(NEW!) Liverpool’s Forgotten Suburban Railway: Britain’s Lost Railways – Episode 1

Welcome to my first episode of Britain’s Lost Railways! Today I’ll be discussing the North Liverpool Extension Line, a railway once traversing through much of Liverpool suburbia from Hunts Cross and Halewood to Aintree Central until the 1960s when the majority of it was shut, bar the Gateacre stub which closed in 1972. This series I hope many of you are looking forward to me making videos on, I love reading up on abandoned railways and have quite a few in mind for upcoming videos, so do stay tuned for that. In this video, I’ll be discussing all there is to know about the railway line, details about the stations and the areas in which the railway passes through, and I hope you all enjoy this and find it informative! If you like this video, make sure to like, subscribe and share this video as it massively helps me out when you do. Now, on with the video…

Copyright SomeNorthLondoner 2024

As with most of my videos, there are images in here that aren’t my own, and so all copyright goes to their respective owners.

NOTE: Sorry for any shaky footage. A lot of this was recorded whilst sat on my bike so a little imbalance in some cases caused footage to become a little shaky. I’ll bare that in mind when I record my next episode very soon (this footage was recorded in January)

hello everyone you’re joining me here today on a Mery rail class 507 why you might ask well just like with my Birmingham and TS Valley videos this channel is also a channel which covers transport outside of London as well as inside it and today we’ll be heading for Hunt’s cross Hunt’s cross may be known to you all as the southern Terminus of Mery rail’s Northern line but what people might not know about is the railway line that spurred off from hunts cross that is no longer in existence and this brings me nicely on to another series I will be starting on my channel I will be visiting Old Railway alignments detailing all there is to know about them any Revival plans that have come about And discussing the areas in which they pass through and how any plans made to revive them could benefit those living nearby expect to see episodes relating to lines in London as well as outside of London so I hope you are all as excited about this as I am for those of you who watch my awkward Roots series don’t fear as the next episode after this one will be an awkward Roots video If you like this video make sure to like subscribe to my channel and share this video as it massively helps me out me do and now we move on into the video now what is this Railway lining question you may ask it’s none other than the North Liverpool extension line and now non-operational Railway line that operated between hunts cross and hailwood in the south of Liverpool and a Tre Central in the north of Liverpool back in the 19th century when Railways were starting to be constructed Liverpool was garnering economic importance where the technology constructed in the city was seen as pioneering enabling a large volume of trade to pass through the city the world’s first inter city Railway in the world to be constructed was deliverable to Manchester Railway which ran through St Helens and broad green which we meet along the way and opened on the 15th of September 1830 the number of people living within the city Rose quickly due to the number of Irish migrants moving over due to the famine and continued technological development led to 40% of the World’s Trade passing through the city due to its strategic location as a Seaport City the wealth of Liverpool for periods of the 19th century exceeded London and Liverpool’s custom house at one stage was the largest contributor to the British exer though when we progress into the 20th century the New York of Europe was challenged economically due to World War I and World War II which occurred in the Years leading up to what could be considered Liverpool’s demise and due to the city’s location made it economically vulnerable this caused a demise within the city where the manufacturing Industries and inevitably the docks collapsed causing Liverpool’s unemployment rate to reach one of the highest in the UK in the mid 20th century though when the city was at its prime in the 19th century a vast network of railway lines was deemed NE necessary to move the growing population about the importance of the docks within the city is especially noticeable when the north Liverpool extension line had a Spur huskerson from Club Moore which reached the huskerson box it didn’t last too long though and was only open for passengers between 1879 and 1886 to the intermediate station Walton on the hill and from 1880 to 1886 huskerson Bo so why and how was the north Liverpool extension line constructed the cheshier lines committee opened the railway in 1879 to facilitate a connection to the docks slightly to the north Liverpool Central as it would steam to building a separate raway avoiding the city center and any tunneling would be cheaper stations opened at gataka chill wall na Ash West Arby and Walton on the hill extensive construction was necessary for the service to continue onto huskerson where three tunnels were required Beyond Walton on the hill leading to the station’s delayed opening in 1880 in 1880 a station was opened at anry Central for excursions to serve race meetings at the race course the line eventually continued further on to Southport Lord Street under the Southport and cheshier lines extension Railway in 1884 a railway shed was constructed in Walton on the hill for locomotives to operate out of although the railway shed was eventually shut in August of 1963 by British Railways in the following years stations opened at war braen club Moore in August 1929 and April 19 27 respectively services to Southport were slashed back to anry in 1952 when the Southport and cheshier lines extension Railway closed and all services terminated at anry Central until the gataka to anry Central section of the service was called in 1960 the loss