LYR Hilton House branch line

[Xenophon PCDGS]

In a recent chat to a long-retired railwayman, he said that line left south of Blackrod station and ended at Crow Nest Junction and once had two stations upon it, Hilton House station and Dicconson Lane and Aspull station. He said the Saturday night postal from Manchester Victoria to Glasgow and to Aberdeen went that way. He thinks an early evening service from Manchester Victoria to Blackpool North once went that way.

Has anyone other information on other services that would have used that line, especially those which would have called at the two railway stations.

 

[furnessvale]

In a recent chat to a long-retired railwayman, he said that line left south of Blackrod station and ended at Crow Nest Junction and once had two stations upon it, Hilton House station and Dicconson Lane and Aspull station. He said the Saturday night postal from Manchester Victoria to Glasgow and to Aberdeen went that way. He thinks an early evening service from Manchester Victoria to Blackpool North once went that way.

Has anyone other information on other services that would have used that line, especially those which would have called at the two railway stations.

0937 ex Preston, first stop Salford Central. Preston crew. I rode the footplate on a number of occasions in steam days as a per way engineer. Return working some time after 5pm, the exact time escapes me.

 

[Senex]

Late 1950s / early 1960s the Manchester portion of the afternoon Glasgow - Liverpool/Manchester ran that way, non-stop from Preston to Victoria. I used that train on a number of occasions. I think it was about a 45-minute non-stop timing. The two intermediate stations were closed in 1954.

 

[Dr Hoo]

In a recent chat to a long-retired railwayman, he said that line left south of Blackrod station and ended at Crow Nest Junction and once had two stations upon it, Hilton House station and Dicconson Lane and Aspull station. He said the Saturday night postal from Manchester Victoria to Glasgow and to Aberdeen went that way. He thinks an early evening service from Manchester Victoria to Blackpool North once went that way.

Has anyone other information on other services that would have used that line, especially those which would have called at the two railway stations.

The line basically made a triangular junction with the Atherton Line. It seems that passenger services in 1895 were relatively generous with regular Chorley-Wigan services from before 0600 to after 2200 - so even suitable for shift workers. There were even some trains on Sundays. A few trains ran from Blackburn to Wigan but these tended to operate fast from Chorley although the odd one was all stations. (From the Middleton Press December 1895 Bradshaw reprint.)

Although the service was suspended during the First World War it was re-instated to a remarkably similar pattern according to the July 1922 Bradshaw.

A classic 'set in aspic' example.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gloster]

There are one or two snippets on the Blackrod Station site ( .blackrod.org.uk ) under Lines.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There are one or two snippets on the Blackrod Station site ( .blackrod.org.uk ) under Lines.

Thanks for that. That is a website I was not aware of.

 

[tbwbear]

The 1953 edition of Cecil J Allen's Titled Trains of Great Britain confirms the OP's source's suspicion about the routing of a Manchester to Blackpool train via the line. Before WW2 (and quite possibly after it) The Blackpool Club Train (to Blackpool Central via Lytham) left Manchester Victoria at 5:14pm and went non-stop to Lytham in exactly 1 hour (67 mins after 1945). The route it took, presumably to avoid congestion via Bolton, was via Atherton and Hilton House.

 

[Springs Branch]

The line basically made a triangular junction with the Atherton Line. . . .

The way the Hilton House branch came to achieve its final triangular configuration was a little non-intuitive, with intervals of several decades (or one generation) between construction of the various legs.

The opening dates of the different lines involved were:

• 1841 Bolton - Chorley (subsequently extended to Euxton & Preston)
• 1848 Lostock Jn - Hindley - Wigan -Liverpool
• 1868 Hindley (Crow Nest Jn) to Blackrod (Red Moss Jn)
• 1889 Daisy Hill (Dobbs Brow Jn) to Hindley & Blackrod Branch Jn (midway along the Hilton House branch.

As with many lines in the area, the initial impetus was accessing multiple small collieries along the route - mainly around Hilton House and Scot Lane. In fact the formation of the line between Hilton House and the junction with the Bolton-Preston line seemed to follow the course of a pre-existing colliery line.

Also worth mentioning is that the original Crow Nest Junction was not in the form it is today - the Atherton line did not exist back then, and the original junction was only between the Blackrod and Westhoughton lines, located closer to the site of Crow Nest Farm.

The branch became really quite useful after 1889, when the north-to-east connection to Dobbs Brow Junction was built by the L&YR as an enhancement to their brand-new four-track "Atherton" main line.

Has anyone other information on other services that would have used that line. . . .

The 1968 Working Timetable, the final year before the Hilton House line closed, shows the pattern of services in its final run-down state. Both halts, of course, were long-closed by this time.

There were significant difference between Mon-Fri and Saturday trains.

