Wigan Album

Stanier class "8F" 2-8-0 working hard over the Wigan avoiding lines. Thanks SJB.

I think this train is crossing over the west coast main line the houses in background are westwood ln

Never seen this view before, is it from Steve?

Reminds me of my childhood in Worsley Mesnes, playing on Heathcotes Farm that used to be opposite the Tippings Arms. You could climb the embankment to watch the trains go by, float a home made raft on the Flash, go fishing, swim in summer, skate on the ice in winter and wander for miles, unconcerned of the dangers and the Elf and Safety Brigade. Happy days

Not so sure about that being Poolstock Lane SJB,,am just going off the houses in the background,,,could it not be Lower Ince end where it crosses over main line near Springs Branch or Warrington Road?????????

that train is heading east its just coming up the bank from westwood park signal box.the bridge on poolstock lane was much higher and no housing could be seen when viewing eastward.the bridge had a large steel plated guard over poolstock lane at least 6 feet high.still a marvellous shot.

Whether it is Poolstock Lane or Westwood Lane, this is probably a very rare photo of a train on the Westwood Park line.

I have a book "Liverpool & Manchester - L&Y Lines", whose author, Bob Pixton, complains he was unable to source any photos of trains on the Pemberton Loop to include in the book. I have several other books on old railways around Wigan and the only photos of this line are either at Pemberton Junction at one end or Hindley at the other

I don't think it's Warrington Road. When I was at St Mary's I also searched for pics of the loop line passing through the parish, but to no avail - except when it appeared in the background of Walking Day shots. I'll send one such to the Album presently. From it you'll see that the Warrington Road bridge was quite a substantial one compared with this bridge - having ten or eleven cast iron sections, two sections deep - and there is no brickwork leading up to it as here.
This looks to me like a bridge with two sections, perhaps with a pedestrian underpass beneath the cast-iron section, and a road beneath the brick section.
Also, it's difficult to place the house with the two windows in its gable end. The house on the corner of Rocky Bank Terrace/ Westwood Lane has no such windows, and the shape of those on the gable end of the next terrace, Westwood Terrace, are wrong - and there are too many chimneys. The house opposite there, just after Laycocks' yard, has only one upper window.
It's all wrong again to be the next bridge west, over the end of Eton Terrace, over the track leading to the land-sales yard by Warrington Road Post Office from the WCML.
So, how about over the WCML - with the gable end being the rear of one of the houses fronting Westwood Lane, beside the bridge there? The bridges over the WCML on Westwood Lane and Cemetery Road are in two sections....
I'm supposing that the fact that the train appears to be running on the far tracks signifies that it is running west - east?

Yes! This is heading east. Having past the cooling towers and now passing over the main line. Now heading towards Warrington Road.

a book I once thumb through in ashton library,forgot the title but it was by a lad I used to go to school with allan heyes,it had a few shots of the old marvellous pemb loop line.long do I remember getting most of my midland division jubilees on grand national day at the loop line.the struggles enginemen have had with heavy freight trains from westwood park box up through worsley mesnes onto pemberton staion and beyond to upholland tunnel.nevercould afford the film or developing.

the cooling towers are behind the train to the north/north east it can only be the wcml bridge.the large bridge over the leeds Liverpool canal had no housing nearby and the cooling tower would have been behind the photographers right shoulder.wcml bridge for sure.i tramped ever inch off the line has a school boy spotter on my way to the branchand beyond and then the long trek back home.

rev david long I was intending my last post to be a message to yourself .I rather stupidly gave your your name in my place ,my apologies

Excellent observations chaps - I only had the date, 1960. I was sure that the cooling towers were to the south of the loop line and being close enough, it could only be Poolstock lane. Warrington road too far away.. However - there are photos of that bridge being dismantled and it's definitely not this one. So with the cooling towers North of the loop then the 8F's heading east on the bridge over the WCML - makes perfect sense.
Cliff - yes it's me, Steven.

Baker Boy. I've got that book by Allan Heyes, It's called London Midland Steam the Closing Years.
An excellent publication

The nearer,iron, bridge is probably over the footpath which runs between the WCML and the houses east of Westwood Lane down to Cemetery Road.
One pic I'd love to see is of the iron footbridge which carried that path over the line I mentioned above which ran to the land-sales site off Warrington Road via Eton Terrace.

What of the other Warrington Road bridge in goose green? That's the one I meant in my above post. I'm not old enough to remember them standing, they must have gone by the late '70's.. (What was the hurry?!)

the hurry was the "new" road the one from j25 dual carriage way into wigan from goose green.the other the much vaunted problem solver for wigans headache ie traffic the never to be forgotten a5225? from orrell down the to be closed wigan Kirby railway line,convienently using the pemberton loop line for much of its way through wigan and district.maybe the loop line bridge at warrington rd goose green was to low for the new dual carriage traffic ?