Welcome to the new-look web-site...

Here, finally, is the new website. I hope you like it.

Please get in touch if you find any glaring errors, or if you think you can help with information or material for the website. In fact, feel free to get in touch for any reason at all - it's always good to know that people are viewing the website!

January Steam at Blackrod

44871 and 45407 pass the site of the former Horwich South Fork Junction with the Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express, shortly after sunrise on a cold January morning. Courtesy of Ian Fitter	Just beyond Blackrod Junction Signal Box, the Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express passes Kittie's Crossing. Courtesy of Mick Langton

There should be more steam excursions passing through Blackrod later in the year. Please check back here for details!

Introduction

Perhaps Blackrod has never been a major location on the railway map, but it was once a junction station on the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway with over 70 departures a day, three platforms, a goods yard and a manned ticket office. Now, just a couple of platforms and "bus shelters", Blackrod Station was once much more.

To its inhabitants, it's still known as "the village", but Blackrod is probably too large to be accurately described as such. However, when the railway came, the station was named after Blackrod's larger neighbour, Horwich. The station went through a number of name changes, starting out as "Horwich Road" before being renamed "Horwich & Blackrod". In 1870, it became "Horwich Junction" to reflect the fact that the Horwich branch had opened, but just three years later, in February 1873, the station became "Horwich and Blackrod Junction". Finally, in April 1888, the station became simply "Blackrod".