of the Railway north of anry central towards Lord Street was arguably not much of a loss though as the railway went through what is mostly Countryside and when the railway network was nationalized there was simply no need for two Railways originating from Liverpool to head towards Southport there were only four Services a day between Amry and hunts cross although the service to gataka did see a slight reprieve in the late 50s which I’ll come on to later in this video eventually passenger Services ended to gataka and the tracks were lifted in 1979 the alignment now forms part of the national cycle Network Route 62 and is part of the European walking route E8 which stretches from Ireland to Bulgaria in my series a good chunk of the old Railways I’ll will be reviewing a part of existing cycle ways and cycle paths demonstrating that many years after the lines closed even if they may be more suited to rway operation are still being used for more environmentally friendly forms of Transport such as walking and cycling work started on the construction of the trail many years after the railway closed in 1999 and a portion of the trail opened in September 2001 but was not fully completed until 2004 now we’ll have a look at the areas in which the north Liverpool extension line passed through we begin in Hunt’s cross where Mery rails Northern line terminates and where East Midland’s Railway and Northern stop for connections to be made towards destinations further a field such as Manchester hunts cross itself as your bog standard affluent area having little more than a few local shops but nonetheless Nic looking Victorian air wardian properties hunts cross would be where if the nor of pool extension line were to reopen Services would follow existing Northern services to the hailwood park triangle before spurring onto the old alignment on the other side of the hailwood park triangle we have hailwood itself it was a station when the north Liverpool extension line was operational but shut in 1951 and reopened in 1988 on a separate station site between half green and Hound cross I’m bringing out hailwood because if the Eastern cord were ever to be reinstated for other purposes hailwood would be the first station served and the reintroduction of the Eastern cord would allow for services from the Manchester and Warrington direction to intersect the north Liverpool extension line and progress further a field depending on where reinstated Services would terminate now let’s move on to the stations that were open on this line then shall we the first abandoned station we reach on the North Liverpool extension line is gataka gataka opened on the 1st of December 1879 at the Eastern edge of gataka village and was constructed on an embankment over bellevale Road the station building was a two-story house tactically placed B in the station’s location because the cheser lines committee had plans when it came to expanding the throughput of services where there were plans for a quadrupling of the tracks chill wall the next station up the line was also similarly designed to allow for this but the quadrupling never occurred the station was designed to account for unpredictable weather and this could be seen on the hailwood and hunts crossb platform where glass canopies were used to Shield passengers from wet weather to the south of bellevale Road gatka had a Goods yard which consisted of two long sidings parallel to the mainline and had a road connection to the goods yard from bevil Road when the station opened gataka was served by trains operating between walson on the hill and Liverpool Central High level with Walton on the hill being the temporary Terminus until the line was extended through to huskys and docks in 1880 in 1887 the station’s name changed from gataka to gatar and walson although switched back to just being called gatar in 1930 gataka saw major development in the late 1950s so an hourly dmu operated Liverpool Central to gataka service was introduced just before the remainder of the north Liverpool extension line was closed gataka outlived all the other stations on the North Liverpool extension line as I explained earlier on in the video although it only saw a service operating until April of 1972 when the hourly service was the only one left operating into liveable Central High Level which is uneconomical to operate as that was the only only service the station had been seeing up until that point it’s quite a similar demise story to Broad Street really in 1975 freight trains to Liverpool docks stopped and the tracks were eventually lifted in 1979 there have been plans for gatka to reopen as part of the Mery Rail Project where trains would proceed from hunts cross to terminated gasa however nothing has materialized having said that gasa could benefit from the reinstruction of a railway service when the north Liverpool extension line was first con constructed gataga had a very different demographic inhabiting the area compared to now where it consisted of mostly wealthy business owners who Ed the area as a Rural Retreat to what was an Ever industrializing Liverpool City Center but once it was incorporated into Liverpool in 1913 and saw Housing Development un mass in the 1960s it meant more people were living in the area and due to more people living in gataka maybe the re introduction of trains from the old station wouldn’t be a bad idea local bus services such as the three 89 and 174 All Connect GAA to existing Mery Rail stations at hailwood on the 3 hunts cross on the 89 and Mosley Hill on the 174 suggesting there could be demand for a reopening a little walk from the station and you find yourself at the bellil shopping center a shopping center established in the 1970s along with housing developments which saw the area Garner significance the reopening of the line would allow for easier access to the shopping center from nearby suburbs and given the growth out of town retail has seen in the decades leaving the station’s closure it could lead to a reduction in the number of car