Horwich Branch Platform

Reproduction of any material from this website (text or photographic) is strictly forbidden without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

If you would like to use any of the material on this website, please contact me via the Feedback page, and I will put you in contact with the appropriate copyright owner.

Every effort is made to ensure that photographs on this website are produced with the consent of the copyright owner. If you believe any image on this website to be in breach of copyright, please contact me immediately so that it can be removed.

The Branch Platform

The Horwich branch platform appears to have originally been a rough affair, topped with small cobbles until it was rebuilt from concrete components (probably by British Rail). Access to the platform was either down the cobbled road from Station Road or across the long footbridge from the other two platforms. The platform seems to have provided nothing more than a small wooden shelter for its passengers, but it is unclear whether the structure shown in the photos on this page is original or whether it replaced an earlier L&YR building.

[Above and Right] 2-6-2T Class 2MT no.84025 on the Chorley-Horwich push-pull service. The loco was built at Darlington in 1957

(Stan Withers)

For many years, the Blackrod branch was worked by a Hughes Railmotor set. In fact, the Blackrod / Horwich branch was the last place in which one of these sets could be seen, finally being replaced by BR standard tank locos in the 60s. Both the Hughes and later units were operated in a push-pull arrangement whereby the driver could sit in either the locomotive or the end of the back carriage, and still control the train. This was achieved using an arrangement of levers and wires.

This photograph shows the branch platform just a couple of years before closure. The steps to the wooden footbridge can be seen on the left and on the right are the buffers on the head-shunt for the Cook & Nuttall lines.

There's more about the Cooke & Nuttall Vale Paper Mill here and on the maps page.

Photograph by Eric Blakey courtesy of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society

The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society

Photos of the Hughes railmotor and Sentinel railcar can be found in the following books:

Railways In and Around Bolton - An Historical Review

Includes a photograph showing a Hughes Railmotor in 1947. The book also shows good views of the platform and track layout, including one of the signal box and Cook & Nuttalls sidings.

The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway - Then & Now

This book includes an interesting photograph of a Hughes set, viewed from the "rear" rather than the Locomotive end of the train

More Recollections of a Bolton Engineman

This is book 2 of a trilogy of books by Jim Markland (Foxline) and contains an excellent wide shot of the station, taken from the road

50850 is in charge of the "Horwich Jerk" here as the 12.13pm from Horwich approaches Blackrod on 2nd January 1960.

This photograph was taken in October 2003. Peering through the brambles and nettles which have grown, unchecked over the last 15 years, the remains of the branch platform can still be seen. The concrete supporting pillars and some of the platform edge are still intact. The ground occupied by the rest of the platform and buildings has been put to use by various companies which now inhabit the old station yard. As a child, from the signalbox, I remember seeing this structure very much intact, but while the line itself was still in use for the Locomotive Works, passenger trains had already been absent for more than a decade.

[above] The branch platform on 1st June1968, after closure to passengers. (Bernard Mills)

Photographs of Blackrod in the various books which cover the area, tend to concentrate on the Branch platform and the trains which were used on the "Horwich Jerk". Photographs also show a Sentinel steam railcar and in the final years, diesel railcars (DMUs) used on the Branch. Larger locomotives were used on the services to Chorley and Bolton.