Express services starting from small villages (1962)

[Andy873]

Hi,

This one has me wondering why start an express passenger service from here:

It's in my 1962 WTT, 1L64 - 5 19 pm from Midge Hall to Skipton SX (attached).

I had to find out where Midge Hall is, apparently it's on the line Preston to Ormskirk & Liverpool. It's South West of Preston near Leyland, and it's a small village. The station was closed a year before.

Why would you start an express service from a small village (with a closed station) as opposed to either from Ormskirk or Liverpool?

I can't see any ECS trains going there, maybe they came from Ormskirk or Liverpool? either way, why would you start from here? (no disrespect to Midge Hall at all).

Was this common i.e. to start a service from somewhere that's just a village?

Did Leyland motors have anything to do with this?

Thanks,
Andy.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Midge Hall was apparently sometimes the location where Liverpool->Glasgow/Skipton trains were split in the early/mid 1960s. Maybe something to do with that.

 

[chorleyjeff]

Midge Hall was apparently sometimes the location where Liverpool->Glasgow/Skipton trains were split in the early/mid 1960s. Maybe something to do with that.

A specific example was an afternoon Liverpool Exchange with Blackpool and East Lancs portions which split at Midge Hall. Seems other splits took place there. Lostock Hall provided the engine for the East Lancs portion. Midge Hall was the last place such a split could be made and was the closest to the shed for the additional engine. I never heard of Liverpool to Glasgow doing a split there but seems a possibility but probably not in the day the L&Y and Midland Railways ran Liverpool to Glasgow trains through Midge Hall and on to Hellifield etc !

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Having checked, the reference to Midge Hall that I mentioned upthread was in "Lost Railways of Lancashire" by Gordon Suggitt (2004 revised edition) which asserted that trains from Liverpool for Glasgow/Skipton were split at this location, typically three coaches continuing to Glasgow and seven coaches to Skipton (via Colne, presumably), with crews sourced from the relatively nearby Lostock Hall engine shed.

Timeline was the start of the 1963 summer season.

 

[30907]

IIRC it was a long-established service (something in the memory banks tells me that Midge Hall-Bamber Bridge was part of the original East Lancs Railway) and this is another case where the public timetable will supply the answer. I cannot offhand remember how the balancing working was operated.

 

[Gloster]

The June to September 1961 public timetable shows a 4.40 p.m. Liverpool (Exchange) departing Midge Hall (then still open) at 5.14 and having Through Coaches to Blackpool (Central) and Skipton; this description presumably only applies to the Liverpool-Midge Hall section of the journey. However, the coaches to Skipton are shown as leaving at 5.19.

 

[52290]

As a spotter in the 1950's I often cycled the 1 mile or so from my house in Leyland to see a Glasgow to Liverpool train at around 7pm as it was hauled by a Kingmoor loco, often a Clan but sometimes a Jubilee, quite rare in this area. I vaguely remember trains splitting here and also recall pickup freights worked by ex L&Y 0-6-0's from either Lostock Hall or Aintree sheds. Midge Hall is hardly a village, there's a pub,a Methodist Chapel and a Corn Mill.The pub was for years called the Railway, but known locally as the Midge, and is now officially the Midge Hall. There is currently a lot of building of houses going on the nearby Leyland Motors test track, so maybe the campaign to reopen the station might eventually succeed. As for where the original building called the Midge Hall is or was, I don't know. There is of course a nearby farm building called Sod Hall.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

As for where the original building called the Midge Hall is or was, I don't know.

Name origin seems to be from the 14th century 'Miggehalgh', with Old English origins, and probably meaning "Land or enclosure infested with midges".

(A "halh" or "halgh" or "haugh" more usually means a nook or enclosure, or water meadow, or similar, rather than a hall).

 

[Andy873]

Thank everyone, the penny has dropped, just like BR, I get there in the end!

I looked for an LE (light engine) from Lostock Hall but couldn't find one, I realised that although my WTT does mentions LE's to / from Lostock Hall MPD the MPD itself isn't covered in this WTT which is section F only. That's why I couldn't find a match.

Keep forgetting about trains being split, Midge Hall is indeed the last place a split could take place if one portion is going North and the other East. Looking at the 1912 OS map, Midge Hall has its station, a goods shed, a run round loop and one siding. A nice place for an LE to go down to and wait just off the main running lines.

Out of interest:
There is a map of the Preston area in this link, it is also (slightly unrelated) an interesting read.

Disused Stations:Whitehouse Triangle

Name origin seems to be from the 14th century 'Miggehalgh', with Old English origins, and probably meaning "Land or enclosure infested with midges".

(A "halh" or "halgh" or "haugh" more usually means a nook or enclosure, or water meadow, or similar, rather than a hall).

Wondered about the name, interesting.

Thanks all,
Andy.

 

[randyrippley]

Name origin seems to be from the 14th century 'Miggehalgh', with Old English origins, and probably meaning "Land or enclosure infested with midges".

(A "halh" or "halgh" or "haugh" more usually means a nook or enclosure, or water meadow, or similar, rather than a hall).

fits the ground
its all flat bogland peat and boulder clay round there, reclaimed marshland

 

[Bevan Price]

Not quite the same, but on summer saturdays, some trains to the coast used to start from relatively minor suburban stations, effectively acting as reliefs to trains from nearby big cities. So there were trains starting from, for example Cross Lane (Salford/Manchester), Morley Low (Leeds), Kings Norton (Birmingham) & Basford North (Nottingham).

 

[Gloster]

Until quite recently there was a South West Trains/South Western Railway train that ran to London Waterloo after starting at Hilsea (or possibly Bedhampton) although it was a stopper. Starting where it did meant that it could come straight out of the north end of Fratton Yard and avoid having to go in to Portsmouth & Southsea or Portsmouth Harbour and reverse.