Old West Derby station, Mill Lane

Image: © Sue Adair Taken: 24 Apr 2005

At the time of the station opening West Derby was a small rural village but today it is a suburb of Liverpool. In the 20th century a coal depot opened just to the north of West Derby Station to serve the local area. The line was always busy with goods trains accessing the docks but a number of passenger services served the station, north to Southport and to the South trains served destinations to Liverpool and to Manchester. The CLC North Liverpool Extension line was always very busy on Grand National days as express trains from all over the country used it to access Aintree Central. The first major service to be withdrawn was the Southport Service which finished on 7th January 1952. A local service from Aintree Central to Manchester with some peak services to Liverpool continued until 7th November 1960. It is believed that some excursions ran from West Derby after its closure to regular passenger services. The last goods trains ran in August 1975. Today the route is part of the National Cycleway Network Route 62 which is The Trans Pennine Trail.

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