Wigan Album

Very good quality again, Tom. The railway photos over the last few weeks have been exellent.

They are brilliant photo's, Thomas.
Thank you for sharing them :o)

everything about this photo is spot on.one of your best tom.brilliant!

Yet another piece of railway I've cycled many times. Unfortunately the line onwards towards Hindley Green is inaccessable, as it's now fenced off Farmers fields. However you can get back on the line towards Howe Bridge at Hindley Green Station on Leigh Road Hindley Green (The platforms are still there in the undergrowth!)Then the old line is rideable/walkable all the way to the Atherleigh Way. There's still some sleepers under the dirt near the Atherleigh Way. Fantastic pictures. More please.

Lovely shot and plenty of atmosphere. I like the lighting too. Landscapes like this are gone now... a pity since they were so interesting to look at. My Grandfather was a collier at Maypole and my Mother was born at Abram, so I have an interest in anything to do with Wigan pits and rlys.
Nice to see a 'Lobster' at work too!

This is the signal box My Grandad used to take me in while he chatted to the signalman in the 1930s. Hindley Green, Kirkpatrick Mill on the horizon and Scowcroft's Pit, aerial flights slag heap over the loco'. E.T.

The engine in the photo is Stanier Mogul 2-6-0 No 2968
(42968 in BR days)and is still going strong on the Severn Valley Railway.The spoil tips in the background used to be a happy hunting ground for me when I lived in Hindley Green and were known locally as "Scowies Rucks".Great memories!

Last September I took photos and videos of this engine at Severn valley railway. She is proudly sporting her 8f shedplate. (Springs Branch).

Great photo, but isnt it a shame that so many of these great locos were painted black mat.

I wonder if my dad's driving that train? He used to sign on at Springs Branch. I'd love to find some photos of the branch (older ones) before they demolished the shed. I'm trying to make up an album for my son about our family, sadly my dad isn't with us any more.

Does anyone remember the aerial flights in the background.They were pit rucks .It was like climbing a mountain but the views were worth the effort.There was pig farm and a maggot farm at the bottom of them..What a stink they were.

Hey! I was the Signalman here in 1966 at the grand old age of 18. My grandfather was also signalman here in 1959 - 60.

Hello, Gordon, I remember you working in one of the Golborne boxes. Hope you are keeping well

I have put a video on Youtube which was transferred from cine of the Aerial Flights or Scowies Rucks its at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgQzDJV4SD0

Great memories of climbing and sliding down (on boards bits of tin anything you could find!) the Aerial flights which were up Scowcroft street (now Maple avenue) Hindley Green. Also riding bikes on the wall of death which were craters in the lower slag heap pictured behind and to the left of the signal box. I remember poor people picking coal from these tips, usually carted away in a wooden handcart or old pram. History... An Aerial Flight was a overhead cableway with buckets that, in the mining industry, transported waste from the pit to the tip. They were used in other industries e.g. transporting clay to a brickworks from a marl pit. No evidence remained of the Aerial Flight that formed this tip when I was a lad presumably it was dismantled and used elsewhere. It would be interesting to know when this tip was formed it provided an adventure playground with brilliant views when you climbed to the top, I lived on Atherton road so it was not too far.

Great photo. I remember the station well. I was born at scowcroft farm which was at the bottom of scowies rucks. We used to play on them every day as kids. When they started to flatten them they made a road to the top and we could get up there on our motor bikes. As a dare I rolled down them in a tractor tyre and nearly landed in the round pond. Tony Hodgetts wrote that he put a link on youtube but it says that the video no longer exists. I wonder if I could get it somehow.

Go to Assorted " Aerial Fights" for railway view from the other side of the bridge looking in this direction. Also pictures of slag heap and views from top.