The best-laid schemes…
The Southport Avoider*
© Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2019
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
20 November 2019
nothing remains of the substantial old L&Y station at platform
level, though the frontage is still in place.
Blackburn is served by, among others, a train running
between Clitheroe and Rochdale. We’ll take a ride on it, up
to Clitheroe and back on the same train (there isn’t time to
explore the town, unless we want to hit the Manchester rush
hour and spend a couple of hours travelling in the dark),
straight through to Bolton. Our train to Piccadilly is at the
other face of the island platform, and we’re off again to
Piccadilly, back on our original schedule and in good
time to join the 1601 “all stations” to Crewe. An
interesting and enjoyable day out, with an
unintended difference - and all the trains we used
(ten in total, if we include our trains to and from
Crewe at the beginning and end of the trip) were on
time.
* In October 1992, I travelled on a railtour in Ireland, a rerun
of a tour earlier that year which should have gone to Cork,
but which, as a result of a bomb scare, went to Sligo instead.
The rerun, advertised as “The Sligo Avoider”,
succeeded in avoiding Sligo, but also avoided
its intended destination, due to a freight
train derailment near Limerick Junction.
Instead, it ran via Ennis to Athenry, returning
to Dublin along the Galway line.
See “Limerick - the Sligo Avoider”
… o’ Mice an’ Men … From Wigan, lines
operate to Southport and Kirby (where they
connect, end-on, with Merseyrail electric
trains. The Southport line crosses the
(Liverpool -) Ormskirk - Preston line at
Burscough. By switching lines at the latter,
we can cover a fair part of this western
Lancashire network - and enjoy lunch at that
rather good pub we visited in May.
… gang aft agley. Yes, another £10 Northern Day Ranger. The
0916 from Crewe gets us to Alderley Edge for the
0949 to Wigan North Western. A few short strides
take us to Wigan Wallgate - where we discover that
the Southport route is being served by a bus
(engineering works, apparently). No thanks! “Let’s
go down to Kirkby”.
The 1058 to Kirkby would have been leaving
Wallgate as we arrived at North Western - the next will be at
1158. Time for a coffee. On returning to the station, with
only a couple of minutes to spare, there’s no sign of the
train. Too late, we realise it’s in the bay (which we hadn’t
noticed earlier). Running along the platform doesn’t help -
it’s pulling away as we approach.
So an exploration which would have been west of the main
line became an alternative to the east. We took the next
train from Wigan North Western to Preston (331 001), and
from there a train (Blackpool - York) to Blackburn. Sadly,
