Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 5th August, 2023)

I'm sure I read that work will start when Hindley station is completed.

Ince station is next on the list for improvements soon as Hindley Station is completed after a £78 million electrication upgrade from Bolton to Wigan Wallgate station. Ince not a busy station and yes rundown, but the electrication work will make great improvements, a new bridge
and platforms to accommodate the new trains. The downside is Ince Green Lane will be close to traffic from the defunct Council offices and on the other side of the bridge where the Grove estate starts. Historically, Ince station was at one time very busy to Southport and Manchester, still used today but not as much.

That station you can see once had two wooden doors, a covered canopy, station building, with a roaring coal fire in Winter, a station master, luggage department, toilets and well cared for from British railways.
You have to be a certain age to appreciate how lovely that station was before the 1970s.

A lot of stations would be neglected if it weren’t for the ‘Friends’ who work miracles with their imagination and plants. Especially the ones with no ticket offices. One of the stations where i live was the scruffiest ever but every year it just gets better thanks to those Friends.

Is there any need for this station these days, just up the road is Hindley station and just round the corner almost is Wigan Wallgate station. Both have good bus routes to get there.

We never went away for a holiday when I was a child....our "holidays" were half-days at Southport on sunny Saturdays a couple of times a year, and we went there from Ince Station. That walkway was covered back then with a wooden roof and on the station platform there was a little ticket office where my Dad bought our cardboard train- tickets, and a little waiting room with leather seats and a coal-fire which remained unlit in those Summer days, set in its tiny fireplace. The heady smell of steam when the train pulled in was wonderful, as were the individual carriages with their dusty seats and luggage-racks, with leather straps to hold the windows open on hot days....the sound of those windows shutting when we reached the smelly Bone Works at Appley Bridge was like machine-gun fire! Simple, happy days. Thanks, Dennis, for the memories.

Its not all about neglect Veronica, at this station there's nothing to neglect because there's nothing there.....just platforms.
I think your talking about friends of Hindley.

No it’s not all about neglect Alan apart from the railway company’s neglect. As much as I admire Hindley Station which is beautiful, there’s another in Westhoughton which was awful a few years back. It’s completely transformed with all the shrubs and plants, from walking down the cobbled pathway to the platform it’s a pleasure to look at. . I have seen the ‘friends’ working there. I would love to join them but I have enough to do with my own garden. The other station is just basic but there are a few tubs but nowhere near as nice as the other station. Sometimes when I’m waiting for the train I have pulled a few weeds out of those tubs! It’s really all down to volunteers that some of the stations passed through are so lovely.

What do you mean Alan there's nothing there to neglect, its got amazingly long platform and amazing entrance, when I use the station I always imagine I'm walking into somebody's fireplace.

I just don’t believe that last sentence!
My oh my! !****

The pity about the railway works to be carried out at Ince is that the old canal bridge on the East side of the railway bridge itself will also be demolished along with the railway bridge. If the bridge were over a canal which was in water it would be Listed, and no work could be carried out on it without permission. As it is, it's about all that remains of the Ince Branch off the L&L and looks as if it's just an old road bridge - until you see the score marks where the tow-ropes rubbed away over the years the branch was in operation.
I wonder whether anyone involved in planning the new bridge even knew that it was an ancient canal bridge?

The arch Bridge next to the railway station may not be demolished Rev, it doesn't effect the bridge over the railway lines.
I didn't know it was for a canal, always known it as a railway link.

Mick no comment to you.
Fair comment Veronica and well done to you removing weeds whilst waiting for the train.
If everyone was like you, places like the station would look beautiful.

Rev, you can catch a glimpse of the historical canal bridge that not many of the locals will anything about on this video I made last week, @ 0.30

https://youtu.be/kCRMTaY98fQ

David, most likely the planners of the new electrification project had no idea about the history of the bridge, nor give a hoot, nor be locals, just like the planners of Wigan centre old and new.

I had never known that an ancient canal had run along under there until I read one of your earlier posts about it. When I'd initially seen the bridge with having done work around there I'd just assumed that where the canal had run was a passageway under the road, also that the Conquering Hero was subsiding at the rear due to mining, but no, it was actually slipping and sinking into what was once a busy canal, and which supported the chemical and other factories around there.

All quiet on the platform at Ince Station, photo link below, quite a few people do actually use the station, though if there was a long stay car park close by, as there is at Hindley, I'm sure more people would rather use this one:
https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/width960/4680934_Dm-8neQmmETUaxK_7qoDWkAxu_7G1z3GU2bnL9fp34s.jpg

Mick, that fireplace you're dreaming of walking into, does it have this written above “All hope abandon ye who enter here.”

Whilst I can see "John's" point of view about there being bus-routes into Hindley so no need for a railway station in Ince, I have to say that for people living in LOWER Ince, they would have to walk uphill to Ince Bar,, which is a fair trek, (passing Ince Railway Station on the way!), to get a bus to Hindley. I live in Abram and I know that NO buses going through Lower Ince go to Hindley, and it is a long way for an older person to walk from Lower Ince to Ince Bar to catch a bus to Hindley. THEN, Hindley buses drop off passengers in Market Street, and it is ANOTHER fair trek uphill along Market Street and Ladies Lane to Hindley Station. Not all of us have good legs these days, unfortunately, including me! (Oh go on, DTease and Cyril....please disagree with that.....it will make me feel 21 again!!). Lol! xxxx

Used to go from Daisy Hill station in Owfen to this station then walk down to Springs Branch and train spot all day.

Cyril - there is a small car park, well-used, opposite Christ Church, and ample free street parking on both sides of the bridge. Unfortunately, not all trains stop at Ince, so that reduces passenger numbers.
John - Ince station is within walking distance of a highly-populated area - many folk can walk there quicker than taking a bus to Wigan or Hindley (with the problems of traffic delays en route). They just need a more frequent service.

Walking in good for you.....the problem is we Don't do enough walking.

David, I'd told someone about that car park, however they said it was now Short Stay for 2 hours maximum.

My son works in Manchester and gets a train from Ince, so I do agree about a more frequent service from there, and also more carriages too as he and many others are having to stand in the mornings and very often evenings too.

Come off it Irene, bad pins indeed, I'd imagine that you and Peter are Dancing the Fandango with Splits every weekend at Abram village hall.

The fandango with splits? My eyes are watering just thinking about that Irene!
I’ve been told that I dance like I’m wearing one clog and a pump….bit unkind that wouldn’t you say?

Walking is good for everyone. Get out and about, Make life easier.

I couldn't agree more about walking, Graham and Al, but unfortunately not everyone is able to walk as far as they used to due to arthritis etc. I love walking and used to walk everywhere without a second thought until only about a year ago, but I now have problems with my feet and knees, some days worse than others. Cyril and Dtease, you do make me laugh!

Swimming is good for you Irene. Weight bearing you won’t get pain from swimming. But consult the good doctor first …or he might even join you?. Once a week for half an hour it does a world of good. Plus it’s free for pensioners..