Northbound Platform

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Northbound Platform

Almost of the published photographs of Blackrod station concentrate on the Horwich side with its goods yard, branch line and booking office. The northbound platform is therefore much neglected in this respect, and although there is a building shown in the photograph on the Introduction page, this appears to be a much later brick-built structure which does not tally with the buildings indicated on the 1900 map (see Maps).

In this photograph, the retaining wall behind the shelter is roughly topped and may have formed the rear wall of an earlier station building. In fact there is a curious selection of stone and brick-built walls running along the back of the platform, which are the likely remains of earlier structures.

Also worth noting is the platform its self. Whilst the Manchester bound platform is built exclusively from pre-formed concrete components, the Preston bound platform retains much of its earlier stone-built construction. The 1900 map also seems to indicate that the south end of the platform which now ends almost level with that on the other side of the lines, originally ran all the way to the road bridge seen in the photo opposite. This is confirmed by the photograph below (taken from a longer shot of the station).

The metal footbridge in the contemporary shot was added in the 1980s to keep pedestrians off the L&Y road bridge, which is barely wide enough for two cars to pass.

Although this photograph's main subject is the group of buildings on the other side of the lines, it does give some detail of the sparse buildings which were on the northbound platform.

The building nearest the camera on the right lacks a roof, being an open-air urinal. Behind that is the basic waiting room which was still extant in the early 80s. From memory, that had two rooms, with the main one accessible from the front door, and a smaller room accessed via a door on the left of the main waiting area.

This is the water tower which was immediately to the north of the main footbridge which spanned the main lines and goods yard. This shot and the previous one were taken from the elevated position provided by that bridge.

A second picture of the water tower, with the footbridge and urinal block just visible.

The Platform edge, visible, but not very clear in this photo, is of stone-built construction, with stone slab tops. Much of this remains today.

To the right of this picture were the three sidings which were originally for coal traffic, but were used later for the Cook & Nuttalls "empties".

The wooden footbridge linked all three platforms and spanned the goods yard. It is said to be typical of the L&Y, surviving here in 1965.

B&W photographs by Eric Blakey courtesy of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society

The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society

Imagine standing on the bridge in the picture above, looking northwards over the water tower. From the same position today, you would see just a pair of tracks curving gently past the signal box. 40 years ago, the scene would have been like this. On the far right you can see a line of wagons in the exchange sidings for Cook & Nuttalls. The rail entrance to the paper mill was a little past the signal box, on the right (see maps) On the far left, one of the three former coal sidings is occupied by more wagons. These are probably empties from the same place. In the middle of the scene is a passenger train approaching the station, with the goods yard tracks visible just to the right.

It is clear that when this photograph was taken, Blackrod was still a busy place!

Despite many years "spotting" at Blackrod, I have almost no photographs to document my time there. This is one of the few that I do have, showing a class 47 diesel, probably on parcels or passenger working. Other than the rolling stock, there is little to distinguish this from the scene today.

My skill as a photographer has also progressed little!