North of Hall Road (Crosby) station

[Gathursty]

In Merseyrail land, immediately north of Hall Road there is a gap between the lines that looks to me like there could have been a very long island platform. Is this right or is it just how the line was built (like the gap in the M62 at Saddleworth)?

 

[Gloster]

I think that there used to be a depot at Hall Road. Could this have been connected to that, for example a reversing siding?

EDIT: An accident report on the railways archive site includes a diagram which shows a Middle Siding between the lines and the text suggests that it was used for stabling.

 

[S&CLER]

I think that there used to be a depot at Hall Road. Could this have been connected to that, for example a reversing siding?

EDIT: An accident report on the railways archive site includes a diagram which shows a Middle Siding between the lines and the text suggests that it was used for stabling.

It was a reversing siding, the scene of a notorious accident not long after electrification in 1904. For many years before the war Exchange to Hall Road had a 10 minute frequency, every other train continuing to Southport. There were also some expresses.

The site of the former Hall Road depot (on the down side between the station and the West Lancs Golf Club) is now occupied by housing, completed this year. The other side, where the electrical control room used to be, is a car park.
There used to be a little-used station between Hall Road and Formby, called Altcar Rifle Range.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

As this is the Railway History and Nostalgia forum, if you really want to go back to the earliest days on this line in the area "north of Hall Road station", between Birkdale and Hillside, a station originally known as Old Gilbert's, subsequently named Gilberts Crossing, was opened from 1848 to 1851.

 

[Tynwald]

The centre line was a reversing neck, for trains terminating at Hall Rd, very rarely, if ever, used lately, after all trains continued to Southport. Trains coming on/off the depot used a headshunt on the seaward side of the down line. Trains coming off the depot heading to Sandhills, would run through the down platform, crossing over to the up on a crossover on the Liverpool side of the crossing, in front of the box.

 

[Lloyds siding]

It was a reversing siding, the scene of a notorious accident not long after electrification in 1904. For many years before the war Exchange to Hall Road had a 10 minute frequency, every other train continuing to Southport. There were also some expresses.

The site of the former Hall Road depot (on the down side between the station and the West Lancs Golf Club) is now occupied by housing, completed this year. The other side, where the electrical control room used to be, is a car park.
There used to be a little-used station between Hall Road and Formby, called Altcar Rifle Range.

Altcar Rifle Range was an island platform. Used to be quite a mound of rubble between the tracks on its site.
However I think that all went when the major track laying took place in the early 2000s, straightening up the route.
Another station between Hightown and Formby was Formby Power House, a halt for workers at the electricity power station that supplied the electricity to the Southport-Liverpool line (and some for Formby itself). In use 1917-46.