ditton Railway Station is one of two stations where Paul Simon reputedly composed the song "Homeward Bound", the other being Widnes railway station. It is uncertain exactly where the song was written: in an interview with Paul Zollo for SongTalk Magazine, Art Garfunkel says that Simon wrote the song in a train station "around Manchester"^[3] while in an earlier interview for Playboy Magazine Simon himself mentioned the train station was at Liverpool.^[4] It is likely, however, that it was written at one of the two Widnes stations during a long wait for a train, as Simon was traveling back from Widnes, where he had been playing.^[5] A plaque commemorating this claim to fame is displayed on the Liverpool bound platform of Widnes railway station.^[6] Simon is quoted as saying "[i]f you'd ever seen Widnes, then you'd know why I was keen to get back to London as quickly as possible."^[7]

Future

Halton Borough Council has protected the site of the station as well as the Halton Curve from development prejudicial to their reuse as part of the rail network; the Council notes that "there is an opportunity for the re-opening of this station, particularly with the possible increase in patronage from major industrial, commercial and housing developments in the area. It may be possible to use the station as a park and ride facility."^[8] The alignment of the "Shell Green Route" which linked Ditton with Widnes South and Warrington is also protected.

Preceding station	Disused railways			Following station
Allerton		Regional Railways Weaver Junction and Liverpool Line		Runcorn
Hale Bank		London and North Western Railway St Helens Railway		Widnes South
		London and North Western Railway		Runcorn

References

1. Fields, Gilbert & Knight 1980, Photos 247 & 248
2. Subterranea Britannica, "Ditton".
3. Zollo, Paul (1990). SongTalk Magazine http://www.artgarfunkel.com/articles/songtalk.html. Retrieved 27 September 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
4. "'Paul Simon immortalised Widnes Station'". Cheshire Magazine (Cheshire, England: C.C. Publishing). Retrieved 27 September 2012.
5. Just ask Sunday Mail (Glasgow); 24 December 2006; MARGRET CAMPBELL; p. 38
6. GADFLY - Paul's fair deal for Scarborough Northern Echo (Darlington); 7 June 2006; MIKE AMOS; p. 11
7. Backtrack - BACKTRACK BRIEFS . . . Northern Echo (Darlington); 21 November 2008; Mike Amos; p. 11
8. Halton Borough Council, Unitary Development Plan, Chapter 6, TP3.

Sources

• 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.

External links

• Ditton station via Disused Stations UK

Coordinates: 53°21′23″N 2°46′15″W / 53.3563°N 2.7707°W