Churchtown railway station

Churchtown
Location
Place	Churchtown
Area	Sefton
Coordinates	53°39′43″N 2°57′55″W / 53.661965°N 2.965384°W / 53.661965; -2.965384Coordinates: 53°39′43″N 2°57′55″W / 53.661965°N 2.965384°W / 53.661965; -2.965384
Grid reference	SD36301882
Operations
Original company	West Lancashire Railway
Pre-grouping	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Platforms	2[1]
History
20 February 1878 (1878-02-20)	Opened[1]
7 September 1964	Closed[1]
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
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Churchtown railway station was on the West Lancashire Railway (WLR) in England. It opened in 1878 and served the Southport suburb of Churchtown.

History

In the Churchtown area, the railway ran above the streets on an embankment, and crossed Cambridge Road on an iron bridge. The station was on the east side of Cambridge Road immediately after the bridge, with the booking office situated at street level, on the westbound^[2] side of the station, roughly where Churchtown Medical Centre stands today.

Originally services ran from Southport Central to Preston Fishergate Hill. However, upon the WLR's absorption by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1901, both termini were closed to passengers and became goods depots. Services then ran from Southport Chapel Street to Preston.

The 3.5-mile (5.6 km) section of the Southport-Preston line running from Southport Chapel Street station to Crossens station was electrified by the LYR in 1904 using the same 630V DC system as had been installed on the Liverpool-Southport line a few months earlier. Consequently, after this date, travellers from Churchtown station used both electric and steam-hauled trains.

Upon closure of the West Lancashire Railway in 1964, Churchtown station was demolished within days, to prevent any possible acts of vandalism and arson, as the station had been made entirely of wood (as with Penwortham Cop Lane railway station), along with both of its platforms.

The bridge was dismantled during 1965 and the embankments on either side removed soon afterwards. It has been said that this was to prevent any possible future opening of the line, had the closure under the Beeching Report ever been reprieved by a new Labour government.

References

• Cadwallader, Jonathan; Jenkins, Martin (2010). Merseyside Electrics. Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7110-3417-4.