View out the Blackpool train window

[kimtheilmann]

I have an odd request… is there any sort of landmark or view out the window of the train to Blackpool from Preston that might have been surprising or unique in 1950? I’m writing a story, and want to mention what my main character might have noticed when he looked up from his book. It’s set in 1950. He would have been traveling from Liverpool to Blackpool (North?) via Preston. (I’m in the U.S.). Thank you! -Kim

 

[Springs Branch]

is there any sort of landmark or view out the window of the train to Blackpool from Preston that might have been surprising or unique ?

There certainly was (and still is) - Blackpool Tower!

In the 1960s, when on family trips to the seaside by train, there was always a keen competition between myself and my younger siblings as to who would be the first to spot Blackpool Tower in the distance as we approached across the Fylde plain.

Being in the late 1960s, we were travelling to Blackpool North. However, in 1950, I suspect most trains from Liverpool to Blackpool may have run into Blackpool Central, which took two possible routes - direct from Kirkham, or via Lytham and the coast. I'm not sure how visible Blackpool Tower would have been from the train on the two routes into B. Central. Potentially the tower would be visible from the direct (Marton) route, I've just never been that way so haven't seen it for myself. Depends how historically accurate you want to be, I guess.


[EDIT] Another landmark I remember from childhood trips to Blackpool (also still there) is a large, prominent white windmill - the Lytham Windmill. But I think I recall this from journeys by road coach - possibly the windmill is too far from the railway to be very visible from the train, but anyone who has been a passenger on a present-day train to Blackpool South may be able to confirm.

The sight of either Blackpool Tower (from the train) or Lytham Windmill (from the road coach) certainly ramped up the excitement for us kids, as they were sure signs that we were "nearly there".

 

[kimtheilmann]

I wonder if there is something about the tower that my main character would suddenly notice — that he hadn’t paid attention to before… Will have to look into that. I’m using it as a way to illustrate a big weight being lifted off his shoulders… him looking out the window and seeing something clearly. The tower might work. Maybe the way the light hits it or something.

 

[Springs Branch]

One thing about Blackpool Tower which used to impress me as a child was that the tower structure was usually lit up at night - even outside the main Illuminations period and during what was a much more gloomy era. This was before widespread, bright floodlighting of major buildings and structures - I doubt the 1960s efforts would impress today's youth much, but it seemed quite exotic to me.

Is there a possibilty that your character was approaching Blackpool by train at dusk or twilight, when the tower and its lights would be visible in the distance? Maybe being 1950, it was possibly the first time he had seen the tower illuminated brightly (by 1950s standards). Especially as this was just a few years after the end of World War 2 - when the tower most definitely would not have been illuminated at night.

Obviously I don't know the context and storyline so this post may be all blather, but possibly the previously unseen, bright and colourful lights approaching out of the distance represent a clear / positive / cheerful / beacon of hope for the future?

 

[Fleetwood Boy]

I wonder if there is something about the tower that my main character would suddenly notice — that he hadn’t paid attention to before… Will have to look into that. I’m using it as a way to illustrate a big weight being lifted off his shoulders… him looking out the window and seeing something clearly. The tower might work. Maybe the way the light hits it or something.

Assuming that the Tower is well-known and therefore perhaps not surprising, how about your character noticing the Pleasure Beach complex?

 

[52290]

Not quite what the OP is asking but travelling on the top deck of a tram from Blackpool to Fleetwood in the 1950's I used to look out for the Isle of Man, visible around Bispham on a fine day.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Of course, one might ask what the OP's character was expected to see out of a 1950s Preston->Blackpool train window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plain?

 

[WesternLancer]

Assuming that the Tower is well-known and therefore perhaps not surprising, how about your character noticing the Pleasure Beach complex?

Both this and the Tower are good calls I would think. Isn't there film footage from the 1950s in one of the British Tr4ansport Films travelogue short films made to promote rail travel by BR that might give @kimtheilmann an idea of it, with Pleasure Beach fun fair scenes?

I'll see if I can find a link to post.

Yes - this is what I was thinking of - Pleasure Beach about 1 min in. Tower glimpsed at about 4 mins in

Watch Holiday - BFI Player

The delights of 1950s Blackpool are vibrantly captured in sunny Kodachrome, in this fondly remembered travelogue from British Transport Films.

player.bfi.org.uk

I think this was a recut of a BTF film originally released as 'Lancashire Coast' - so the images in the film might have been filmed earlier than the 1957 release date of 'Holiday' and thuis a bit closer to the OP's story line date.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

A more serious observation than post #7. Would the OP's character have been able to have seen the fairly distinctive outline of (Little) Marton Windmill, from the main line into Blackpool Central, as was in the 1950s?

 

[Dr Hoo]

Blackpool Tower is the obvious one but not exactly ‘surprising’ (as in the original post). ‘I went to Blackpool and saw Blackpool Tower! Who would have thought it?’
As a slightly left field (well, fields on the right to be pedantic), how about Marton Gas Works? This quite conspicuous structure, beside the direct line from Kirham towards Blackpool Central, had been planned before the Second World War to satisfy the almost insatiable demand from seaside landladies all cooking ‘full English’ breakfasts for their ever-growing number of bed & breakfast patrons. It was only completed in 1940 but was the first sign that you were arriving at urban Blackpool.
Worth googling for some aerial photos that show what I mean.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Atr the right time of evening, the top of Blackpool Tower would still be in sunlight after the sun had set on an observer at sea level. In the right conditions this could be quite eyecatching.

