Season 8, Episode 290 - Trains at Hoylake station

Our sixth and final station of the day takes us one station up the Wirral Line from Manor Road for a spot of golf where we swing, we miss and scream fore at every chance at Hoylake The station was opened to regular service on 2nd July 1866, as part of the Hoylake Railway to Birkenhead Dock railway station. The station originally had low cinder-filled platforms. An extension to West Kirby was opened on 1st April 1878, and the line from West Kirby was doubled in 1896. The station had a signal box which was originally built at the eastern end of the station and provided in 1889. The 21-lever signal box was moved, to be adjacent to the level crossing, in 1895. From no later than 1901, there were several sidings to the east of the station. There was a carriage shed and a Wirral Railway paint shop from prior to 1912. The paint shop was closed after the LMS takeover. Prior to 1938, the station was of varying architectural styles. Built in 1938 adjoining the Up platform, the current station building was designed by the architect William Henry Hamlyn is in the Art Deco style, with a circular clerestory over the booking hall, becoming a Grade II Listed Building in 1988. The sign currently on display in front of the station was recently restored during a renovation. The adjoining footbridge was built at the same time as the Art Deco building, and new level crossing gates were installed. The goods yard had a 5-ton crane from 1938. Through electric services to Liverpool Central commenced on 13th March 1938, when the LMS electrified the lines from Birkenhead Park to West Kirby. The service was provided by the then-new LMS electric multiple units. However, on Sunday mornings, the service was provided by the older Mersey Railway electric units which, up until that point, had only ever run from Liverpool to Birkenhead Park. The multiple sidings to the east of the station continued to be used until 1965. They were used both to store out-of-service electric trains and to serve a freight depot receiving coal for domestic distribution, and also to fuel the gasworks situated alongside the line at this point which lasted until 1954. The signal box, which had a manual gate wheel for the level crossing, was closed on 17th September 1994 and demolished a few days later. When the Open Golf Championship was held at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in July 2006 and 2014, services terminated here during the tournament. This was to allow competitors to cross the tracks from the practice course on one side to the championship course on the other. This caused some controversy in locally in 2006, especially given the increase in passengers during the championship. A rail replacement bus service was put in place between Hoylake and West Kirby. Nowadays, in this video, we see a variety of Merseyrail heading for either West Kirby and Liverpool Central Please rate, comment and subscribe and thanks for watching!