Wigan Album

this loco was allocated to 27d Prescott st ex l&y depot in may 1953.by the looks of its tender, its not used any coal. so must still be close to wigan.its certainly a wigan type landscape

Hazard a guess at Ince - with the mill being Empress. A complete guess without looking at photo's elsewhere.

It looks like the location is Westwood sidings, on the Pemberton/Westwood Loop Line.

On the switchback at Westwood Park.
Photo taken from the signal box.
The photo could not have been taken after November 1964 as all the sidings & box were taken out of use on the 1.11.64.

I would hazard this is looking towards Hindley, if you look just beyond the engine you can see a pipeline running along the ground... there was one of these between Platt Bridge and Hindley, I think Widows Flash is there now?

Just to clarify... the pipeline is the Rivington Aquaduct.

this is at the side of blackwaters at ince near cemetery

Looks like the driver and fireman have neglected their duty. Someone should tell them there's a static freight train on the track!!

Could be a historic photo this, if it's confirmed as being on the Westwood Park line.

I have a couple of books on railways around Wigan where the author, Bob Pixton, complains it has been impossible to find any photos of the Westwood Loop, other than at Pemberton Junction.

I do not think they have neglected their duties the engine is stopped

Looks like the Manchester to Liverpool line that went over Poolstock lane and ran along little lane near Goose Green Labour club and then to Pemberton station, used to watch the express train run when living at Snowden Ave in the early sixties.

its not westwood as there is no st james church in the pic .from that angle the church must be in view, also no large warehouse sheds in poolstock with light fronts.
plus westwood siding was just big enough for one 4f.

westwood never had three sections of track along side of each other.

No,but it had sidings.

I contacted Tom Pixton several years ago about wrong identification on photographs so please make sure that you all agree the correct location.

Just a thought re identifying the location. If anyone has a map of the railways around Wigan in the 1950's could they not see if there were points for changing lines at the location suggested i.e. Scotsmans, Blackwaters. As you can see a set on this photograph.

Not high enough. Westwood had a very high embankment. This is more like the Whelley Loop line. The line to the left in Rose bridge junction.

westwood did have a holding siding for the banker,which assisted any freight in the fifties usually all of them to upholland tunnel.
this picture gives the impression of a wide embankment,which westwood did not have.another point againsit it being there is the signal,it would have had the box in view. plus the crossover is somehow wrong.
in the pic there appears to be a lake /flash with a cliff surrounding it.my guess ince, platt bridge, bamfurlong?

Anyone wanting a clue to the layout of track, signalbox etc at Westwood Park, take a look at this link to a Six-inch-to-t'-mile O.S. map from 1951. You have to zoom in to the Scotsmans Flash area to see it.

http://maps.nls.uk/view/101103194

My money is still on the photo being at Westwood Park siding.

It's a poor do that you need to go to the National Library of Scotland to get easy on-line access to old Ordnance Survey maps of England. Due to the Ordnance Survey now being privatised, apparently they no longer allow access to regular punters unless you pay for it.

deff not westwood the holding siding did not continue past the box.ie it did not have three sets of rails.no pylons in poolstock.finally the telegraph pole is very low,just in front of the locos buffer beam

Westwood, Hindley to Pemberton line. To the far right is Westwood power station, you can see the pylons that went towards platt Bridge. Photo taken from signal box, or could be signal post ladder. (It's only a guess)

Bit late to this thread as I have only just found it. The photo is definitely Westwood Park taken from the Signal Box.

125 NLS map (recently released late 2017) here

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/index.cfm#zoom=17&lat=53.5335&lon=-2.6310&layers=168&b=1

The 3 lines are right - zoom in on the plan.
This is an old plan showing the signalbox on the other side of the line. i don't know when it was moved / rebuilt to the other side of the line, but I remember it as per photo back in the 60's. That is Poolstock in the background, Worsley mesnes Ironworks to the left, Poolstock mill to the right and St James church just about edging onto the photo on the right hand photo edge. The pylons are right, the pipeline was in fact two pipes side by side, one feeding cold water to the building between the cooling towers from Scotchmans Flash, and another was some sort of hot water overflow which spilled into Poolstock Brook. This only ran now and again

Being born in Poolstock in 1952 I knew this area like the back of my hand.