I had occasion to pass through Warrington Central recently, and started
wondering what the station must have looked like before it was
(slightly) rebuilt. I'm guessing that the main entrance and the booking
hall were originally on the south side, facing the town centre, roughly
where the new main road (Midland Way) is - the main road that goes
straight past the station without actually taking you to it! Or perhaps
the entrance was under the railway bridge, opening onto Winwick Road?

Was there ever a goods line round the side of the station? I can't think
why they would need one, this being the loop line rather than the main
line proper (which went straight on from Padgate to Sankey via Dallam).
-- 
Pat Ricroft, City of Salford, UK
================================

Pat...

Warrington Central had a very imposing entrance on the North side of
the main building (Manchester-bound platform). It contained many
railway offices and passenger waiting rooms, including at one time a
most elegant restaurant. It was approached by a long inclined drive
from Winwick Street which split at the top.

Straight ahead was the imposing Cheshire Lines goods shed, listed
and still standing, with the names of the three CLC pre-grouping
partners picked out in brick letters, while taking a sharp right
turn through 180 degrees and levelling out delivered your carriage
to the passenger station's double glass doors. There were subsidiary
entrances as well for staff and the restaurant.

On the Liverpool side was a simpler, wood & glass waiting shelter
which backed on to a long brick wall which supported the canopy on
that side. Behind this brick wall were two dead end sidings with
buffer stops which virtually overlooked Winwick Street itself.
During steam days (in my lifetime) these sidings always held, first,
a couple ex-GC engines of either LNER J9 or J10 class, later
replaced by LMS 4F 0-6-0s.  These were used to shunt the extensive
sidings steel and wire works and tanneries which were served by the
CLC route. Class 24 and 25 diesels later appeared there before the
sidings were lifted.

I believe these sidings were actually classed as a sub-shed (of
Trafford Park? --- Sorry, all my reference books are in the loft and
my wife is fast asleep in bed) and local crews disposed of and
prepared the steam locos and signed on & off duty there.

When I started as a Post Office telephone engineer in Warrington,
the whole town still had a manual telephone exchange with 'lift up
& wait for the operator' service. Warrington Central had a so-called
'candlestick' phone with a separate, bell-like earpiece. It's 
number,
if my memory hasn't failed in 55 years, was 'Warrington 9'.

The main passenger station building was later leased off to, first,
private caterers and latterly to a night club organisation. When I
last used Central the small refreshment service was provided by a
news kiosk off the street level concourse. The pavement-level
openings beneath the bridge in Winwick Street itself were bricked up
for road safety purposes some years ago and replaced by a newer
staircase, entrance and waiting area just to the north of the
bridge.

The loco holding sidings were shaved off the structure a few years
ago, along with many of the ancillary buildings on the south side of
the Liverpool-bound line. The space gained was used to create part
of the Warrington inner ring road, nowadays known as Midland Way.
That's most appropriate after all the years that the 4F 0-6-0s stood
on that very spot, while Crimson Lake 4-4-0 Compounds ran alongside
its present line of route almost daily for many years.

I hope that little bit of nostalgia helps your researches.


Regards,

DigitisED  (Eddie Bellass)

Mythical Merseyside, in the Occupied Territories
of Old Lancashire, United Kingdom.

Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free and checked
by a leading anti-virus system - updated continuously.

Eddie Bellass wrote:

>
> I hope that little bit of nostalgia helps your researches.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> DigitisED  (Eddie Bellass)


Its always a pleasure to read your bits of nostalgia Eddie, you're a rare
link to pre-nationalisation daze.

Bryan Flint




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Bryan Flint wrote:


> Eddie, you're a rare link to pre-nationalisation daze.

----------------------------------

Hee-Hee Bryan...

That's a truly wonderful way of saying I'm getting on a bit!

:-)  :-)  :-)


Regards,

DigitisED  (Eddie Bellass)

Mythical Merseyside, in the Occupied Territories
of Old Lancashire, United Kingdom.

Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free and checked
by a leading anti-virus system - updated continuously.

Eddie Bellass wrote:

>
> I hope that little bit of nostalgia helps your researches.


It does indeed - I'm much obliged, sir!

I couldn't work out why there appeared to be two bridges over Winwick
Way, but evidently there was only ever /one/ bridge, plus another
abutment to hold up the loco sidings. Midland Way evidently re-used
that spare abutment.
-- 
Pat Ricroft, City of Salford, UK
================================