The Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway, was formed in 1889, but no services ran until 1895 and then only freight. Passenger services did not start until 1900. It incorporated the St Helens and Wigan Junction Railway. It was taken over by the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its Great Central Main Line, London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company ...

in 1906.

History

The railway was incorporated by the ( 48 & 49 Vict. c. cxxi) and the (

50 Vict. This is a complete list of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the year 1886. Note that the first parliament of the United Kingdom was held in 1801; parliaments between 1707 and 1800 were either Parliament of Great Britain, parliam ...

c. xxxiii) to enable the construction of a line from St Helens to

Lowton Lowton is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. It is around from Leigh, south of Wigan and west of Manchester city centre. The settlement lies across the A580 East Lancashire Road. Within the ...

(eight miles) and St Helens to Liverpool (ten miles). The lines had share capital of £210,000 and £340,000 respectively. In 1887 a prospectus was published inviting subscriptions for the full 550,000 pounds. The first sod was cut on 25 January 1888 by the

Earl of Derby Earl of Derby ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the en ...

on the site of what became St Helens Central railway station (Great Central Railway). In July 1889, the ( 52 & 53 Vict. c. xci) extended the completion time until July 1893. The opening ceremony took place on 2 January 1900. The original intention was to connect to the

Cheshire Lines Committee The Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) was formed in the 1860s and became the second-largest joint railway in Great Britain. The committee, which was often styled the Cheshire Lines Railway, operated of track in the then counties of Lancashire and ...

North Liverpool Extension Line The North Liverpool Extension Line was a railway line in Liverpool, England in operation between 1879 and 1972. It was at one stage intended to become the eastern section of the Merseyrail Outer Loop, an Circle route, orbital line circling th ...

Fazakerley Fazakerley is a suburb of north Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is part of the Liverpool Walton Parliamentary constituency. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 16,786. Description Fazakerley is in north Liverpool; neighbouring d ...

junction, to form a route to

Huskisson Dock Huskisson Dock is a dock (maritime), dock on the River Mersey, England, which forms part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Kirkdale, Liverpool, Kirkdale. Huskisson Dock consists of a main basin nearest the r ...

and

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

, but nothing ever came of the scheme west of St Helens.

Henry Seton-Karr Sir Henry Seton-Karr (5 February 1853 – 29 May 1914) was an English explorer, hunter and author and a Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1906. Seton-Karr, born in India in 1853, was the son of George Berkel ...

was chairman of the railway both at the time of the 1887 prospectus and at its opening. In 1888, the railway`s solicitor was

Robert William Perks Sir Robert William Perks, 1st Baronet (24 April 1849 – 30 November 1934) was a British Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician, lawyer, financier, and company director. He was the son of George Thomas Perks (1819–1877), a Wesleyan Methodist ...

Route

The line ran from

St Helens Central (GCR) railway station St Helens Central (GCR) railway station served the town of St Helens, Merseyside, St Helens, England with passenger traffic between 1900 and 1952 and goods traffic until 1965. It was the terminus of a branch line from . History The Live ...

to Lowton St Mary's.

Closure

The line closed to passengers in 1952. It was reduced in stages as freight traffic ebbed and flowed. The key milestones were: * 1965 line closed and lifted west of Lowton Metals, Ashton (inclusive). * 1968 line reinstated west of Lowton Metals to serve a new oil depot at Haydock * 1968 new "Haydock Branch Curve" built to connect the line to the WCML north of Golborne * 1968 line east of the new connection closed and lifted (the bridge over the WCML was removed in 1971) * 1975 passenger trains ran to five race meetings, using Ashton station, experiment not repeated * 1983 Haydock oil depot traffic lost to road, line cut back to Lowton Metals, Haydock. * 1987 Lowton Metals ceased trading, line cut back to Golborne Colliery headshunt * 1987 Kelbit opened rail-served business at Edge Green, using trackbed of Edge Green Colliery branch * 1989 Golborne Colliery closed, line cut back to headshunt for the Kelbit traffic * after 2000 the Kelbit site was taken over by Hanson as their "Ashton" plant *In 2011 the site was purchased by PF Jones Ltd and began work to restore the Kelbit rail line In 2015 very occasional trains still served the Hanson plant. On 7 March 2015 an enthusiasts' excursion titled "Sabrina's Tea Train" traversed the line. A quarter-mile headshunt which ends at bufferstops approx 50 yards east of Bridge 13 over Edge Green Lane is the sole remaining section of the original route in use.

Re-opening

After purchasing the land surrounding the line at Edge Green in 2011, PF Jones Ltd worked with Hansons to restore the Kelbit line off the Haydock Branch Curve. The Kelbit line was reopened in 2018 and is used by Heidelberg (formerly Hanson) to transfer raw materials from Shap Quarry, Cumbria to distribute across the north west. Between and Golborne and Glazebrook

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a high-speed railway which has been under construction in England since 2019. The line's planned route is between Handsacre – in southern Staffordshire – and London, with a Spur line, branch to Birmingham. HS2 is to ...

proposed use of an alignment similar to the disused line in Phase 2b. This "Golborne Link" was removed from HS2 plans before the northern leg was abandoned by the Conservative government in 2023.

References

Sources

*{{cite book , last=Sweeney , first=Dennis J , title=The St. Helens and Wigan Junction Railway , year=2014 , publisher=Triangle Publishing , location=Leigh , isbn=0-85361-292-7

External links

Haydock Branch Jct and Kelbit via ''Wigan World''
Historic transport in Merseyside Pre-grouping British railway companies Great Central Railway Closed railway lines in North West England Railway companies established in 1889 Railway lines opened in 1895 Railway companies disestablished in 1906 1889 establishments in England British companies established in 1889