Sundays at Castleton in 1959
Sunday trains at Castleton in 1959
In1959 the local Sunday train service was very poor with gaps of over
three hours between some trains. There was no football, no rugby, no
cricket, no shopping on Sundays, hardly any reason to travel.
The original route to Leeds by the Manchester and Leeds was via Normanton.
Later the route via Halifax and Bradford reduced the importance of the
Normanton route but right up to the end of steam in December 1961,
there were still a few through stopping trains between Manchester and
Normanton.
Castleton station enjoyed a half hour of train activity on a Sunday afternoon
when four trains put in an appearance.
These photographs were taken on 30 August 1959.
The first (Photo 1) was Stanier class 4 tank 42642 on a Wigan to Rochdale stopper
at 4.13pm.
Eight minutes later the 4pm Manchester to Normanton train pulled in behind
Crab number 42774 (Photo 2). At Rochdale passengers from Wigan, Bolton, Bury
and Heywood would change into the Yorkshire train.
Almost immediately the 2.25pm Normanton to Manchester train arrived behind
another Crab, number 42795 (Photo 3).
Passengers off the train from Normanton intending to travel on to Heywood, Bury,
Bolton,Wigan or Liverpool would have changed at Rochdale into the
4.35pm departure to Liverpool hauled by named Black Five number 45154
"Lanarkshire Yeomanry" (Photo 4). After this train departed from Castleton, the
station went to sleep. The next train was at 6.54pm to Leeds but the
next train to Manchester wasn't due until 8pm.