Railways around Wigan, Leigh & the surrounding areas

[Owd Bob]

I only remember the demolished remnants of Central station up where the baths are now i think? And the big impressive stone built bridge coming across on an angle at the bottom of Darlington Street across Warrington Rd. When we went shopping in pie-land my Dad would always park on the terraced streets where the scout hut is on Greenhough St./Westminster st......never knew until years later its where George Formby was born and bred....at no.4 Westminster St. I see todays weather's turned out shite again ant tit! 

[APOLLO]

There's a blue plaque commemorating Georges birth on the wall on the main road opposite Tesco's entrance (I'm not a fan of him though !!).

 

 

I'm building a small OO layout of the GC line from Darlington St goods to Lower Ince station ,also a bit of the LNWR New Springs Branch from Manchester Rd up to Belle Green Lane level crossing. These lines crossed & connected at Lower Ince. A very interesting area in the 50's / 60's before it all went.

 

 

 

Brit15

[APOLLO]

I've not posted for a while but came across this interesting website over the weekend,  literally thousands of local photos and a lot of  local railway content also. I posted this in Wright Writes but this info and links really belongs here due to its Wigan area content. I stumbled across this superb photo site via Martin Zero on youtube (another interesting site !!) - and it's something both completely different and VERY close to home for me. 

 

https://www.timepix.uk/

 

Perhaps to explain, go to the page below first, scroll down a bit and read about the post war survey of Manchester & surrounding towns. Every photo is a photo recording the exact location of an Ordnance Survey revision point used subsequently when performing map revision, but its the general views of life etc, all taken around 1950 which is of interest. Lots of railway content in these albums also. Most photos were used and destroyed - these survived. The SD number is the OS map no, with another reference below (six fig grid ref ?). I guess the top number is a record number of some sort, 

 

https://www.timepix.uk/PAGES/Photo-map-navigation-pages/n-x5Mxnr/Greater-Manchester-Revision-Point-photographs

 

The particular album below is of 876 photos taken in the area of my birth, south Wigan & Ince. 

 

https://www.timepix.uk/Collection-galleries/OS-Revision-Points-in-Greater-Manchester/1940s-1950s-Wigan/Wigan-central-and-Ince-in-Makerfield/i-kN8pfJ2

 

The elusive Westwood Park signal box & sidings, halfway along the L&Y Pemberton loop line, which I could see from my parents bedroom window, just a small stretch of the line half a mile away through the gaps in the houses opposite. I've been looking for a photo of this box for years. Banking locos (4F 0-6-0's) were added at the rear of westbound Liverpool bound coal trains here - I spent many hours watching those.

 

View west, I lived just behind "the coolies" to the left - Westwood power station, built just before I was born.

 

 

View east from the canal bank - Leeds & Liverpool Leigh Branch. Springs Branch is just out of view centre right.

 

 

View east from the box, towards Hindley.

 

 

There are more Pemberton loop line photos in the other Wigan West & Hindley galleries.

 

There are Lots of photos of little streets, buildings, snotty nosed curious kids with clogs and many various assorted railway scenes, a lot of which I remember as a youth - all gone now - I never ever thought I would see again. A big, big thanks to those at Manchester Libraries who have put these on the web. It's like going home !!

 

There's also lots and lots of close up general building detail also for the 50's modeler also. 

 

Brit15

Edited December 16, 2019 by APOLLO

[APOLLO]

Just found this - Belle Green Lane signal box (as modelled above) can just be seen - mum was born next door to the right of the man with the pointer !!

 

 

Some interesting PO wagons at Douglas bank (L&Y Southport line) Wigan around 1950 - I wonder if the wagon ever got returned to Nottingham  (or even Tottenham !!)

 

 

Brit15

[Ouroborus]

Fabulous.  Thanks for the link.  My Mum was born at Boundary Street in Ince,  Her parents were married at the now demolished St Mary's.  So much has changed.  Its getting harder and harder to see where it all once was.

[Ouroborus]

Scrub what I said above, actually not too hard to find a here and now.  1950's plan of Giant's Hall Colliery adapted and overlaid onto 2020 Google maps.  My Dad's Dad used to work here, you can still easily pick out the connection to the wcml

[keefer]

1909 OS 25-inch overlay at NLS Maps:

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.830861003444646&lat=53.5645&lon=-2.6588&layers=168&b=1

 

Use the blue-dot slider, lower left, to change transparency of layer.

Also on the geo-referenced maps, you're not limited to one map sheet - you can scroll continuously as long's there is coverage.

[Ouroborus]

Thanks.  Appreciated the link.  Had a walk over there at the weekend.  Other than mine waste on the ground, few signs.  I thought the shaft might be fenced off, but found nothing.  BUT!  There is something weird and wonderful going on at Giants Hall Farm.  The place bristles with cameras and razor wire.  No signs of anything in production (it was listed on google as a GRP manufacturer), but i dodn't see why you'd need so much security, nor the need to fly union flags on the front lawn, nor the camouflaged comms mast.  Spooky!

[Allegheny1600]

Yesterday, I popped over to Asda in Golborne and on my way there, I finally caught the "new" aggregate train delivering to the nearby cement/concrete factory.

Just a quick iphone snap but here it is;

Cheers,

John.

[Ally Pie]

On 17/12/2019 at 10:10, APOLLO said:

Just found this - Belle Green Lane signal box (as modelled above) can just be seen - mum was born next door to the right of the man with the pointer !!

 

 

Some interesting PO wagons at Douglas bank (L&Y Southport line) Wigan around 1950 - I wonder if the wagon ever got returned to Nottingham  (or even Tottenham !!)

 

 

Brit15

 

Lindsay, is that you?

 

ally pie.

[APOLLO]

Wigan photo maps

 

https://www.timepix.uk/PAGES/Top-Line-navigation-pages/Browse-maps/n-3sMzQP/Wigan

 

Click on map, photos below map

 

elf n safety ????

 

 

Brit15

Edited August 8, 2020 by APOLLO
add photo

[Dawg]

Edit - just seen the above post by Apollo!!!! Haha....

 

Dragging this thread back - I don’t know how many folks are aware of the timepix.co.uk Ordnance survey photos from 1946-1953 of the Manchester area. Wigan Railways and surrounding areas are heavily featured and include the Whelley loop, the Dobbs brow - Dicconson lane line, the Pemberton loop, the Bryn - Pemberton LMS owned colliery branch, the Standish pits, Leigh, Hindley, Etc etc etc. Here are a few selected shots.... 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Dawg

[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]

Just found this thread, I live in Hindley and walk down the old Whelley loop through Amberswood with our dogs every day. We've looked at some old maps  , but today at a caravan site in Devon I found Old DVDs of British Steam, one of them had a Section on Wigan and showed trains climbing the Whelley Loop through Amberswood west junction.

I am building a model railway in my shed, however, I was bought up in GWR Country some trains are green with copper chimneys.

Would love to know more about the Railways around Amberswood