History
A station called Gilbert's Crossing opened on 24 July 1848,when the Liverpool,Crosby and Southport Railway (LC&SR) opened its single-track line from Waterloo to Southport Eastbank Street.
The location of the first station is unknown but it is likely it was at the road crossing the line north of "Old Gilbert's". It was not open for long,and by December 1848 had moved to where the road crossed the line at "Old Gilbert's",the OS map of 1847 showing the station between "Old Gilbert's Birkdale" and "Bond's House",approximately opposite the current Dunkirk Road. [a] [4]
The line was subsequently extended to Liverpool Exchange in 1850 and Southport Chapel Street in 1851. The track was doubled by September 1852.
This station opened sometime in 1851 or 1852. [b] [7] The station was renamed Birkdale Park in 1854 to better reflect the area it served,and reverted to Birkdale in 1865.
The station,described as "substantial and ornate" is on the south side of Weld Road / Liverpool Road where the road crosses the railway via a level crossing. [c] In 1890 there were booking offices and waiting rooms on both sides of the line,with gabled glazed canopies supported by iron columns,which once ran almost the full length of the platforms;sometime after 1954 they were shortened to six bays on the down platform and four bays on the up side,giving it the character of a small country town station rather than a suburban one. The two platforms were connected by a subway adjacent to the road. [d] [9]
The signal box adjacent to the station,in use between 1905 and 1994,is a Grade II listed building. [13] There was a goods yard to the north of the level crossing behind the signal box equipped with a one-and-a-half ton crane,and there was an additional siding behind the Liverpool side platform.
The 1851/1852 station building had a tablet inscribed "Birkdale Station";it was demolished in 1968. [e] The goods yard closed on 28 November 1966.
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway amalgamated with the London and North Western Railway on 1 January 1922 and in turn was grouped into the London,Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. Nationalisation followed in 1948.
In 1978 the station became part of the Merseyrail network's Northern line (operated by British Rail until privatised in 1995).
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