Journeys made to and from the shopping center from what I can tell the gataka to Hunt’s crosssection of the extension line has seen more requests to reopen than the rest of it so realistically I could see this section of the line being the most likely to reopen moving on we arrive at chill wall a fairly insignificant station if you will chilwell served the middleclass suburb of the area with the same name the area has records d back to the Doomsday Book in 1086 with the area adopting different variations of its name over the 13th and 14th centuries as for the station itself it opened on the 1st of December 1879 like with many of the other stations on the line however the Station closed prematurely on the 1st of January 1931 to passenger service this was due to the Liverpool Corporation tramways offering a fast and frequent service into Liverpool that the trains could simply not compete with due to the station being slightly further out of the area chall previously had a Goods yard with one siding which the station remained open for until its closure in August of 1943 with the station building demolished in 1948 as for the local area chill wall is home to a large Jewish community in Liverpool and is also home to a television production company called lime pictures who are based on a large patch of land in chill wall woods they produce TV shows such as Jordi Shaw The Only Way is Essex gra Hill Holly Oaks and Brookside chill wall is home to the chill wall fiveways further down the road from the station notorious for being one of the busiest roundabouts in Liverpool so perhaps that would be one of the benefits of reopening CH wall station as the area might see a reduction in congestion allowing car dependency to be reduced and for air quality to improve in the area chill wall has the frequent 79 and 79c which both offer fast and frequent links from Chillin to Liverpool and down towards Bel Vale Huff green and witness so you could make the arguments that there is demand to destinations on the North Lio extension line and that chill wall would benefit from the reintroduction of a train service now we’ve reached nauy as and Stanley which serves the suburb of East Prescott opening as old Swan and naughty Ash on the 1st of December 1879 its purpose was to link up the liver padam suburbs of East Prescott na as and docot with the rest of Liverpool the main station building was at street level but supported by an arched Bridge made of sandstone and each Arch could only accommodate two tracks however another Arch like with the rest of the north Liverpool extension line was built future proofing a quadrupling of the tracks which was planned for old Swan and naughty Ash contained a Goods yard with cattle pens as this was where Castle was transported to and from before being moved on into the abattoir in Stanley the CLC renamed the station to not as in Stanley on the 1st of December 18 1888 the name the station adopted until its closure in November of 1960 like with the downfall of chill wall further down the road the widening of East Prescott Road allowed tramways to be built in the center of the road which led to fewer people catching the train from na Ash and Stanley as the tram was a more direct alternative compared to the train that snuck CR via the south of the city noty as where the station site was located is a small area on the Eastern Fringe of Liverpool with a population of over 13,000 residents and is home to an extensive bus Network into Liverpool on the Prescott road with Services 78910 10 a 10B 15 and 204 linking the suburb to the city center and given the sheer volume of capacity necessary I think a reintroduction of a train station within the suburb could be well received there’s also two hospitals located just down the road from the station site being broad green hospital and older Hayes children hospital which both offer a wide variety of healthc care services having a train station would mean easier access to and from the hospitals especially as the line mostly traverses through Suburbia so would provide a train service for those who live within the hospital’s catchment areas at present the station site is mostly demolished although the access ramps from street level still remain visible along with the red brick rule on the finch and bound side of East Prescott road which the station adorned when open a station being reintroduced to na as would provide great benefits for the area and so I would be behind a reintroduction of some form form of a mass transit system as a result we’ve now moved on to West Derby the name West Derby has extensive historical significance where the southwest of Lancashire was under the West Derby 100 in which West Derby was the main administrative area West Derby Castle was important in rivaling nearby Lancaster in the north of the county and the Castle’s proximity to the docks and Liverpool only strengthened their position a far cry from centuries ago however West Derby evolved into a wealthy suburb in the 19th centur and has remained as such and boasts a population nowadays of around 15,000 residents the area has cultural significance however as this is where the Beatles performed their first gig in the Casper coffee Club opened by Pete best’s mother Mona best with the predecessor of The Beatles The Quarrymen performing Saturday Night concerts in there from late August to October of 1959 The Beatles were the final band to perform in the venue before it closed on the 24th of June 1962 although you are still lable to book tickets for a nosy around a station was built and opened in West Arby on the 1st of December 1879 and was shut in November of 1960 like with most of the other stations the station building is still intact although is now used by a company named the gas station and is a two-story building hanging over the railway line You’ll see if you Traverse the Liverpool Loop line that the platforms are also still very much in attacked even if in this shot it’s mostly been disguised by snow there were ramps leading down from Mill Lanes