Wigan Album

The train is traveling towards Wallgate Bridge, it's on the left and track.

40106 is still going strong operating on the Severn Valley Railway, and still in GREEN livery in 2014.

Number 40136 scrapped at Crewe in 1983.

The train in the photo is leaving wallgate station and is heading either to Southport or Liverpool as you can see the cobble lane on the right takes you up to the Victoria Hotel, it goes under the main line bridge my brother-in- law used to drive that one regulary.

The train travels in the direction like we do on our roads, the train is moving away from the camera man.

No it is not Garry.
It is indeed travelling towards the cameraman,as wallgate station back then had four lines running through it (in parallel working formation only).& were not bidirectional.
The train is actually travelling on the Down Platform line,with the Down Through line alongside it & to the right.
BOTH these lines in this photo are for trains running in the same direction,(towards the person who took this photo!)
The UP Platform line & the UP Through lines (for the other direction) are on the other side of the island platform that is wallgate station.

The train to Southport travels the wrong way then Gary?!!
You get on it at Wallgate and it travels left to right.
Well it did a few months ago when I last caught it!

I'm confused here!

I think it's used as a banker, because the guard/brake-van is always at the rear. So you see, it's going towards the bridge.

Garry you are correct stating trains travel on the same side as cars on the road but the train is heading towards the cameraman as the line on the right of the train is / was the normal goods bypass line, the train is travelling through on the platform face, there is another pair of lines on the other side of the platform that would take it under Wallgate.

The train is travelling towards the person with the camera. Today, the track to the right has been lifted along with the up line, on the other side of the platform next the wall.

I suspect Garry is on a wind-up here.

It is NOT going back (Wrong Direction) towards the bridge!
Or being used as a bank engine in that direction,as it is not a signalled move in that direction!.
Sometimes a brake van was marshalled at either end if the direction of the train was to be changed en route.
It is NOT! going towards the bridge!
I`m just wondering if this is one of the workings that ran from Bickershaw to Halliwell power station at Astley Bridge,Bolton,as it would account for there possibly being a brake van at either end due to the train having to change direction en route.
These workings would run from Bickershaw to Wallgate (& then loco change ends by running around between Wallgate & Douglas Bank boxes,then run to bolton,via Crow Nest & Lostock Junction & Bolton Trinity Street station,where the entire train would be turned in the triangular junction between Bolton East Junction,Rose Hill Junction & Burnden Junction.
After all that it would then eventually be in the right direction to go from Bolton to Astley Bridge Junction (& Halliwell power station).

Personally,i think that this is one of those workings,as the date,formation,& traction look correct.

This is not going under Wallgate bridge,not on that line anyway.

Aye me too John.

Garry, you don't know weather your coming or going your better off keeping your mouth shut then their will be no
arguments

No a legitimate question...you must agree, it looks like the loco's pushing!

Where's Cullie? Thought he would coment as these Class 40 locos are his favourite engines.

Well that passed on an otherwise boring twenty minutes !!!!

RON HUNT you know to well im never gonna let a class 40 slip by without me seeing it. 40136 what a beast complete with its split head code box and just for the record the beast from hell is indeed on the down rd and if im wrong i should'nt be working on the per-way today this is our section of track and our cabin is is just too the right of this picture and the beast was photographed from the barrow crossing nr our office GGGRRRRRRRR hear it growl R.I.P BEAST .

This very loco (in its previous guise as no. D336) is one reason that I got interested in railways back in the early 1970s.

The first time I found my way to Taylors Lane bridge by bike, D336 was sitting directly underneath, waiting to go onto shed at Springs Branch. A massive, solid, throbbing, whistling piece of British engineering (as Cullie often mentions) with its battered work-stained green livery and aura of pent-up mechanical power was very thrilling for a young lad.
And if the sight of D336 wasn't thrilling enough, there were also double-headed Class 50 diesels thundering past on the main line with the Scottish expresses.

One more question on this picture - the purpose of the track to the right of the train was to allow freight & non-stop trains to pass through Wallgate avoiding the platform line and presumably inquisitive passengers. Any idea why this coal train is running on the platform line?

Cullie can you email me please. ron@wiganworld.co.uk

I don't know this guy who say's the train is going backwards maybe he is "backward" that photo cleary shows that its getting ready to leave Wallgate Station heading west on the SOUTHPORT LINE WHICH SOME 500YARDS IT GOES UNDER THE "MAIN LINE BRIDGE" IT CANNOT BE ANY SIMPLER THAN THAT ,,END OFF THANK YOU.

As for Garry.
I think some village is missing it`s idiot.
End of chat,I`m done.

Look at photo #24047 which is the last in Album, Places, Wigan Wallgate Station.
Also see:-
http://www.cfps.co.uk/class40story.htm
http://www.cfps.co.uk/40106.htm

doubt its going west,the only place I could imagine westbound at that date would be the coal yard at the orrell side of upholland tunnel.was astley bridge power station still working in the 1070's?.the wagons don't look loaded,no coal popping its head above the parapet.

