Earlestown Railway Station

[mike59]

When was the original waiting room, that's now on platform five built?

Mike

[Steven Dowd]

Which is platform 5?

Steven Dowd

[Podstar66]

'The Curve'
Here is a pic of 5 and I guess 6. Dated 29th July 1972.

Earlestown Station platforms 5 and 6 taken on the 29th July 1972.jpg

Pod

[mike59]

Can't see any pic Pod?

Mike

[mike59]

Cheers, see it now.

Any date?

Mike.

[Podstar66]

It is above the pic, Mike.

29th July 1972

Pod

[mike59]

Is that when is was first opened? surely earlier than that.

Mike

[Podstar66]

I was meaning the photo was dated 1972.

No idea when the waiting room opened or closed.
Though it does look to have boarded up windows here and there, so it may not have been long after the picture was taken that it was closed and knocked down.

Pod

[mike59]

Cheers Pod, I know when it closed, just looking for a date when it was first erected.

On the same subject.. anyone know when the waiting room on platform 2 was first erected?

Mike

[Podstar66]

So when did the waiting room on platform 5 close, Mike ?

Pod

[radman]

Ah the platform 2 question...people have been discussing this for over 60 years - see the two letters from the Manchester Guardian from 1949 below.


Manchester Guardian – October 5th, 1949

Earlestown Station

To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian.

Sir.—It would seem that the origin of the “Warrington Junction" (now Earlestown) station should be sought in the Warrington and Newton Railway; this line, stated to have been opened on July 25, 1831, formed a junction with the Liverpool and Manchester line at “Warrington Junction,” and the present waiting-room at Earlestown may have formed part of the old "Warrington Junction” station of the W. and N. Railway, but I do not know whether board meetings of the W. and N. Railway ever took place in this building.

The buildings which formed the nucleus of the L. and N. W. Railway Wagon Works at Earlestown in 1853 had been built about 1838 as the Viaduct Foundry, Newton-le-Willows.

The original partners appear to have been Jones. Turner, and Evans, but it was not long before the firm became Jones and Potts. The works specialised in locomotive building, and some 200 to 300 locomotives had been built by 1852 when the works were put up for sale.—Yours. S. H. P. Higgins, Liverpool College, October 2.

then

Manchester Guardian – October 17th, 1949

EARLESTOWN STATION

To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian

Sir, in spite of architectural objections, there seems little doubt that the present waiting-room at Earlestown dates from the time of the L. and M. Railway. Lacey's “Railway Companion” (1835) names the Warrington Junction Station (page 14), and Cornish’s “ Guide" (1838) mentions the very building in question as “the Newton and Warrington station house” (page 41), the only place marked at Warrington Junction on the first Ordnance Survey taken in 1846.

According to Stretton's paper on the W. and N. Railway, the line was opened on July 25, 1831. It seems probable, therefore, that the building dates from the L. and M.’s first year.

Warrington Junction was easily accessible from Liverpool, Manchester, Warrington and (later) from the south. Further inquiry has served to show that the common tradition amongst local railwaymen on which we based our original suggestion is even more widespread than we thought. Possibly it may emerge, for instance, that the boardroom belonged to the W. and N. Railway. Yet it must be admitted that the boardroom explanation does appear to fit the facts. It seems hard to believe that this most unusual building was erected for routine railway purposes. Perhaps the Estates Department at Euston will pronounce an authoritative verdict—

Yours T. C. Barker, J. R. Harris. - St Helens, October 5.

so if anyone can prove the answer then they're a good 'un!

[mike59]

So when did the waiting room on platform 5 close, Mike ?

Pod

I was informed it was later that same year, although a railway boffin that I know swears it was demolished at a later than this.

Mike

[mike59]

Interesting Andrew.

In Sir Daniel Gooch's book he says; when he left home in January of 1834 to commence work at the Vulcan Foundry, he was met by Charles Tayleur in the waiting room at Newton Junction.

That implies there was some form of waiting room at that time. Whether this is the same building that we know today, even with the change of roof & pitch, I very much doubt it.

Mike

[radman]

Here's an short extract from the book "Liverpool & Manchester Railway 1830-1980" by Frank Ferneyhough.

Reasonably substantial passenger stations for the purpose had been built as terminals in Liverpool and Manchester, about which more anon; but the first intermediate stations were little more than halts. In a time-table of February 1831, sixteen intermediate stopping places were named: Wavertree Lane, Broad Green, Roby Gate, Huyton Gate, Kendrick Cross Gate, Top of Sutton Incline, Bottom of Sutton Incline, Collins Green, Viaduct, Newton Bridge, Parkside, Kenyon Junction, Bury Lane and Reids Farm, Patricroft, Eccles, Cross Lane Bridge. “Gate” stopping places were usually located where turnpike and other roads crossed the line on the level. Names were changed from time to time, some were closed and new ones opened to meet demand. In the absence of raised platforms, passengers had to climb in and out of carriages on the steps. After the Warrington & Newton Railway of nearly five miles was opened in 1831, Viaduct was renamed Warrington Junction, giving to the stranger no clue of its locality.

Around 1840, shelters as ‘waiting places’ were erected, platforms built, and tickets and time-tables printed to give official recognition to the wayside stations; station names were further consolidated by railway time-tables published by George Bradshaw which began in 1839.

Those primitive wayside stations may have been idyllic in summer, but were dreary outposts in winter.

So in the early days it's quite possible that there were no waiting rooms or even platforms at the "viaduct", therefore making the possibility that the upgraded infrastructure at "Warrington Junction" came with the W & N railway more realistic.

Given that "Warrington Junction" was the "Terminal" for the W & N railway, and the fact that people now needed somewhere to wait when they were transferring to the L & M Railway, then to me it makes perfect sense for it to have been built by the W & N railway.

As the W & N railway co-operated very closely with the L & M railway (L&M initially provided locos & waggons and it was even allowed to attach one of its coaches to an L & M train) the location of the waiting room makes even more sense as it could be easily reached by both companies passengers.

[mike59]

The erection of the waiting room on platform two is credited to Thomas Stone. Even taking into account of his brilliant career as a farmer, builder, railway constructor etc. if this building was supposedly built in 1831 or 1835, I doubt very much that those responsible for handing out the contract, would entrust that project to someone so young.
Thomas Stone was born in 1817.

Mike