IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Gainsborough Avenue, PRESTON, PR5 5JG

West Coast Main Line towards Wigan.

View northward, towards Preston etc.: WCML. The 11.10 Saturdays Only Edinburgh Princes Street - Manchester Victoria, after shedding its Liverpool coaches at Preston continues via Euxton Junction and Bolton, headed by Stanier 'Jubilee' 6P 4-6-0 No. 45701 'Conqueror' (built 4/36, withdrawn 2/63). (See other trains at this busy spot Image] etc.).

View northward, towards Preston etc. on the WCML - see Image] and other images here. On this exceptionally busy Summer Saturday, Control found it necessary to roster a Stanier 8F for a Relief from Blackpool to a Central Division (ex-L&Y) destination, No. 48602 (built by the SR at Eastleigh in 4/43, but employed on the LMS/BR(LMR), withdrawn in 7/67).

This photograph was taken just five minutes after Image, from a short distance further back; it shows the overbridge carrying the former East Lancashire Lostock Hall Loop, which connected Liverpool with Blackburn avoiding Preston, but was also traversed by Blackpool - Glasgow trains that passed through Preston twice on their U-shaped route. This second express on the Up Fast was the 07.30 Aberdeen to Manchester Victoria, double-headed by Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 45195 (built 1935, withdrawn 7/66) piloting 'Patriot' 4-6-0 No. 45537 'Private E. Sykes, V.C.' (built 7/33, withdrawn 6/62).

View northward, towards Preston and the North: ex-Lancashire Union (LNW & L&Y Joint) section of the WCML. The 10.53 from Workington via Barrow should reach Euston at 19.30, here headed by Stanier 'Jubilee' 6P 4-6-0 No. 45586 'Mysore' (built 11/34, withdrawn 1/65). The bridge above the train carries the ex-L&Y (East Lancashire) Lostock Hall loop line. Farington station was closed not long after, on 7/3/60. (See also Image] and Image]).

View westward, towards Liverpool, Farington Curve Junction and Preston, with the Shed on the right, the Station being behind. LMS 3F 0-6-0T No. 47360 and (earlier, ex-Midland) No. 47211 built 8/1899, withdrawn 11/64) are in the foreground, with another ex-Midland one (No. 47201 (built 6/1901, withdrawn 12/66), behind; No. 47360 (built 1926) was already withdrawn from service in 7/63. Lostock Hall Depot (coded 24C) had an allocation of 40 locomotives in 1954:- 9 0-6-0, 11 2-6-4T, 2 2-4-2T, 3 0-6-0T and 15 ex-War Department 2-8-0s, and it was one of the very last depots to retain steam locomotives - until August 1968.

View northward on the West Coast Main Line. The Class C freight is headed by Hughes/Fowler 5P4F 2-6-0 No. 42841 (built 1930 as No. 13141, withdrawn 3/65) and is running on the Up Fast line. In 1957 Farington station was still intact. See also Image and other photographs.

View northward, towards Preston; West Coast Main Line, ex-Lancashire Union Railway (London & North Western & Lancashire & Yorkshire Joint) section, Euxton Junction - Preston. On Summer Saturdays this section was immensely busy, with Blackpool traffic interspersed with the WCML trains: on this afternoon, 82 trains (75 expresses) passed on the main lines in 185 minutes, i.e. one every 2¼ minutes. Here on the Up Fast, Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 44971 (built 5/46, withdrawn at the End of Steam, 8/68) heads the 15.40 Blackpool North to Walsall and Birmingham.