Bromley Cross railway station

Bromley Cross
265px Bromley Cross railway station in 1978.
Location
Place	Bolton
Local authority	Bolton
Grid reference	SD729131
Operations
Station code	BMC
Managed by	Northern Rail
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.214 million
2005/06	0.226 million
2006/07	0.211 million
2007/08	0.222 million
2008/09	0.316 million
2009/10	0.322 million
2010/11	0.342 million
2011/12	0.399 million
2012/13	0.381 million
2013/14	0.386 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1848 (1848)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Bromley Cross from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Bromley Cross railway station, situated in Bromley Cross, a suburb to the north of Bolton, England, is served by the Northern Rail 'Ribble Valley' line north of Bolton. It is situated on Chapeltown Road. The station is just south of the point where the double line merges into one.

History

File:Bromley Cross Station 1919351 fdcaabda.jpg

Bromley Cross Station in 1963.

Bromley Cross was established in June 1848, with the opening of the Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton Railway and was originally provided with a temporary, timber station building. This railway was merged with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) in 1858. Permanent station buildings were provided along the line in 1859 constructed by Joseph Greenup and Co of Manchester. The original minutes of the railway company held at National Archives, Kew, reveal that the engineers drew up the plans for the 1859 stone building and its estimated cost was £350, which also included building a 'detached cottage' which survives next to the signal box. The dimensions of the original station building are approx. 39ft in length by 15ft wide. Though built as double track (and used by expresses to and from Scotland from 1880), the line to the north was singled by British Rail in 1973 as part of the East Lancashire line resignalling scheme. Some of the line southwards toward Bolton was also reduced to single track in 1985 (again due to signalling modernisation work), though the double track portion through the station was retained to act as a passing loop.

The station was owned by the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923, and the London Midland Region of British Railways in 1948. In the early 1970s, the goods yard with its shed, to the north of the station was redeveloped as a housing estate. The waiting shelter on the western platform was replaced and the gentleman's toilets on the eastern platform were converted into a waiting room. The London Midland Region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992.

Services

There is generally an hourly service daily northbound (including Sundays) to Clitheroe via Blackburn and southbound to Manchester Victoria. This increases to half-hourly at weekday peak hours, although many of the additional services start/terminate at Blackburn.

Facilities

Parking is adjacent to the station, with overflow parking opposite and neighbouring Turton Media Arts College.

Station Clock

The station clock was probably installed in the early 1900s and is clearly seen on a c. 1912 photograph, with an identical clock noted on a c. 1905 photograph of once nearby Turton Station. The clock has a London Midland Scottish Railway (LMSR) identity number, an oval brass disc nailed onto the clock's long case (LMS 9994), this number indicating that the clock was installed by the L&YR before the creation of the LMS in 1923. In 1996 the clock was restored to working order by the Railway Heritage Trust. It is a weight-driven pendulum long case clock and requires winding up weekly.

Grade II Listing

The 1848 original low platform, the 1859 station building, and the 1875 signal box and were all Grade II listed in early 2015.

Signal Box

File:Bromley Cross Station.jpg

Bromley Cross Station showing original low level platform and Signal Box

The signal box at the station is a Yardley/Smith type 1 brick box opened in December 1875, almost certainly timed to service the new connections to short sidings that were opened that winter, these works being checked and then approved with minor modifications by the Board of Trade inspector in documentation dated Feb 1876. One interesting requirement was that the wicket gates had to be locked by levers in the signal cabin and this basic protection can now be dated with certainty to that time. The box formerly acted as a 'fringe' to the power boxes at Preston (which controls the line to Blackburn) and Manchester Piccadilly (which supervises the passing loop and line south towards Bolton) - their train description systems were incompatible with each other and so the box here was retained to act as a link between them. Its sole use now is to supervise the adjacent pedestrian foot crossing and the protecting signals, (with four working levers), as the interface between the two signalling centres has been upgraded so that they can communicate directly. The lever frame in the signal box was renewed in 1902 with a new frame produced at the L&YR's Horwich Works. In circa 2004 the signal box was modernised with timber work replaced in PVC (the windows was replaced in a different pattern), and new steel steps installed, later supplemented by a metal safety cage.

External links

• Train times and station information for Bromley Cross railway station from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Entwistle or Darwen		Northern Rail Ribble Valley Line		Hall i' th' Wood
	Disused railways
Turton and Edgworth		L&YR Ribble Valley Line		The Oaks