Disused Blacon Railway Station

[sansyy]

I was looking at my local Facebook news group and I noticed the banner was of the old disused Blacon train station and it got me wondering, considering how large the town is. Why did the railway station close? There are many stations around that get a 10nth of what the Blacon station would get and I can't seem to wrap my head around it. Any insight from locals // people in the know?

Picture below is the banner. Neat picture I think

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Why did the railway station close?

Closed September 1968, so Blacon yet another closure attributable to the good Dr. Beeching, presumably?

 

[sansyy]

Closed September 1968, so Blacon yet another closure attributable to the good Dr. Beeching, presumably?

Such a shame I am presuming it was closed and then replaced by the (pretty terrible) bus service that runs 20 minutes late everyday.

 

[507021]

I was speaking to my friend's Dad about this a while ago, as he moved to Blacon with his wife in the early 1960s while the line was still open to passengers. He recalls the station being well used right up until it was closed, so I would say the "economic modernisation plan" is the reason why we don't have railway line any more, because it certainly wasn't closed through lack of use. The Millennium Greenway is a pleasant walk on a nice day, but I think a railway line would be much more beneficial to the area.

 

[sansyy]

I was speaking to my friend's Dad about this a while ago, as he moved to Blacon with his wife in the early 1960s while the line was still open to passengers. He recalls the station being well used right up until it was closed, so I would say the "economic modernisation plan" is the reason why we don't have railway line any more, because it certainly wasn't closed through lack of use. The Millennium Greenway is a pleasant walk on a nice day, but I think a railway line would be much more beneficial to the area.

From my limited knowledge I presume it would've been on the North Wales line? With Shotton being a calling station on it? I heard somewhere it went to Wrexham Central at one point and even that station is even more derelict then anything serving no purpose other than to house a 230 when it breaks down // terminates there.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Nice to see a couple of Blacon totems,I wonder how many survived?

 

[507021]

From my limited knowledge I presume it would've been on the North Wales line? With Shotton being a calling station on it? I heard somewhere it went to Wrexham Central at one point and even that station is even more derelict then anything serving no purpose other than to house a 230 when it breaks down // terminates there.

Blacon was on the Chester to Connah's Quay line, which joined with the Borderlands line at a triangle junction just north of Hawarden. When the station was first opened, direct trains ran to Wrexham (via Shotton) and Bidston, the latter service being extended to Seacombe in the late 1890s. That service pattern remained constant until 1960, when the latter service was altered to include New Brighton as a calling point. When Seacombe closed in the early 1960s, that service was truncated to New Brighton. Trains ran to the latter and Wrexham until the station closed a few years later.

Nice to see a couple of Blacon totems,I wonder how many survived?

One of the original station signs was fixed to the road bridge, I don't think any others survive unfortunately.

 

[sansyy]

Blacon was on the Chester to Connah's Quay line, which joined with the Borderlands line at a triangle junction just north of Hawarden. When the station was first opened, direct trains ran to Wrexham (via Shotton) and Bidston, the latter service being extended to Seacombe in the late 1890s. That service pattern remained constant until 1960, when the latter service was altered to include New Brighton as a calling point. When Seacombe closed in the early 1960s, that service was truncated to New Brighton. Trains ran to the latter and Wrexham until the station closed a few years later.

Seemed like a really handy and helpful service. Now we have to go to Chester via bus, Chester to Shotton, Shotton to Bidston and then finally Bidston to New Brighton when a popular existing service ran in the early 1960s. Really unfortunate that they closed the lines.

 

[Djgr]

Blacon was on the Chester to Connah's Quay line, which joined with the Borderlands line at a triangle junction just north of Hawarden.

I think you mean Hawarden Bridge.

Seemed like a really handy and helpful service. Now we have to go to Chester via bus, Chester to Shotton, Shotton to Bidston and then finally Bidston to New Brighton when a popular existing service ran in the early 1960s. Really unfortunate that they closed the lines.

I think you would go-bus/walk to Bache. Bache to Hamilton Square. Hamilton Square to New Brighton.

Such a shame I am presuming it was closed and then replaced by the (pretty terrible) bus service that runs 20 minutes late everyday.

Yes. And there would also be a lot of traffic from Heswall and Neston into Chester, avoiding the traffic jams.

 

[Gloster]

I think that the problem was that most of the traffic would have been to Chester Northgate, but this was a station that BR probably wanted to be rid of as it was out on a limb. Traffic from the CLC line via Mouldsworth can and was diverted to run into General, while I suspect that much of the traffic beyond the Dee Marsh triangle was north-south. This would leave Northgate to survive on the short distance commuting from the area north-west of Chester, something that BR probably felt was susceptible to transferring to road. Even if Blacon had good passenger figures, they just wouldn’t have been enough.

 

[John Webb]

More information about the station and the railway it was on (and a range of photos) can be found at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/blacon/index.shtml

 

[Djgr]

I think that the problem was that most of the traffic would have been to Chester Northgate, but this was a station that BR probably wanted to be rid of as it was out on a limb. Traffic from the CLC line via Mouldsworth can and was diverted to run into General, while I suspect that much of the traffic beyond the Dee Marsh triangle was north-south. This would leave Northgate to survive on the short distance commuting from the area north-west of Chester, something that BR probably felt was susceptible to transferring to road. Even if Blacon had good passenger figures, they just wouldn’t have been enough.

Northgate was out on a limb for BR but not really for people coming into Chester. For years the resulting car parking was my normal parking spot for visiting Chester

 

[Sid Edwards]

I did make a journey once from Wrexham Central to Chester Northgate via Dee Marsh Junction and didn't realise how long ago it must have been and how young I must have been.

I do remember that my return journey from Chester General to Wrexham General was a great deal cheaper but then the mileage was a lot less.

 

[Taunton]

The services on this line were, up to closure, in a triangle Wrexham-Chester Northgate-New Brighton-Wrexham.

Being local at the time, and making use of it, of the three arms I would say the Chester arm was the most used of the three, measured by actual passengers rather than train frequency. The only physical closure was Chester Northgate station itself. After this the line, along with the CLC line in from Northwich, continued in use by substantial freight to the Shotton steelworks and elsewhere. I recall thinking at the time, and on to now, that some regrading at Chester over railway-owned spare ground would have allowed the service to be diverted into the main Chester General station. The two otherwise separate routes are very close - the North Wales main line passed physically under the Northgate platforms in a tunnel, and the CLC trains from there to Manchester were readily visible from the west end of the General station.

Most passengers were from the intermediate stations (as is still the case on the Borderlands line); I suspect someone from 222 Marylebone Road thought there was a duplicate Wrexham-Chester-Birkenhead route, so that will suffice.