Mon - Fri - Down direction
0F19 12:33 Wigan NW - Chorley Light Diesel (to work return parcels train)
2P65 17:05 Manchester Vic - Blackpool North DMU
1P32 21:50 Manchester Exchange - Heysham Newspapers (noted as "Q" - only ran when required)
1S04 23:20 Manchester Exchange - Glasgow Central Postal

Saturdays Only - Down direction
1M51 08:17 Morley Low - Blackpool North (summer Saturdays only)
1P75 08:15 Leicester London Rd - Blackpool North (summer Saturdays only)
2P65 10:55 Man Vic - Blackpool North DMU (summer only, called at all Atherton line stations between Pendleton & Daisy Hill)
1S78 21:26 Manchester Exchange - Aberdeen Newspapers
1S04 22:50 Manchester Exchange - Glasgow Central Newspapers

Mon - Fri - Up direction
3F19 13:55 Chorley - Wigan NW parcels
This was the only train booked over the line in this direction SX. The three fast morning peak Residential trains from the Fylde to Manchester all had been routed non-stop via Bolton by 1968.

Saturdays Only - Up direction
1N84 12:55 Blackpool North - Leeds City (summer Saturdays only)
2J64 13:00 Blackpool North - Man Vic DMU (summer only, called at all Atherton line stations from Daisy Hill to Pendleton).
0Z00 13:00 Blackpool North - Newton Heath TMD Light Diesel (operated on those Saturdays when 2J64 did not run)

. . . . especially those which would have called at the two railway stations.

I suspect even in the earliest days the two stations at Dicconson Lane & Aspull and Hilton House were of very peripheral importance. Neither was in a densely populated or heavily-industrialised area, and as far as I can see, they were only ever served by local trains between Wigan Wallgate and Chorley, not by longer distance trains to Manchester or Preston which passed through non-stop.

Geoffrey Holt's Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain gives the following chronology for Dicconson Lane and Hilton House stations:-

• July 1868 - line opened.
• April 1917 - both stations closed as World War 1 economy measure.
• May 1919 - both station re-opened.
• 1936 - Dicconson Lane reduced to status of a halt.
• 1945 - Hilton House reduced to status of a halt.
• Feb 1954 - both stations closed.

The nails would really have been driven into the coffins after WW2 when Wigan and Bolton Corporations and Ribble Motor Services started regular bus services to/from Wigan, Bolton and Chorley which ran right past both Dicconson Lane and Hilton House stations.

These attachments show the 1949 timetable for the Wigan - Chorley line with stops at Dicconson Lane / Hilton House - rendered into the clearer modern BR / Network Rail format (and 24hr clock). Given the inertia of rail services on lines like this, this may well have been the timetable for many years through the LMS era.

 

[mike57]

non-stop to Lytham in exactly 1 hour (67 mins after 1945)

Must have been quite an interesting journey in 1 hour, best to Blackpool today is 1h 15m with stops of course, but we now have electrification. Current milage is 49 miles, not sure what it would have been back then

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Must have been quite an interesting journey in 1 hour, best to Blackpool today is 1h 15m with stops of course, but we now have electrification. Current milage is 49 miles, not sure what it would have been back then

How much mileage difference would there be with the use of the Hilton House branch line and its associated use of the Atherton line in comparison to the mileage of the route taken today?

 

[tbwbear]

Must have been quite an interesting journey in 1 hour, best to Blackpool today is 1h 15m with stops of course, but we now have electrification. Current milage is 49 miles, not sure what it would have been back then

That is exactly the point that Cecil J Allen makes in the book. The actual mileage (not sure exactly) covered from Manchester to Lytham belies the fact that the train has to use the steeper-graded route via the Hilton House branch and then "crawl at almost walking pace" through Preston. Allen is thus impressed by the locomotive performance. With stops at Ansdell and Fairhaven, St Annes, and Blackpool South, Blackpool Central was reached in about 1h 20m from Victoria.

 

[Springs Branch]

How much mileage difference would there be with the use of the Hilton House branch line and its associated use of the Atherton line in comparison to the mileage of the route taken today?

Very little difference.

According to mileages tabulated in published timetables, the route via Atherton & Hilton House was 34 chains = 748 yards = 0.42 miles longer than via Bolton & Lostock Junction.

The distance from Manchester Victoria via Bolton to Lytham was 44½ miles, and 52 miles to Blackpool Central (via the Fylde coast). So with such a similar end-to-end distance, as @tbwbear mentions, factors like gradients and speed restrictions at junctions and large stations along the way would have a very significant effect on relative timings over the two routes.

 

[tbwbear]

I am interested to know exactly when that evening Bpl train using the Hilton House line switched from being a Bpl Central/South to a Bpl North service.

The 1962 timetable on timetable world still has it as the 1716 departure into Lytham (non-stop) at 1820 and on to Central (1843). There is no 1705 to North then, so I presume the 1716 still went via Ashton.

