Wigan Album

Great shot! Just as it was in the '60's.

Fantastic picture. I will never that fantastic sensation you got when, standing by the newsagents on Platform 1, (far end of this picture) the steam train to Southport suddenly emerged from under Wallgate Bridge.

Love this! I love photos of old station platforms and you don't se many local ones. It appears to have been a busy place.

In the 50's I stood on that platform every Sunday in summer (Weather permitting)to go to Southport baths for the day with my family. It was a much simpler time and a time that I was around to thoroughly enjoy. I could be wrong but the kids today don't seem to know what simple fun is, unless they have an iphone in their hand they seem completely lost, quite sad really!

The thrill of entering an empty compartment on the Southport train. My dad never failed in getting us one. And then the sensation when the engine began to pull the train out...I do believe that that was one of the highlights of my childhood. And the smell of button carriage cloth...Shades of Larkin...

In the fifties, these platforms, at the week-ends, were full of lads, either coming on a 36,or,48 hour pass, on a Friday,or Saturday, and leaving on a Sunday,to return to their units. I caught the train to Manchester, to pick up my coach, to the Salisbury Plains, a good eight hour journey, by coach.

Jarvo,I am not really a train person,but I must comment on your discription it's great to read your enthusiasm even the way you described the smell,I remember it to,and to smell that steam was brill.

John G,I live near Bury now were they run Steam Trains every Weekend, the sight of the Trains and the lovely smell of the Steam takes me back years to the 50s when all us Lads from Spring View went Train Spotting & playing in Springs Branch.

Well-said, Jarvo....a perfect description. Peter and I go to the 1940s event at Bury Station every year, (coming up soon), and the sight and smell of the steam and smoke, and the people in forties clothes along the platform, is absolutely brilliant!

Irene,put a big hat on and I will come and see you.

Not sure what day we'll be there, Jimmy, but probably Sat or Mon. My hat is navy and is an original one from the forties, trilby-style. My suit will be either navy or grey, and I will have a fur over one shoulder and an oval wicker basket. I'd love to say the fur is a fox, but it's a stone-marten, which is a step up from a ferret! Peter will be in an original navy striped suit and a light brown fedora, so look out for us!

Jimmy, I bet you knew my cousins from Spring View.....the Griffiths family from Taylors Lane and the Gittoes family from Hope Street.

Irene,not sure was a while back ,did any go to Spring View School.

Great atmospheric picture, just as I remember Wallgate.
But look at those mailbags and parcels piled up on the trolleys. They could topple over onto the tracks - not to mention those trip hazards on the platform! Health & Safety would have a fit these days.

I think they all did, Jimmy. There is a photo of my cousin James Griffiths on one of the photos of Spring View Schools. My brother married a lady from Spring View, too, in 1961. Her name was Pat Cooksey and she had a brother, Philip. You may not know any of them, but with you mentioning Spring View in the Fifties, I thought I would ask. My brother worked at Springs Branch in the Fifties, Colin Griffiths. I know there was a Colin Griffiths in the Spring View/Platt Bridge area too, as I knew him in later years, but my brother was from Higher Ince.

I went to Spring View School, Jimmy. I left though in April, 1949. My brother would have been there in the fifties, Harold Short.

Irene,just seen your Jimmy's photo from School,we were in the same class for the first two years.

Thanks for getting back to me, Jimmy. I'm glad you knew him.

I caught the train from there August 1955 to get to Oswestry to do my national service

Eleven of us caught the train from Wallgate to Liverpool July 1969 to catch I.O.M.ferry. The day before Ann Jones had beaten Billie Jean King in Wimbledon ladies final!!

It's actually on pointless at this moment!

And it scored three points