 Earlestown station buildings viewed from platform 1  Earlestown station ticket office Earlestown station is a railway station at Earlestown near Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside, England
The first steam railway, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, was opened in 1830, and in 1831 the Warrington and Newton Railway was opened. It approached Newton and bore left towards Liverpool.
Earlestown station was built at the point of intersection of these two early railways, incidently forming the first steam railway junction, which was given the name Newton Junction.
The junction had very tight curvature and this caused problems - instructions were issued on the maximum speed at which trains could go from one line to another. The original building now forms the - currently unused - waiting room of Earlestown Station.
When the Grand Junction Railway joined the Liverpool and Manchester line via the Warrington and Newton line in 1837, the "Curve" was built at Newton Junction so that trains could run towards Manchester; this gave the station 6 platforms.
In contemporary times, there are frequent services to Liverpool (Lime Street), Manchester (Victoria and Piccadilly), Warrington (Bank Quay), Chester and then to North Wales.
External links
- Earlestown station timetable (http://www.livedepartureboards.co.uk/ldb/summary.aspx?T=ERL) from National Rail's Live Departure Boards
- Street map (http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&db=pc&addr1=&client=public&addr2=&advanced=&addr3=&pc=WA129AU&cidr_client=none) of Earlestown station, from multimap.com
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