Wigan Album

No getting wet in those days!!

This looks much as I remember it in the early 1960's.

A very interesting photograph. Looking westward, the next bridge, almost identical to Heyes bridge at Pemberton, carries traffic over to Billinge via the Running Horses. Just beyond the bridge is the summit of the Orrell Bank: a slow ascent of 1 in 108-92 for 3.5 miles from Wigan. The line levels just before Upholland Tunnel and is runs almost flat to Liverpool beyond. In steam days, the banking engines would come off just after Upholland Station when the line would run quadruple almost to Rainford. The sight of a Wakefield coal train pulled by a Stanier Black Eight and banked by a Fairburn Tank would be a formidable sight going from Pemberton to the tunnel. As a kid in the early sixties, this was a daily occurrence. What I would give some fifty years later, to witness that spectacle again...Keep them coming, Ron.

Your wrong Jarvo the next bridge is an old coaching bridge that leads into Vicarage Road

Correct Jas. The bridge which can be seen beyond the foot bridge was used by the occupants of the old Bank House farm to access fields on either side of the line, before the area was built up. I cut across it a couple of days ago.
The bridge Jarvo refers to, carrying St James Rd, is 100 yards further to the west.