Railway Lines | Southport

[Hamble]

Kew Gardens Railway Station


http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/k/kew_gardens/

[gsgsgs]

This is superb. Thank you for sharing. Looking at that old map will occupy me for hours if not days. Thanks again. Good work!

If you use the slider top right the map changes to current day, it is an interesting site if you're a geek like me

[TownieChap]

If you use the slider top right the map changes to current day, it is an interesting site if you're a geek like me

Yes, I am definitely a map geek. I am over-the-moon with your link... brilliant stuff!.


Thanks again to everybody who is responding on this, really great stuff

[Little Londoner]

A) Depends who you ask....I'm aware of the Altcar Bob name, but can assure you the locals, at least in Halsall, also called that train Barton Billy.

Well my Father Grandfather Great Uncle and Great Grandfather all worked on the Railway in Southport 3 of them will have fired/driven the Altcar Bob. I know many retired railwaymen from Southport and NEVER once have I heard of Barton Billy was there a local yokel of that name that perhaps confuses you.

[The PNP]

I grew up in the same area, but I've never heard of Barton Billy. Altcar Bob stopped running in 1938. After that only goods trains ran on that line.

The elderly lady resident in Halsall who I spoke to approx 20yrs ago (at her house close to station site) used the term.

[seivad]

The elderly lady resident in Halsall who I spoke to approx 20yrs ago (at her house close to station site) used the term.

Well my dad, born, bred and schooled in Halsall, who would have been 98 this year, never used it! Neither did any of his family.

I've just found this link to a 2010 thread by Steve. I think that the author, John Ashcroft, could be a relative of Steve's. There's not a mention of Barton Billy the usurper!

Very interesting story on the link. Well worth a read.

https://www.qlocal.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50445469

[seivad]

Well my Father Grandfather Great Uncle and Great Grandfather all worked on the Railway in Southport 3 of them will have fired/driven the Altcar Bob. I know many retired railwaymen from Southport and NEVER once have I heard of Barton Billy was there a local yokel of that name that perhaps confuses you.

I think he was a regular in the Blue Bell

[The PNP]

I've just found this link to a 2010 thread by Steve. I think that the author, John Ashcroft, could be a relative of Steve's. There's not a mention of Barton Billy the usurper!

Myself I've never lived in Halsall. I was in Birkdale during the 50's/60's when the line was dismantled. A mate and I would sometimes ride out to Shirdley Hill and get on the line/waggons. One of the old goods waggons actually survived for many years as a loosebox. It was positioned against a hedge, in the field where the new Kew Meadows estate is going up.

It's quite possible only the elderly ladies family used the term Barton Billy, or perhaps just those living on her lane along that one row of houses. I haven't heard the term elsewhere. Maybe it came about because that branchline terminated at Barton, plus a corruption of an oldtime term for 'steamers' of various types: a Puffing Billy?

[Mr Saxon]

Try this website for size. It even has photos of what's there now and how it used to look back then.....
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/

[Little Londoner]

I think he was a regular in the Blue Bell

The Blue Bell no longer trades it has been converted to private housing.

[Snig's foot]

A) Depends who you ask....I'm aware of the Altcar Bob name, but can assure you the locals, at least in Halsall, also called that train Barton Billy.

B) I well remember the uproar in town, when Beechings plan to shut the S'port/Wigan line was published. A huge shame the Preston line couldn't also have been spared. It would have made far more sense to have been kept and electrified (with a third rail) right through to Preston.

Curious how they closed the Preston line ostensibly to save money - but then spent a shedload of £££'s demolishing almost all the bridges. Much more cost-effective, to simply pull up the tracks for scrap - and retain the trackbed as a linear park/bridleway.

The Southport-Wigan line was the only one that Beeching wanted to keep (so I'm surprised that you remember the uproar). He proposed closing Liverpool-Southport, Liverpool-Ormskirk, Liverpool-Preston, Southport-Preston. For Southport only the line to Wigan would be retained...there was a huge uproar, mainly about the Liverpool-Southport line.

[The PNP]

...there was a huge uproar, mainly about the Liverpool-Southport line.

I remember seeing big headlines about it on the front of the Visiter. The towns MP headed up the campaign if I remember rightly. You mention the S'port/Wigan line not being on Beechings closure list, yet I'm sure there was real local concern about its possible inclusion, before the list came out.

[Snig's foot]

I remember seeing big headlines about it on the front of the Visiter. The towns MP headed up the campaign if I remember rightly. You mention the S'port/Wigan line not being on Beechings closure list, yet I'm sure there was real local concern about its possible inclusion, before the list came out.

Well after Beeching, British Rail put forward a plan to close the Southport-Wigan route in 1967. This was opposed locally. and the Secretary of State (Barbara Castle) rejected the proposal.
Re the Beeching Report: Labour had campaigned to stop all further Beeching closures when they came to power in 1964, and indeed to reverse them. Instead 1400 miles of track was closed in the first 3 years of the Wilson government, however Liverpool-Southport was not one of them, Barbara Castle rejected this proposal too (1966)