Haydock Park railway station

Haydock Park railway station was a railway station adjacent to Haydock Park Racecourse, formerly in Lancashire and now in Merseyside, England.[4] The station's sole purpose was to handle race day traffic. It did not feature in public timetables[5] and normal service trains passed through the station without stopping.

Haydock Park
General information
LocationHaydock, St Helens
England
Coordinates53.481363°N 2.625267°W / 53.481363; -2.625267
Grid referenceSJ584984
Platforms2[1]
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyLiverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Central Railway
Post-groupingLondon and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
10 February 1899[2][3]Station opened for race day traffic
5 October 1963Station closed

The station was on the Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway line from Lowton St Mary's to the original St Helens Central railway station. It stood behind the racecourse's grandstand.[6][7][8]

History

Opened by the Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway, as part of the Great Central Railway, it became part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The station then passed on to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

Services

Race Day specials were very heavily patronised until well after WW2, as were other specials such as those serving Wakes Weeks and football matches. Although railways are always best suited to regular, day-in-day-out traffic, with cheap labour and plentiful old rolling stock available until the 1960s such intermittent services could make money and be seen as worthwhile. The corporate climate and economics were shifting, however. The station was closed in October 1963. An experiment in running race day specials was run in 1975, using the long-closed Ashton-in-Makerfield station some 500 yards to the west, with the trains passing through Haydock Park station's carcass. This was not repeated after that year.[9]

After closure

The line through the station continued in use by trains to an oil depot at Haydock until 1983 and Lowton Metals scrapyard,[10] Haydock, until 1987, after which the tracks though the site were lifted.

By 2005 much of the station site had disappeared under a car park extension and other landscaping, though parts of the station footbridge were still standing among undergrowth in 2014.[11][12]

Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Golborne North
Line and station closed		   Great Central Railway
Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway		   Ashton-in-Makerfield
Line and station closed

References
  1. Pixton 1996, p. 121
  2. Dow 1965, p. 10
  3. The station via Disused Stations UK
  4. The station on a 1948 OS Map via npe Maps
  5. Bradshaw 1985, pp. 714–5
  6. Smith & Turner 2012, Map 45
  7. Station and line HOB2 via railwaycodes
  8. The station on a 1948 OS Map via npe Maps
  9. The station via Disused Stations UK
  10. Shannon & Hillmer 2003, p. 103
  11. Sweeney 2014, p. 74
  12. The station via Disused Stations UK

Sources
  • Bradshaw, George (1985) [July 1922]. Bradshaw's General Railway and Steam Navigation guide for Great Britain and Ireland: A reprint of the July 1922 issue. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-8708-5. OCLC 12500436.
  • Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
  • Dow, George (1965). Great Central, Volume Three: Fay Sets the Pace, 1900–1922. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0263-0. OCLC 500447049.
  • Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
  • Pixton, Bob (1996), The Archive Photographs Series Widnes and St Helens Railways, Chalford: The Chalford Publishing Company, ISBN 978-0-7524-0751-7
  • Shannon, Paul; Hillmer, John (2003). British Railways Past and Present, Manchester and South Lancashire No 41. Kettering: Past & Present Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85895-197-3.
  • Smith, Paul; Turner, Keith (2012), Railway Atlas Then and Now, Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7110-3695-6
  • Sweeney, Dennis J (2014). The St. Helens and Wigan Junction Railway. Leigh: Triangle Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85361-292-6.
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