Place Lowton Grid reference SJ604959 Platforms in use 2 | Area Wigan Original company North Union Railway | |
Pre-grouping London and North Western Railway Post-grouping London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1 January 1847 Station opened as "Preston Junction" Similar Parkside railway station, Kenyon Junction railway st, Clifton Hall Tunnel, Astley railway station, Barton Moss railway st | ||
Lowton railway station was on a loop off the West Coast Main Line. It stood immediately east of the A572/A573 crossroads known locally as "Four Lane Ends", on the boundary between Newton-le-Willows and Lowton Common. The station straddled Lowton Junction at the northern apex of a triangle of lines off the Stephensons' original Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
Contents
History
Opened by the North Union Railway, the station became part of the London and North Western Railway, passing to the LMSR at the Grouping of 1923. The station passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.
Services
In 1922 ten "down" (northbound) services called at Lowton on Mondays to Saturdays and one train on a Sunday. Most were local services, with a Saturdays Only "Parliamentary", calling at most stations in a five and a half journey from Crewe to Carlisle. The "up" service was similar.
A wide-ranging set of timetable extracts has been published. Although Lowton stood at the apex of a triangle of lines, no service in the published set shows a service using the north to east curve which leads directly to Manchester.
Closure and after
The station was closed completely in 1949 and progressively demolished over the years, but in 2015 clear evidence still remained.
The lines through the station underwent a transformation with the NW Electrification Programme in the mid-2000 teens. For many years the east to north curve had seen only occasional traffic. The west to north curve had occasional diversions, ECS working in the early hours and a north to west Northern service from Wigan North Western to Liverpool Lime Street, with no balancing working. Most of these trains were run to maintain staff route knowledge.
From the end of 2014 newly electrified Manchester Airport to Edinburgh and Glasgow services were diverted to run via the east to north curve and through the site of Lowton station. In 2015 engineering work in the WCML led to spikes of traffic through the station site through both northern arms of the triangle.