Haydock Park railway station

Haydock Park
General information
Location	Haydock, St Helens England
Coordinates	53°28′53″N2°37′31″W / 53.481363°N 2.625267°W / 53.481363; -2.625267
Grid reference	SJ584984
Platforms	2 [1]
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Central Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
10 February 1899 [2] [3]	Station opened for race day traffic
5 October 1963	Station closed
Location

v t e GCR lines to St Helens and Wigan
Legend
Wigan Central Wigan Darlington Street Springs Branch Manchester–Southport line Ince Lower Ince Wigan avoiding line to Pemberton Hindley to Springs Branch Junction Manchester–Southport line Lancashire Union Railway Lancashire Union Railway "The Whelley Loop" Strangeways West Junction Hindley South Strangeways East Junction Platt Bridge Manchester and Wigan Railway St Helens Central (GCR) St Helens Central Liverpool–Wigan line Haydock Haydock Colliery Tunnel Bickershaw and Abram Ashton-in-Makerfield Haydock Park Park Lane Halt Golborne South West Coast Main Line Golborne North West Leigh and Bedford Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway Wigan Junction Railways Lowton St Mary's Junction Lowton St Mary's Chat Moss line Kenyon Junction Culcheth Newchurch Halt Liverpool–Manchester lines Glazebrook

Haydock Park railway station was a railway station adjacent to Haydock Park Racecourse, formerly in Lancashire and now in Merseyside, England. ^[4] The station's sole purpose was to handle race day traffic. It did not feature in public timetables ^[5] and normal service trains passed through the station without stopping.

The station was on the Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway line from Lowton St Mary's to the original St Helens Central railway station. It stood behind the racecourse's grandstand. ^{[6] [7] [8]}

History

Opened by the Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway, as part of the Great Central Railway, it became part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The station then passed on to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

Services

Race Day specials were very heavily patronised until well after WW2, as were other specials such as those serving Wakes Weeks and football matches. Although railways are always best suited to regular, day-in-day-out traffic, with cheap labour and plentiful old rolling stock available until the 1960s such intermittent services could make money and be seen as worthwhile. The corporate climate and economics were shifting, however. The station was closed in October 1963. An experiment in running race day specials was run in 1975, using the long-closed Ashton-in-Makerfield station some 500 yards to the west, with the trains passing through Haydock Park station's carcass. This was not repeated after that year. ^[9]

After closure

The line through the station continued in use by trains to an oil depot at Haydock until 1983 and Lowton Metals scrapyard, ^[10] Haydock, until 1987, after which the tracks through the site were lifted.

By 2005 much of the station site had disappeared under a car park extension and other landscaping, though parts of the station footbridge were still standing among undergrowth in 2014. ^{[11] [12]}

Preceding station	Disused railways			Following station
Golborne North Line and station closed		Great Central Railway Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway		Ashton-in-Makerfield Line and station closed

References

1. Pixton 1996, p. 121
2. Dow 1985, p. 10
3. The station via Disused Stations UK
4. The station on a 1948 OS Map via npe Maps
5. Bradshaw 1985 , pp. 714–5
6. Smith & Turner 2012 , Map 45
7. Station and line HOB2 via railwaycodes
8. The station on a 1948 OS Map via npe Maps
9. The station via Disused Stations UK
10. Shannon & Hillmer 2003 , p. 103
11. Sweeney 2014 , p. 74
12. The station via Disused Stations UK

Sources

• Bradshaw, George (1985) [July 1922]. Bradshaw's General Railway and Steam Navigation guide for Great Britain and Ireland: A reprint of the July 1922 issue. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN   978-0-7153-8708-5. OCLC   12500436.
• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN   978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC   60251199. OL   11956311M.
• Dow, George (1985) [1965]. Great Central, Volume Three: Fay Sets the Pace, 1900–1922. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN   978-0-7110-0263-0. OCLC   500447049.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN   978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC   228266687.
• Pixton, Bob (1996), The Archive Photographs Series Widnes and St Helens Railways, Chalford: The Chalford Publishing Company, ISBN   978-0-7524-0751-7
• Shannon, Paul; Hillmer, John (2003). British Railways Past and Present, Manchester and South Lancashire No 41. Kettering: Past & Present Publishing Ltd. ISBN   978-1-85895-197-3.
• Smith, Paul; Turner, Keith (2012), Railway Atlas Then and Now, Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN   978-0-7110-3695-6
• Sweeney, Dennis J (2014). The St. Helens and Wigan Junction Railway. Leigh: Triangle Publishing. ISBN   978-0-85361-292-6.

External links

• The station's history in Disused Stations UK
• The station on an 1888-1913 Overlay OS Map in "National Library of Scotland"
• The station on a 1948 OS Map in npe Maps
• The station and line overlain on many maps in Rail Map Online
• The station and line HOB2 in Railway Codes