IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Croston Road, PRESTON, PR5 5JY

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Division (ex-L&Y) destination, No. 48602 (built by the SR at Eastleigh in 4/43, but employed on the LMS/BR(LMR), withdrawn in 7/67).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Up Fast was the 07.30 Aberdeen to Manchester Victoria, double-headed by Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 45195 (built 1935, withdrawn 7/66) piloting 'Patriot' 4-6-0 No. 45537 'Private E. Sykes, V.C.' (built 7/33, withdrawn 6/62).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 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continues via Euxton Junction and Bolton, headed by Stanier 'Jubilee' 6P 4-6-0 No. 45701 'Conqueror' (built 4/36, withdrawn 2/63).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.).

West Coast Main Line towards Wigan.

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via Barrow should reach Euston at 19.30, here headed by Stanier 'Jubilee' 6P 4-6-0 No. 45586 'Mysore' (built 11/34, withdrawn 1/65).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 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 The Class C freight is headed by Hughes/Fowler 5P4F 2-6-0 No. 42841 (built 1930 as No. 13141, withdrawn 3/65) and is running on the Up Fast line.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 southward, towards Euxton Junction then Wigan and the South on the WCML, and Bolton and Manchester Victoria on the L&Y main line. (See Image] for more detail). The 16.35 from Rochdale has come via Bolton and is headed by LMS Fowler 6'9" 3-cylinder Compound 4P 4-4-0 No. 41193 (built 1932, withdrawn 11/58).

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.

View northward, towards Preston; West Coast Main Line, combined with ex-North Union (London & North Western and Lancashire & Yorkshire Joint line, Euxton Junction - Preston - Blackpool/Fleetwood). The train (of LNER coaches) is the 15.30 Summer Saturdays Blackpool North to Cleethorpes, which will go by a tortuous route, turning off at Euxton Junction and going via the Whelley Loop round Wigan, through to Manchester Victoria, then Miles Platting and Midland Junction onto the ex-Great Central Woodhead route for its first stop at Penistone, then via Barnsley to Doncaster and eventually to Cleethorpes! The locomotive is Hughes/Fowler Class 5P4F 2-6-0 No. 42707 (built 1927 as No. 13007, withdrawn 9/64), which will hand over to a Eastern engine at Midland Junction (Manchester). Farington Station was closed a few months later. The bridge in the background carried the Liverpool - Blackburn direct route.

This is the view south from Croston Road bridge. For the northwards view see Image Here, a class 150 Sprinter bearing both "Regional Railways" and Greater Manchester PTE logos operates a Buxton to Blackpool South working.