Lowton St Mary's railway station

Lowton St Mary's railway station served the scattered community of Lowton, then in Lancashire, now in Greater Manchester, England. It was situated immediately south of the A572 bridge over the tracks.HistoryThe station opened on 1 April 1884 along with six other stations on the Wigan Junction Railways (WJR), which was backed by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR). One source gives the station's early name as plain "Lowton", but the Bradshaws of April 1884 and July 1922 both use "Lowton St Mary's". 19th Century Lowton, like Langwith in Derbyshire, was a scattered rural area rather than one village, with communities having related names, such as Lowton St Mary's and Lowton Common as well as the plain Lowton. A photograph of a train at the station in Great Central days shows a station nameboard bearing the wording "Lowton St Mary's".The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 to the Great Central Railway (GCR). The GCR absorbed the WJR on 1 January 1906.The WJR line ran through Lancashire from Glazebrook West Junction to Wigan Central but was also a part of the bigger MS&LR/GCR network and therefore trains were originally provided by the MS&LR.In 1895 goods services began on a wholly new line which branched westwards off the WJR a short distance north of Lowton St Mary's station. This line was built by the Liverpool, St Helens and South Lancashire Railway, a subsidiary of the Great Central Railway. That line was part of an ambitious project to reach the north Liverpool docks, but only ever made it as far as St Helens Central (GCR). The first recorded passenger train ran on that line in 1899, a race day special to Haydock Park Racecourse. The full, but sparse, passenger service began on 3 January 1900.