Wigan Album

Another great piccy Harry. Just stop and count how many lorries this one train is keeping off the roads!Did you ever work either of the Anberswood or Strangeways boxes Harry?

No such luck mate,Amberswood west & many others had long gone before i became a signalman.
I did have family on the railway going back years,& i grew up in a kind of railway family i suppose.
It kind of seemed like a bit like a "family business".

Beltin photo harry, I can just make out the old Lancashire Union pub and the greenwaters just to the left of the engine, also the gasometer in Derby lane and St Peters church, wish I had a pound for every time I fired on that line. keep um coming

Its nothing short of criminal what happened to this & many other railway routes,throught the country that just got thrown on the scrapheap,discarded,destroyed,without any foresight never to be replaced,robbing countless future generations of a public transport system that could have catered for just about any future eventuality & community expansion.
Can you imagine what would happen today if someone even just sugessted doing something as insane as a "beeching" to the road network,by closing motorways,by passes,car parks etc without REALLY thinking of the consequenses in the future?.
They would be dragged away in a straight jacket never to be seen again.
The injustice done to our railway infrastructure system is something worth remembering the next time we,re sat in a traffic jam.

I couldn't agree more, Harry!

Doctor Beeching only closed the non profitable railways and from that we now have some wonderful country walks and cycle tracks.

Trains can't compete with HGVs, railways too slow and costly. Trucks can deliver from door to door, trains cant. Micks spot on. It's what you call progress chaps. Old railways will never make a come back.

i myself would rather see a train or be in one to look at our countryside. has for cycle paths more like they should be called dogs toilets cos there covered in the mess.brilliant photo wish i was born in them times.

John, Mick,
Gentlemen go away and consult your history. Beeching was placed in the post as chairman of the BRB for one reason and one reason only, and it certainly wasn’t anything to do with promoting the future of the railways in general. He closed many railway lines that were far from unprofitable; the Tory party’s lasting legacy to future generations, and an equally incompetent Labour party that lacked the vision to see the future, and allowed the planned cutbacks to take place. More railway lines closed under a Labour administration that ever they did under a Conservative one.
British Railways had already put its house in order by the mid fifties and closed the few unprofitable lines that needed to be. Yes its true, we do indeed have many nice cycle walks and tracks, we also have many nice housing estates, by-passes, industrial estates and other such inferior things built over many now disused railway tracks. Unfortunately that isn’t what they were built for, and they don’t enable the country to move its people or its goods traffic around do they?

As for progress you must be “away with the mixer” lads if you really believe that. The railways enabled the greatest period of industrial growth in this once great Nation’s history – it was called the industrial revolution. Efficiency has many sides to it and it isn’t necessarily just a matter of door to door, and incidentally when was the last time you saw an articulated lorry deliver to your front door. The railways were always safer [you are still statistically safer in the carriage of a railway train than in your own front room], (privatisation notwithstanding! quicker, with less environmental damage particularly were electric traction is in use than road transport. In its day, the railway had the most efficient logistics (as the techno speak goes these days) machinery the world has ever seen.

The steam engines demise over diesel was brought about due to the fact they were in comparison unreliable, extremely labour intensive and consequently far more expensive to run and maintain. They also required a far more complicated infrastructure to support them in the form of coal and water supply and its management also the disposal of ash. Scrapping them wasnt a `crime`, it was plain economic sense.

I like trains Dave and enjoy going on them but I also like the cycle tracks that have been made out of the old railway tracks.

Have you ever rode across the Ribblehead viaduct I did last year.

You can to by looking at my Yourtube channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/singaporemick#p/search/0/pcjOSco64AQ

Spot on Mr Taylor.

You Tell Em!!

Dave T and the gang of buffs. WHO delivers the food to the supermarkets, the DIY stores, Home-delivery services, the Post Office, Newspapers, Building sites, Pubs/Clubs, Ferrys, Airports, Hospitals, Car dealers, Farming, ETC ETC ETC.
If the HGVs stop for a day the Country would grind to a hault..literally. HGVs are very important and thats a fact, we cant manage without them. Yes railways are important for passengers but not for goods, too slow and expensive. I agree, they were very important in the 2nd world war and rightly so, but at the end of the day Railways have had their time and it was time to move on. Lets get real chaps. I would just like to point out that you STILL had to transport goods to and from railways by ROAD so why use railways.

Tom its nothing to do with steam and diesel power, it's the Railway infratructura that out-dated. As Mr.Taylor rightly says, we had the greatest period of industrial growth, note HAD, but thats all in the passed. You're all out of date, I appreciate your love of railways and what they have done for the country, but lets talk sense. Its over and will never replace road transport... not that it's better or greener, its more efficient and not as costly. Thanks.

Lets put things in perspective. Why was the Whelley loop line closed? But first lets look back to over 100 years. the loop line was built for slow moving traffic which held up faster passenger trains through Wigan stations WNW. The line closed in the 1970s because of faster diesel and electrified units, thats progress. So the whelley line and many others were lifted. We was the last country to still run on steam up to 1968, which was many years after other European countries. We DID have the best railway system in the world, but now were well behind them. So railway tracks had to be lifted if their not being used, many were indeed loop and branch lines, like all companys and BR no different, they have to make money. I like railways but they are a business, its so nice to look back but I'm afraid company's only look forward. I think they could make roads out of old railway track dont you.

Eddie Stobart now has an express rail freight division.
Somebody told me that it was something to do with distribution for Tesco.

Its the new Tesco Distribution centre in Widnes, not far from Runcorn Bridge. Eddie Stobart's £25 million per year deal with Tesco, to haul chilled movements by Seaport and Railhead. Sounds good.

I know where Amberswood junction was but can't get my bearings working out which way the engine is traveling? could it be going towards Plattbridge before Warrington Road bribge and heading for Bamfurlong junction?