4 years later - The working timetable for Preston Station (April 66 to March 67) has the train mentioned above by SpringsBranch the 1705 Man Vic to Blackpool North (shown as 1P63) arriving at Preston 1758. The old "club" train, now formed of DMU with Buffet (1P67 - presumably a Trans-Pennine) leaves Man Vic at 1720 and is into Preston to set down only at 1758.

As Central closed in 1964, in 1966 1P67 is now only heading to Blackpool South, but at that time South was still taking most of the Manchester and London trains that Central used to take. The big switch to North came in 1970. And even after 1970 when Kirkham to Blackpool South was mostly reduced to a shuttle, one of the two or three daily through Manchester trains was still a Trans Pennine DMU still nicknamed by some in the Fylde as the "club train" and running in a similar path.


Meanwhile - some interesting stuff on timings via Dobbs Brow on here - https://www.railwaywondersoftheworld.com/manchester_club.html - describes the Hilton House spur as "tremendously steep".

 

[Springs Branch]

I am interested to know exactly when that evening Bpl train using the Hilton House line switched from being a Bpl Central/South to a Bpl North service.

I'm sure the full story of Blackpool / Manchester "Residential" train services over the years, right up to the present day, would be a great topic for a longish / multi-part magazine article, or for a substantial chapter in a railway history book. Maybe it's already been done?

There has been different niche rolling stock over the years (Club Trains with spirited haulage by small / tank locomotives in the steam era, use of "white stripe" BRCW & Trans-Pennine DMUs in BR days, Class 31 / 37 + Mk.2 stock in the 1990s) leading to Northern Class 180s and TPE 185s post-privatisation, through to electrification and present-day 25kV EMUs - firstly recycled 319s, then brand-new 331s.

Then there have been the different routes - starting variously from Blackpool North, Central or South, portions to/from Fleetwood attached/detached at Poulton at one time, then travelling via either Bolton or Hilton House with the pros and cons of either route.
(I seem to recall that for a year or so after the Hilton House branch closed, one of the morning Fylde trains continued down the WCML from Euxton to Standish Jn, then via the Whelley line, Hindley and Atherton to Salford - although I can't find the timetable evidence to verify this).

In Manchester, both Victoria and Manchester Exchange have been used as the termini for the premier trains of the day - was the latter for railway operating convenience at peak hour, or because Exchange was a little more convenient for mutton-chopped cotton magnates travelling to the Royal Exchange part of the city?
And wasn't there also once a Residential train between Blackpool and the East Lancashire towns catering for local mill owners?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

For those cotton magnates living even further afield, was there not the club train to the select areas on the North Wales coast line?

 

[tbwbear]

For those cotton magnates living even further afield, was there not the club train to the select areas on the North Wales coast line?

And wasn't there also once a Residential train between Blackpool and the East Lancashire towns catering for local mill owners?

Yes, there is obviously a slight distinction between the "Club" trains (which prior to 1939 included special club saloons in the formation) and the regular residential expresses. Although the distinction is possibly a bit blurred. I grew up in St Annes in the 1970s and our next door neighbour (an insurance clerk rather than a cotton magnate) used to talk about getting the "club train" to Manchester by which he meant the morning through Trans-Pennine DMU.

The idea began in St Annes in the late 1890s with the L&YR and one of the club saloons has been restored and preserved by the L&YR society.

Press cutting here from 1901. https://amounderness.co.uk/the_club_train.html

It was copied by the LNWR from Manchester and replicated around Bradford and Leeds, but never really spread elsewhere.

I think there were club trains at one point for Southport, LLandudno, Windermere and the Fylde to/from Manchester, and yes I think there were also trains from Blackpool (at least) for East Lancs.

You are correct, it would certainly make an interesting chapter....

The routes taken especially are fascinating - not least of course: the Hilton House branch

 

[S&CLER]

Yes, there is obviously a slight distinction between the "Club" trains (which prior to 1939 included special club saloons in the formation) and the regular residential expresses. Although the distinction is possibly a bit blurred. I grew up in St Annes in the 1970s and our next door neighbour (an insurance clerk rather than a cotton magnate) used to talk about getting the "club train" to Manchester by which he meant the morning through Trans-Pennine DMU.

The idea began in St Annes in the late 1890s with the L&YR and one of the club saloons has been restored and preserved by the L&YR society.

Press cutting here from 1901. https://amounderness.co.uk/the_club_train.html

It was copied by the LNWR from Manchester and replicated around Bradford and Leeds, but never really spread elsewhere.

I think there were club trains at one point for Southport, LLandudno, Windermere and the Fylde to/from Manchester, and yes I think there were also trains from Blackpool (at least) for East Lancs.

You are correct, it would certainly make an interesting chapter....

The routes taken especially are fascinating - not least of course: the Hilton House branch

The Southport club train, if I'm not mistaken, was also noteworthy for being one of the first to use steel coaches instead of wooden construction.