A Model Railway depicting Thurstaston
station on the Hooton to West Kirby branch on the Wirral Peninsula
The
line ran across the Wirral Peninsula, joining Hooton with West Kirby,
with the main intermediate stations serving Willaston (the station was
named Hadlow Road), Parkgate, Neston, and Heswall. As well as
Thurstaston there were smaller stations at Caldy and Kirby Park, the
latter being a halt on the outskirts of West Kirby.
The line was originally planned
as a commuter route into Birkenhead and Liverpool, opening up the Dee
Coast side of the Wirral Peninsula. This is the reason that
the connection at Hooton faces towards Birkenhead rather than
Chester. When originally opened on the 1st of October 1866,
the line terminated at Parkgate. A later extension completed
on the 19th of April 1886 required a new, through station at Parkgate
which allowed the line to continue to West Kirby Joint station.
The passenger service settled
down to providing a local service to Hooton, with some trains
continuing to Birkenhead Woodside to give a direct commuter service to
Birkenhead and the ferry connection to Liverpool.
Alternately, passengers could go in the other direction and change onto
the Wirral Line at West Kirby. The
line was also used for
freight, as it provided a more direct route to the western end of
Birkenhead docks than running over the dock lines from the Birkenhead
end. This used a freight only connection to the Wirral lines
at West Kirby Joint. After the Cadbury's factory at Moreton
opened in 1953, trains of empty vans and slack coal were taken over
this connection, however the full vans were routed outwards via Bidston.
The
passenger service on the line
stopped on the 15th of September 1956, and the line was closed
completely on the 7th of May 1962.
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From
the enthusiast point of view, the line had a particular fascination, as
it was a joint line, historically shared between the GWR and
LMS. This led to a mixture of stock being used, especially
after the Grouping, with passenger trains being either GWR or LMS
based, or a mixture with one company's loco hauling the other company's
stock. The most common locos in the later years were LMS
Stanier 2-6-2 tanks and GWR 41XX Prairie tanks.
In what seems
excessive in these days of main-line trains as small as one or two car
multiple units, the normal branch train was either three or more LMS or
constituent non-corridor coaches, or a 4 coach GWR B-set. In
one photograph, an extra coach has been used to strengthen the B-set to
5 coaches. There were also push-pull workings, a GWR one up
to the mid-1950's using the now preserved auto coach W212W and a 14XX,
either 1417 or 1457, and an LMS rake with a BR 84000 standard in the
final 2 months of passenger service.
Prior
to nationalisation in 1948, all freight was
worked by LMS engines and men. British Railways goods
workings
were mixed, typically using Jinties or Pannier tanks. Due to
the
down gradient from Neston towards West Kirby, 1 in 73, some were double
headed to provide the necessary braking power. Latterly,
larger
engines were used, such as 84000 standard tanks and Black 5's, and a
Fairburn tank and Hughes Crab are recorded working the final freight
trains in each direction. I have heard of Stanier 8F's and BR
9F's being used, but have yet to see photographic evidence, other than
an 8F on a demolition train.
The
passenger service on the line was steam worked
to the end, however, after closure it was used for driver training on
DMU's for service on other local lines. Some diesel locos
were
used for workings of empty vans to Cadbury's at Moreton in the short
period between the factory opening and the line closing.
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Thurstaston
station was one of the smaller stations on the route. One of
the major local landowners, Sir Thomas Ismay, founder of the White Star
line of Titanic fame, insisted that the railway was routed near the
coast to keep it away from his home. The cutting for the A540
road through the sandstone below Thurstaston Common was also made on
his insistence. The Railway Company did not actually want to
build a station at Thurstaston at all, but was forced to by the owner
of the land, John Baskervyle-Glegg and later his son, Birkenhead Glegg.The
station was originally built with a single platform. Sometime
after 1897 the other, West Kirby bound platform, was added allowing
trains to pass. A simple goods yard consisting of a siding
with connections at both ends, and two dead end sidings, one with an
end-loading bay, sufficed for the local traffic.
The
station was located a considerable distance
from the actual village of Thurstaston, which is nearer the main
road. Other local traffic would have been restricted to
visitors
to the beach, although there was also a café at the
station. Between 1919 and 1921, Lever Brothers constructed a
camp
by the station for staff holiday breaks, however this was closed at the
start of World War II. The site was subsequently used for an
Anti
Aircraft gun battery in 1941, which also happens to be where my father
served during the war.
The
goods yard was used for odd purposes, as a number of items were
transhipped from road to rail, or vice versa there. Often, a
large stockpile was made during this process. The goods are
thought to have included stone, iron pyrites, and uranium ore.
Doubtless
due to having very few passengers, Thurstaston station closed to
passengers on the 1st of February 1954, 2½ years before the
line closed to passengers.
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The
following map is a composite scanned from two maps to give the scale
with the diagram. This is taken from the drawings at the time
of the extension from Parkgate after 1886. Note that there is
still just a single line through the station.
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In
1969, 7 years after final closure,
the trackbed was purchased by Wirral Borough Council and Cheshire
County Council, each taking ownership of that part within their
boundary. In 1973, the trackbed was reopened as a linear
park, the Wirral Way Country Park.
Apart from a few sections
used for housing development in the intervening period, the entire
route is available for walking, with parts also accessible by horse and
cycle. The station at Hadlow Road has been restored to a
1950's appearance, complete with an imported signalbox and track panel.
All
the station buildings at
Thurstaston have been demolished, but there is a visitor's centre
behind the platforms, and the café has been rebuilt and
extended. The goods yard has been converted to a car park and
campsite, although the latter is now not available to the general
public.
The
waiting shelter on the
un-restored platform at Hadlow Road shown below is thought to match the
one on the West Kirby platform at Thurstaston, where the recess for it
can still be identified.
(Photograph
courtesy of John Brighton)
Some
features remain visible at
Thurstaston, such as the end loading bay in the car park area, the arch
in the platform facing in front of the site of the signal box, and the
mounds from the wartime guns. See
The
Prototype now for
photographs of
the station area in 2004.
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