Wigan Album

excellent pic
used to go trainspotting there.
would stand on bridge and breathe the smoke in from the steam trains
i think the detail is ok on the bridge
its a lot different from todays bridge

This photo brings back some happy memories. I spent many hours train spotting here on during school holidays and on long summer evenings. First of all with my dad, then later with my school mates on our bikes and sometimes on foot with Ben, our mongrel. Ben wasn’t too interested in the trains but he loved the walk, mooching about in the long grass and swimming in the Deep Pit Lodge in the summer.

I started going to the Iron Bridge regularly in the early 1970s. By this time the steam trains were gone and most of the tracks and sidings around Hindley had been dismantled except for the two tracks that remain today. I remember all the redundant rails and crossings being piled up in a rusty stack under the bridge before eventually being taken away for scrap. Although a lot of track had gone, Hindley No. 2 signal box was still open, as it controlled the junction for the spur around to De Trafford Junction on the Whelley line.

There was a gantry of semaphore signals next to the signal box, and one signal remained on the Iron Bridge itself (on the left-hand post in the picture). You always knew when a train was due as you would first of all hear the bells tinging in the box, then the signalman would raise the signals a couple of minutes ahead of time. We could easily climb out from the Iron Bridge onto the little platform where the signal mechanism was located, but we had enough sense to keep our fingers etc away from the moving parts. What would the Health & Safety blokes think of that today? Probably have to close down the bridge!

The only trains through Hindley in the early 1970s were the old-style Diesel Multiple Units, all painted in the drab British Rail blue and going to Bolton & Manchester in one direction and Liverpool & Southport in the other. We hardly ever had any goods trains, although we did once see one which headed around the curve onto the Whelley line – that was a real event for us. There was also one train a day that came through from Yorkshire (Leeds or York) going to Southport. This was a bit of mild excitement as it was a different class, from the Eastern Region, although it was still a DMU and was still painted blue! It was also easy to tell the trains used on the Liverpool route since they had at least one window boarded up from being stoned while going through Kirkby.

The train service was not as frequent in the early 1970s and they did not run to a fixed pattern every hour like they do today, so you could sometimes have a long wait, or go to the Iron Bridge and see no trains at all. I think no trains stopped at Hindley North outside the rush hours, and there were no trains on the Atherton line outside peak hour either. However there was still a man sitting in the ticket office at Hindley all day, not selling any tickets for the trains that didn’t stop. He was OK though, he’d let us go down onto the platforms provided we didn’t make a nuisance of ourselves. At least there were no passengers for us to annoy.

I remember cycling to the Iron Bridge with my mate one Saturday afternoon in the autumn of 1972 and we were horrified to see groups of workmen chopping down the signal posts and ripping out the wires and other equipment. We thought the whole railway line was being closed. When we asked one of the workmen, he said it was because they were opening the new Power Box at Warrington that weekend. So all the semaphore signals disappeared overnight, Hindley No 2 signal box was demolished, the connection to the Whelley line (and the Whelley line itself) were closed and all the trains through Hindley have been controlled from Warrington ever since. By this time, my mates & I were old enough to be allowed further from home on our bikes, so we took off to Springs Branch where we could see some proper trains and a lot more variety – InterCity expresses, many double headed by the powerful Class 50 diesels, freight & parcels trains of all types and the coal trains trundling to and from the branch line to Bickershaw & Parsonage pits - not to mention the loco depot full of off-duty diesels.

Good story Mr Threlfall

I spent many hours trainspotting there too, but in the early 1950s when amost everything was steam. Me and my best mate then, Brian Nicholson of Darby Lane - what happened to him. We also went across Amberswood Common to see the main line "namers" at Springs Branch....

seems we all spotted here at one time or another. I spent many hours there in the late 50's and early 60's. did most of my spotting at the branch.

used too get the smoke and steam from passing steam trains untilbritish rail thought the ugly diesel engines were better

i remember standing on the bridge and waving to the train drivers

Officially listed with Network Rail as 'Deep Pit Footbridge' (Structure Number WBS24), this bridge is now grade 2 listed with English Heritage, having been listed only very recently.....
The listing/registration date being shown as 28th September 2023....
The listing/registration record number being 1487166

Link below..

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1487166?section=official-list-entry

Designed by Augustus Topp for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway...
Built by local engineering contractors 'Walker Brothers' in 1887.
Principal main civil engineers for the widening works & construction of the line between Windsor Bridge/Crow Nest/Pemberton Junction (& subsequent widening works in the Hindley area) were 'Monk & Newall'.