Maps

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Maps

This aerial photograph from around 2000 is overlaid with an OS map from the turn of the previous century.

Although the southbound link from Horwich is long gone, the area which it enclosed is very clear with the former Littlewoods warehouse tightly squeezed into the triangle formed by the lines.

Also notable is the quality of the OS map. This is clear from how accurately the map and photograph overlay one another.

Click on the map for a larger version

This map is the same 1900 edition with the relevant features highlighted. The buildings marked in green are are gone, but the goods shed (brown) is still standing. The branch platform to the north of the main station was served by a long foodbridge over the goods yard, linking it to both the other platforms. The various photographs which are included on this website show parts of this, but without this map it is difficult to understand the layout properly.

Also clear on the map is the track layout of the goods yard and other sidings, although later photographs from the 50s and 60s show substantial differences. The three sidings to the west were lifted during this period and the photographs clearly show an extra track adjacent to the main line and leading to a headshunt opposite the branch platform. It is probably fair to assume that there were also changes to the station yard, but I haven't been able to find a photograph. The photograph on the introduction page shows that by the 60s, the tracks which run around the goods shed have been severed.

This un-dated LMS map shows little in the way of changes from the earlier one. The only noticeable difference is the removal of a siding which must have run across the pedestrian route to the Horwich branch platform. It is interesting to note that the both this and the OS map on this page clearly show two single points splitting the track three ways on entering the station yard from the south. As noted in "An Historical Survey of Selected LMS Stations Vol 2" (the source of the LMS map), photos from the 1960s clearly show a three-way turnout.

This map is an OS edition from 1939 and shows little or no change in the main station area and goods sidings.

There are however some changes at the north of the station. The lines (marked in green) to the north of the branch (red) and to the east of the main lines (blue) are all associated with the Vale Paper Mill which was run by Cook & Nuttalls. Access to these private sidings was via a south - facing link from the Manchester-bound main line, and also from the Horwich branch. The moderately complex arrangement of lines adjacent to the main-line would have been used for holding trains before entering or leaving the Mill.

George Marshall, a Station Master says that the three former coal sidings to the west of the main line, were used to hold empties from Cook & Nuttalls. He goes on to say that they were heavily used for that purpose and were essential in avoiding disruption to other traffic. Traffic to the Mill seems to have ceased in the early 70s and the tracks were certainly gone by 1980. Presumably though, they were still in-place when the M61 motorway was built, because a bridge / culvert carries the road over the track-bed. There is a good photo of the complex trackwork to the north of the station, on the Northbound page