the platforms which are still intact today for Walkers to leave the pathway and reach West Derby itself as first transport links within West Derby you have an intensive 12 13 and 15 service from West Derby into Liverpool City Center at frequent intervals and further down the road from the station into the village you have slightly more infrequent 61 61a and 61b towards chill wall Norris green and a tree areas which the line if reopened would serve we’ve now arrived at Club Moore station in Norris green a special case clubm more opened later than most stations on the North Liverpool extension line opening on the 14th of April 1927 when the station opened intense development was taking place within the area where cloudmore had a large housing estate by the end of the 1920s and therefore it meant that more people could use the station right well the station was somewhat doomed from the get-go though where the Liverpool Corporation Tramway was operating tram Services into Liverpool City center with a tram Terminus located near the station on Townson Lane the demand from cmore was likely for destinations on the Eastern cord towards Manchester and further north towards anry so passengers weren’t likely making Journeys on the line to and from Liverpool City Center the old station still has ramps from the Broadway up to the platforms which if the station were to ever be rebuilt I believe should be made a bit safer as they were quite steep when I was walking the path and could be quite hazardous in adverse weather conditions such as when there’s snow or ice due to extensive bombing during World War II on the line from Liverpool to Southport via Bole despite the cut back in service leaving the war on the North liverpol Extension line the line actually saw an increase in the number of services for a period of time operating through the station where these extra Services didn’t stop at Club Moore itself suggesting that the writing was on the wall passenger numbers wise Club Moore nowadays doesn’t have the Tramway into Liverpool and instead relies on bus services into Liverpool which include the frequent 144 a and 14b towards Everton and the City Center Norris green depending on how service would look if Club Mall reopened could really benefit from a railway service I think warre is the penultimate station I’ll be reviewing in this video it was built in a cutting underneath Walton Vil and was opened by the cheser lines Committee in what was already a wellestablished suburb and opened in 1929 the station was tactically built by the CLC to undercut the existing lankashire and Yorkshire Railway service from ornell Park to soup as it took only 35 minutes an entire 10-minute reduction compared to their competitors the service proved popular given how many workers were now entitled to at least one week of paid holiday in 1925 and given Southport was the nearest Seaside town and warre was a densely populated suburb the service saw many Leisure patrons using the service to reach the town although I wonder if the north Liverpool extension line were to reopen whether whether the servers would see as much use from warre given the number of stations that now exist within the area which include rice Lane Orel Park anry and fak definitely something to ponder over the final station we reach is anry Central there isn’t a whole lot to discuss about anry but the station was located next to what is now anre station on the existing line to ORS Kirk on Mery rail the station opened under anry race course because as the name suggest it was built to serve the race course although not long after was just renamed to a tree and the name anry Central when renamed by British Rail in 1950 the station was located on the opposite side of Park Lanes where the existing Mery rail station stands which is at the time run by the Lancashire on new Yorkshire Railway one of the clc’s main competitors five platforms were opened at anry Central incredibly generous for the passenger numbers the station received however the provision was in place due to the occasional heavy demand for angry race course on Race days I suspect that if the line were to reach a Tre again it probably wouldn’t serve a rebuilt anry Central Station because a massive industrial St site now occupies the site and it would likely serve anry on the existing ORS Kirk branch on Mery rail instead so this begs the question if the railway were to reopen where would it go I’d say if we were looking at a reconversion to heavy rail you could look at an extension of the existing Northern line services on Mery rail from hunts cross to anry up the North Liverpool extension line which given the 777s operate with batteries third rail electrification wouldn’t be necessary another heavy rail alternative could be diverting the service from just before War break to runs the newly constructed headbolt Lane station providing links from elsewhere to the headbolt Lane Park and Ride in Kirby one of the criticisms of the north Liverpool extension line when it was open was how long it took to get from suburbs that aren’t geographically that far outside the city center into the city center where Services operated through Liverpool South Parkway St Michaels so maybe a circular service from the city center may be more ideal as it would allow those living nearer to wre Club Moore and West Arby to reach the city center faster with a curve constructed just east of rice Lane to allow for an orbital Loop a stop at Rice Lane would allow for connections towards fak for the anry university hospital and further down the line at kirkdale for connections to anry this Loop would provide a similar type of service to what the London overground between clap Junction and clap Junction via Hy in Islington with the South London line and East London lines respectively does and that’s undeniably been a success the success of the London overground amplifies some of the benefits that a reopening of the Liverpool Loop line would provide most notably improving the ability to make Journeys between