Wigan Album
Wigan North West Station
11 CommentsPhoto: RON HUNT
Item #: 32934
Is this from 1968, Ron?
I had a seat booked on this tour and I still have the brochure and ticket. The date was Saturday 26th October 1968.
Steam Hauled trains ended for British Railways on 11 August 1968.
Stephen what a collectors item you have<g>
There was a railway line that ran at the back of Ashfield House in Standish. We used to stand on the fence and watch the steam trains going passed. Could we have seen The Flying Scotsman?
Was it not the Royal Scot that ran on west line.?mk7u2
Linma, in the days of steam you wouldn't have seen the Flying Scotsman on the tracks behind Ashfield House since these were the West Coast main line. The Flying Scotsman started it's life with the LNER before nationalisation and operated on the East Coast between King's Cross and Scotland.
Eddie: You are correct. The Royal Scot operated on the West Coast main line from London to Glasgow.
The L.M.S. railway company introduced a class of express locomotives in
the 1930s....The first of them was 6100 called "Royal Scot", later to become 46100 under nationalisation with British Railways in 1948.
There were several complete named trains that ran from London Euston
to Glasgow Central....They were " The Royal Scot " , " The Caledonian ",
and " The Mid-Day Scot ".
I can remember the 8 o’clock fish train that used to travel south when I was train spotting in Whitley Fields. You could smell the fish.
It was so regular that I used it to know when it was time to return home.
As Stephen Kirk states, this was October 26th 1968 and this railtour stopped at Wigan NW between 8:51am and 8:56am. Regular steam did finish on BR in August but Alan Pegler, the owner of Flying Scotsman, had negotiated a series of rail tours that carried on into 1969. More information can be found here : https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/60s/681026rc.html