Wigan Album

Was coal only ever delivered to Westwood via canal, or were there railway sidings also?

there was a set of siding,s which delivered coalat one point.

NoTim, no railway sidings. Coal was brought in by canal and latterly by road.

I read somewhere that Westwood had a fireless steam locomotive, (charged with steam from the plants main boilers) but it was never used as the sidings were not put in for quite a long time, and the pattern of canal transport from Bickershaw had become established in the interim. I have also seen it suggested that it is the locomotive that was more latterly employed at Huntley and Palmer, but I do not know if this actually is true.

Priscus is correct, the Power Station did have a fireless locomotive-Westwood No.1-from 1951 to 1967 when it was transferred to Chadderton Power station.It is documented in "The Industrial Railways of the Wigan Coalfield (part 2) by C.H.A.Townley/F.D.Smith/J.A.Peden. There is a photograph of it on page 363.According to the book, the rail sidings was brought into use during 1954 and ended 1962 with the canal being used until 11th August 1972 when road transport took over.

I walked along this stretch of canal many times in the 1960s and cannot really remember it being used very much for coal deliveries certainly towards the end of the 1960s. I could well be wrong but my memories are largely of semi derelict barges and idle cranes.

the railway sideings were used to deliver coal to the power station and there was a wagon tippiler at the side of the power station.

I remember cycling past the power station as a kid on the opposite side of the canal just before the whole site was demolished in 1989/90. The crane and pump house seen in the photograph had long gone by then. Its interesting that the building that was constructed on the site - which was some form of banking/investment HQ didn't last too long and that too was demolished a few years ago to make way for the present site of Nice-Pak International that opened in 2017.

coal was brought from bickershaw on a regular basis ,usually by a tug barge and a barge on tow,i have watched the coal being unloaded on quite a few times

My dad Len Johnson and i think Ron Baxendale worked on the cranes for at least 10yr.

This reminds me of happy times train spotting from the crane cab nearest the railway line. My father "Admiral" Charlie Davies was in charge of the fleet ferrying coal to the power station from assorted collieries on the LL and Leigh branch canals. I got to roam about the station whilst waiting to be unloaded!In later life I ended up designing parts of the pulverised coal burners having been inspired by what I saw at Westwood.