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Widnes Dock Junction and the flat crossing were causing problems of congestion and the LNWR dealt with this by building a deviation line of just under 1.5 miles (2 km) to the north of the original west–east line, crossing the line leading north to St Helens by a bridge.
Widnes Dock with filled-in lock chamber (2007) Map of Spike Island (1875) showing the location of Widnes Dock. Widnes Dock was the first rail-to-ship facility in the world. [1] It was built in 1833 between the end of the Sankey Canal and the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway in Widnes. [2]
The dock could hold up to 40 vessels, and have a single Mersey flat loaded with 70 tons of coal from a railway wagon, and en route to Liverpool in 40 minutes. [3] The Mersey flats were small flat-bottomed sailing barges that originated on the Mersey but were later used on rivers elsewhere. They were a common sight in the 19th century.
Until 1868, when Runcorn Railway Bridge was opened, [a] the only means of crossing the Mersey at or near Runcorn Gap were by fording or by ferry, [3] with the lowest crossing of the river being the road bridge at Warrington. [4] The first bridge to carry vehicular traffic across Runcorn Gap was the Widnes-Runcorn Transporter Bridge which opened ...
The power house and Widnes approach in 2009. The former approaches to the transporter bridge at the bottom of Waterloo Road, Runcorn, and Mersey Road, Widnes, can still be seen. On the Widnes side the power house remains and it has been designated as a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage. [17]
In 1922 nine "Down" (northbound) trains a day called at Farnworth & Bold, 'One class only' (i.e. 3rd Class) and 'Week Days Only' (i.e. not Sundays). The "Up" service was similar. The trains' destinations were St Helens to the north and Ditton Junction to the south, with some travelling beyond to Runcorn or Liverpool Lime Street. [8]
Tolson cites the line's inspector, Captain Wynne, as giving the Whitecross to Arpley extension as the very precise 45.75 chains (0.920 km), but as the location of the Arpley datum point is unclear then the location of Whitecross station is also precisely unclear. Tolson concludes that the station was probably 'just east of Litton Mill Crossing'.
This was and remains a hugely greater enterprise than the Widnes to Garston line. Ditton Mill was stranded on the "wrong side of the tracks", being a short distance east of the junction therefore useless for accessing the London to Liverpool main line. The LNWR were aware of this and built Ditton Junction west of both Ditton Mill and the ...