You sad lot. Don't you remember the Patriots that came through Wallgate ten years earlier? You probably don't...Your loss, gentlemen...

Can`t be going to Orrell coal yard Baker Boy,as there was no rail connection to them back in 1976.
Orrell west signalbox had already closed on the 19th of November 1972 with all the connections/lines to the sidings severed & replaced with plain line.
Come to think of it there was a coal yard at southport still in use though around this time,so who knows?
Southport?
Astley Bridge?

it could well be a ballast train either working on the Southport - Wigan line or it could be looking to run round at Wallgate, just a thought......

The Kirkby line wasn't electrified until 1977. A through train to Kirkdale and Aintree, perhaps?

its more likely to be a ballast or scrap train

fao jarvo
bank hall had three regular jubilees on the Liverpool exchange Newcastle express,which ran down the pemb loop line. 45698 MARS 45717 DAUNTLESS AND 45719 GLORIOUS after 1957 a patriot 45517 was transferred to bank hall from Bristol to help out.yet it was 45698 mars that seemed always to be first choice.

Baker Boy re your comments of 2nd February.I can confirm that Back o'th Bank Power Station,Astley Bridge was still working at this time only closing late 1979/1980.I relieved at Halliwell Goods Depot regularly during 1978/79 where all the documentation for railborne coal traffic was dealt with and was primarely if not totally from Bickershaw.The September 1976 photo at Wigan Wallgate could have been a loaded train on its way to Bolton,loco about to run round or empties on their way back to Bickershaw again loco about to run round.

fao frank brindle
at what date did the nor western connection to patricroft finish

What is meant by "RUN ROUND"?

Ron - when a train arrived at its destination in a dead-end station, its loco had to be detached from its coaches and diverted via points onto an adjacent track to be reattached to its coaches at the other end, so that the train would be drawn, rather than pushed (which was less safe) by the loco. Sometimes the loco would be run onto a turntable so that it was pulling the train head-first, rather than tender-first - I think that was usual if the train was main-line, but not if it was on a branch-line. This distinction obviously didn't obtain when double-headed diesels were in service. A similar system was employed for freight traffic - when the length of the train made it even more important that the driver of the train's locomotive should be in the fullest control of his train. If you look at this pic, you can see there's a guard's van behind the loco - at this period there would also have been one at the other end of the train of coal wagons. So it is possible, as some have suggested, that this train was double-ended, and that the loco is about to uncouple from the guards van and run around via points to draw the train in the opposite direction to that in which it appears to be heading in the pic.
I am not an expert....

Baker Boy.The line from Springs Branch to Patricoft(Eccles Jctn Signalbox) via Tyldesley was officially closed as a through route on the 6th January 1969 but the section from Howe Bridge West Jctn to Springs Branch was retained for coal traffic emanating from Parsonage Colliery until all coal from Parsonage and Golborne Colliery was wound at Bickershaw due to underground connections between the three collieries being completed during 1974.Last rail borne coal from Parsonage was reported in August 1974 and the line back to Bickershaw Jctn from Howe Bridge West was officially taken out of use on the 11th February 1975.

Spot on Frank.
BTW Wallgate driver Steve Davies drove the final train/the track lifting train/demolition train from Howe Bridge to Bickershaw Junction.
Think it was a 37 on it.

Baldylocks said on the 2nd of Feb, "end of chat i'm done" but goes on and on and on....thanks for the info Frank.

I pretty much meant "I`m done" with you Garry.
If brains were lard you couldn`t grease a frying pan.

Oh,by the way it`s left "Hand" Track.
Not left "and" track.
Tut tut.
I win
I really am done now ,with you anyway.
Don`t feed the trolls.
Bye.

Of course it's LEFT HAND I missed out the H that's all....
can't you read between the ""lines" LOL .

The line to Howe Bridge was temporarily put back into service in 1980, with a new bridge across Leigh Road at Howe Bridge, to transport coal from opencast mining in the area.

Well said Garry, lol.

Think this is return 9J50 abram haliwell.tail lamps not yet in place and outward job was early morn.usually type2 though.

There was a temporary bridge at Howe Bridge to service the open cast mining but it was only used for road traffic,I do not remember any rail tracks

I was the signalman on duty in Crompton's Sidings signal box, when the line to Patricroft was closed, with all intervening the boxes decommissioned, and every signal removed.
A light engine was erroneously signalled for Springs Branch Shed, which had to use this line to gain access to the shed, butit turned out to be a train with one luggage van.
This train went as far as Howe Bridge, before the driver stopped to query the missing signals. He rang me from a nearby public house?
It's all in the book!
Later the line was singled, and re-opened to the open cast site at Bickershaw, controlled from Warrington Power signal box in September 1972.
(Incidentally, the distant signal on this line was a semaphore. The only semaphore signal, on the entire Warrington Power Box area.)

There was no bi-directional working in Wallgate Station, unlike North Western Station, where bi-directional working was authorised on all lines through it.