suburbs in Liverpool without needing to travel through Liverpool City Center itself perhaps heavy rail isn’t the answer though when adism to Elmer end and Wimbledon to West Cen were operated as heavy Rail lines before being integrated into the Cen tram link there were greater intervals between stations meaning fewer stations and the lines were less accessible compared to how they are now operating as part of a light rail system so why not look at embracing what was initially the north Liverpool extension Line’s greatest enemy as to how to revise this potentially useful piece of rail infrastructure I looked at the Cen tramlink as a good example of how to Revis a network of suburban Railways as The Wimbledon to West croon and adism to Elmer end branches operated at far less frequent intervals compared to how they do as part of the tram Network and it’s been identified that there are now capacity issues across the network suggesting that a more accessible and more frequent Suburban rail service not necessarily in heavy rail form can attract more passengers and allow for easier Journeys to be made across suburbs in the east of Liverpool the alignment has a large supply of Suburbia existing along IDE it so maybe a possible idea could be to reopen this line as a tram line between anry and hunts cross as this would allow for more versatility when it comes to reaching areas more deprived of public transport such examples near the north Liverpool extension line include speak and John lenon Airport which were both tipped to become part of a tram Network in Liverpool about 15 years ago John lenon Airport and speak are rather isolated from the rail network in Liverpool so perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to look into a tram train connection at Hunts cross to whiz people towards Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool South Parkway and what about a reinstatement of the easn call at the existing hailwood Park triangle this I’ve discussed Less in the video as I’m not so sure on how necessary a link to hailwood would be due to existing connections towards Manchester at Liverpool South Parkway hunts cross broad green and headbolt Lane hailwood sees far fewer passengers compared to the rest of the Mery rail network only seeing 50 to 60 ,000 passengers a year but it could be argued given the contrast and service pattern from hailwood compared to Hunts cross not too far away has led to fewer people using the train from hailwood and would rather travel to the more frequently served hunts cross instead so now we get on to the biggest question of them all and that is is this line likely to reopen in the 1970s there was a suggestion made that the north Liverpool extension line after most of it was closed for a while could form paths for Liverpool orbital Loops circling the city and docks however the project was a victim of economic hardships in the late 1970s and there was rampant local political opposition so the scheme was abandoned by Mery travel in the 1980s much of the nor of extension line is still protected for rail use so I don’t think all hope should die out for a reopening just yet although it’s worth remembering that the alignment now sees a vastly different CLE onel the alignment is now used by cyclists Walkers and Runners as a safe and dedicated way of Crossing Liverpool with without needing to Traverse through the city center when I was out filming it seemed quite well used despite the cold weather and so removing it and reconverting it back into a railway could be counterintuitive there could also be concerns about the impact that any construction would have on local communities that the alignment passes through although the reinstatement of the line would connect local communities once again to a railway line there has been much development housing wise especially towards the Hunt’s cross end of the alignment and so any Works made to reinstate the railway would be very disruptive to those living nearby as the railway hasn’t been operational for 50 or so years now so if a reopening were to proceed would local residents be as on board with it there’s also the question of whether any stations would be moved removed or added to work alongside the existing Railway infrastructure that the line would intersect broad green would make sense nowadays to open as a station given the northern services that stop there towards Liverpool Lim Street and Wigan Northwestern however the extensive Road infrastru structure may prove to be a challenge when it comes to connecting between the two stationed and an underpass would likely have to be constructed to allow passengers to move from one station to another there would also be the argument that the station might be situated slightly too close by to naughty Ash and Stanley and chill wall which might reduce the number of potential passengers at both stationed it’s also worth bearing in mind that unlike other railway projects that are more likely to proed in the coming year such as the West London orbital in Northwest London and East West rail from Oxford to Cambridge bridge that there haven’t been many plans for any source of reopening along the alignment by the odd call for an extension to GAA and even that looks unlikely it’s safe to say Liverpool will undoubtedly face challenges when it comes to its public transport system in the coming years what with accounting for future population growth which will likely lead to an increase in congestion the expansion of anfield which isn’t particularly close to a station already and the relocation of everson’s stadium so what do you all think of the north Liverpool extension line do you think it could reopen and if so what would you like to see its reopening look like would you make any changes other than the ones I’ve suggested leave them down in the comments below as I really enjoy reading and responding to them if you liked this video remember to like subscribe and share this video as it massively helps you out me do anyway see you in the next video take care sh