 

[Gloster]

Looking at the M55, which I think follows the old line to Central, on Streetmap and cross referencing it with the 1938 6” and 25’” maps (on the National Library of Scotland site) I think the windmill would be briefly visible just before the railway passed under Preston New Road. It might only be a fleeting glimpse as the train left a cutting.

 

[Fleetwood Boy]

On a pedantic point (which may not matter with the application of artistic licence) - how many regular trains (as opposed to excursions or Summer dated services) used the Marton cut-off? I can't find the timetable now, but I'm sure when I looked most regular trains actually went round via St Annes?

 

[Gloster]

On a pedantic point (which may not matter with the application of artistic licence) - how many regular trains (as opposed to excursions or Summer dated services) used the Marton cut-off? I can't find the timetable now, but I'm sure when I looked most regular trains actually went round via St Annes?

A look at the summer 1949 timetable suggests that virtually all the through trains or through coaches from Liverpool to Blackpool Central ran via Lytham. I haven’t checked every one due to the small size of the timetable, but could check those around a specific time.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

A look at the summer 1949 timetable suggests that virtually all the through trains or through coaches from Liverpool to Blackpool Central ran via Lytham. I haven’t checked every one due to the small size of the timetable, but could check those around a specific time.

Would that, at that time, have included excursion trains?

 

[Gloster]

Would that, at that time, have included excursion trains?

It includes some, but the Liverpool trains, which I haven’t gone into in detail, do seem to have gone via Lytham. It is very small print and needs cross-referencing between timetables to get a full idea: I don’t mind checking a few trains around a specific time of day for the OP, but not the whole day’s timetable.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Blackpool Football Club's Bloomfield Road ground and stand? Adjacent to the tracks on the run in to Central.

 

[Gloster]

Blackpool Football Club's Bloomfield Road ground and stand? Adjacent to the tracks on the run in to Central.

It is right up close to Central, being between South and it. As the train approached South, would you have been able to see the floodlights, which presumably existed in 1950, over the ’ouses in between?

 

[DelW]

Post #706 in this thread:

Longest line of sight (UK)

Here's a closer view of Ben Ledi from a similar direction: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ben_Ledi#/media/File:Kincardine_Bridge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_470323.jpg. I'm not sure about the others -- Stuc and Ben Vorlich sound plausible, but by the admittedly rather crude method of...

www.railforums.co.uk

included two panoramas taken from Liverpool cathedral tower, and showing just how prominent some Blackpool landmarks are from almost thirty miles away.

Subsequent posts identified them, and post #716 says that the Warbreck Hill water tower was/is visible from a train heading into Blackpool North.

Of course, one might ask what the OP's character was expected to see out of a 1950s Preston->Blackpool train window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plain?

The OP is in the US, and might not recognise references to Fawlty Towers

 

[Dr Hoo]

For the OP’s benefit, Fawlty Towers, was a TV comedy about a small hotel, owned by someone named ‘Fawlty’. No relevance to the ‘Blackpool Tower’ sort of tower.

 

[Taunton]

...

 

[Dr Hoo]

It would be helpful if the OP could be a bit more specific about when the imagined character was travelling, e.g. time of day and of year.

The situation would be rather different, say, between a summer evening when the sun in the West would throw the Tower into silhouette; a foggy morning in February when the Gas Works was the limit of vision; during the Illuminations, when the Tower would be very visible at dusk; and so on.

Bearing in mind how flat the Fylde Peninsula is I am not clear that inter visibility between mountain tops and tall buildings on exceptionally clear days is particularly relevant to somebody chugging along at ground level, possibly with smoke or steam drifting past grubby windows depending on atmospheric conditions.

 

[Trackman]

There certainly was (and still is) - Blackpool Tower!

Car journey entertainment, 'Let me know when you can see Blackpool tower!' when they do, you say 'Can you see it moving?' lol.
Don't think it would work on a train.
To the OP, as others have said chances are it's Blackpool central, look old up maps of sidings etc (if there are any) and see if you find something interesting.

 

[Bevan Price]

Not a landmark as such, but near Kirkham, the lines are not far from Warton Airport, which between 1948 and 1960 was where English Electric built and tested military aircraft, and some of these on test flights probably passed over / near many trains.

(The actual airport id not visible from the railway as far as I know)

 

[MadMac]

It is right up close to Central, being between South and it. As the train approached South, would you have been able to see the floodlights, which presumably existed in 1950, over the ’ouses in between?

Were floodlights around in 1950?

 

[Bevan Price]

Were floodlights around in 1950?

Few, if any. In Winter, most football & rugby matches had to move kick-off earlier than the almost universal 3.00 p.m. time.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

It is right up close to Central, being between South and it. As the train approached South, would you have been able to see the floodlights, which presumably existed in 1950, over the ’ouses in between?

Floodlights weren't installed/first used at Bloomfield Road (Blackpool FC) until the late 1950's. Planning discussions with the council for building the lighting towers took place in 1957, the actual installation wasn't until after the end of the 1957/58 season and the first match played under the lights was a friendly on a Monday night in October 1958 vs Heart of Midlothian.

 

[randyrippley]

Presumably Beacon Fell (in Bowland Forest) would be the most obvious natural landmark, visible to the east on a train routed to Blackpool North. Don't think you'd see it going to Central

 

[Sun Chariot]

Of course, one might ask what the OP's character was expected to see out of a 1950s Preston->Blackpool train window?

This first bit made me smile. Given the run down condition of 1950s secondary & local carriage stock, I'd be surprised if the character could actually see through the glass...