Kirkham and Wesham railway station

Kirkham and Wesham
Kirkham and Wesham railway station in 2008
Location
Place	Kirkham
Local authority	Fylde
Coordinates	53°47′12″N 2°52′56″W / 53.7868°N 2.8823°WCoordinates: 53°47′12″N 2°52′56″W / 53.7868°N 2.8823°W
Grid reference	SD419326
Operations
Station code	KKM
Managed by	Northern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	0.229 million
2011/12	0.241 million
2012/13	0.247 million
2013/14	0.242 million
2014/15	0.245 million
History
Original company	Preston and Wyre Joint Railway
Pre-grouping	L&YR / LNWR (joint)
Post-grouping	London Midland and Scottish Railway
16 July 1840	Opened as Kirkham[1]
1890	Rebuilt
1906/7	Renamed Kirkham and Wesham[1]
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Kirkham and Wesham from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Kirkham and Wesham railway station serves the Lancashire towns of Kirkham and Wesham, in England. It is managed by Northern, who operate most of the passenger services that call there.

Description

There are two platforms, and fairly obvious signs of the former size of the station by way of disused sidings areas and blocked-off arches. The station ticket office is at street level with a wide staircase leading down to the platforms. Originally a cast iron and glass roof covered the platforms similar to Poulton-le-Fylde station. This was removed in the 1960s.

Fast lines still run from Kirkham North Junction (located a half a mile to the west of the station) to what was known as Kirkham South Junction - just east of the station allowing through trains to pass without running through the platforms. These being the last vestige of the four track (2 fast and 2 slow lines, arranged from the north boundary of the railway Up Fast, Down Fast, Up Slow, Down Slow) railway that ran from Preston to Kirkham North Junction. The signalbox at Kirkham North Junction was opened in 1903 and had over 70 levers and was worked by two signalmen and a train recorder. A framed summary in the box detailed the total number of train movements there in a 24-hour period in July 1936 as 656 - the vast majority of these would have been connected with the Blackpool holiday trade.

History

The station, opened in 1840, was originally located to the west of Station Road and named Kirkham Station. In 1890, it was rebuilt on the east side of the road^[2] and later renamed Kirkham and Wesham. Historically the "Wrangway Brook", beside which the railway was laid, has always been the boundary between Kirkham and Wesham, and the station buildings are all situated in Kirkham.

Two tracks were built on the northern side of the line for a platform planned but never built due to the outbreak of World War II.

Kirkham Station signalbox which was located in between the Up (Salwick bound) Fast and the Down Fast line was demolished during resignalling operations in 1977. The same scheme also abolished Treales signalbox.

To the west of the station, Kirkham North Junction is where the suburban branch line to Blackpool South follows the Fylde coast through Lytham, Ansdell and Fairhaven, St Annes on Sea; the main line to Blackpool North proceeds via Poulton. Between 1903 and 1965 there was a third express line, the “Marton Line”, which went straight to Blackpool South and beyond to Blackpool Central. This junction involved a flyover to allow Preston bound trains to access the Up Fast line from the Marton line. Although the Marton line closed in 1965, the disused flyover bridge was not removed until the 1980s.

In March 2011 the station was given a makeover with a major modernisation and refurbishment of the staircase.

Services

The station has seen a modest service improvement since the new 2008-09 timetable began operating, as the service between Liverpool Lime Street and Blackpool North formerly called here in addition to those between Manchester Victoria & Blackpool North and Colne & Blackpool South. Since 5 October 2015 however Liverpool services from the station have temporarily ceased, with replacement weekday & Saturday stops now provided by the service to/from Hazel Grove via Manchester Piccadilly.^[3] Trains run hourly on all three of these routes Mondays to Saturdays. Services between Blackpool and Manchester Airport stop only during the morning and evening peaks.

On Sundays there is an hourly service to Manchester Victoria & Blackpool North and to Blackpool South & Preston from March to early November.

Virgin Trains operate one train on weekdays between Blackpool North and London Euston. Grand Central has been given permission to run six trains a day from London to Blackpool North from 2018, with conditional permission for a stop at Kirkham and Weshem dependent upon future capacity after infrastructural work.^[4]

Gallery

• 

  Blackpool Illuminations Special in 1962

• 

  Special 'Illuminations' Express to Blackpool in 1962

• 

  The two fast tracks today, on the left, with the outline of the platform never built.

• 

  Special 'Illuminations' Express to Blackpool, 1962, with Wesham's Phoenix Mill in the background.

References

1. Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.
2. Hartley, S. (2006) "Lancashire Historic Town Survey—Kirkham" (PDF). (7.71 MiB), Lancashire County Council Environment Directorate, accessed 30 October 2007.
3. Northern Rail timetable 27 Blackpool North, Lancaster & Preston to Manchester & Manchester Airport Northern Rail; Retrieved 5 October 2015
4. Topham, Gwyn. "Virgin has a rival: GNWR to run London to Blackpool west coast rail service". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 August 2015.

External links

• Train times and station information for Kirkham and Wesham railway station from National Rail