We’re kicking off this challenge with an easy one by revisiting several stations I’ve already been to! At the time of writing this post, I’ve visited 183 out of 2,587 railway stations, which is a rather good start. Sadly, I’ve decided to focus on sharing them here rather than in video form on YouTube or TikTok. Starting at our first station, Liverpool Lime Street, where I’ll be beginning a number of my adventures in this series.

We’re heading to our first official station, Broad Green, which I’ve visited before. Currently, Broad Green appears rather dilapidated and unloved, with blue boards everywhere, making the station quite unwelcoming. The station originally opened in 1830 on the line from Crown Street to Manchester Liverpool Road, both of which are now sadly closed.

From Broad Green Station, I make my way to another rather old station, Edge Hill, which opened in 1836 to replace the original Edge Hill station that opened in 1830 alongside Crown Street. Liverpool Lime Street eventually replaced Crown Street. Edge Hill consists of four platforms, all of which are island platforms. This line has a rich history, including Rainhill, where we will be visiting later on!

From Edge Hill station, I make my way to Huyton, another junction station similar to Roby station, both featuring four platforms. I refer to these stations as junctions because they share the lines between Wigan North Western and Manchester, with trains joining from each line. Huyton is a relatively modern station with disabled access, including lifts on both platforms. The layout is quite pleasant, with an island platform and two outer platforms, the same as at Roby.

From Roby, I make my way to Wavertree Technology Park station, which opened in 2000. It is not part of the original route from Crown Street and is the newest station on the line. I quite like the station, which is also step-free and has lifts. However, I feel they need replacing as they are starting to feel quite outdated compared to some of the more modern lifts you can find elsewhere, like at Prescot.

From Wavertree I then catch my next train to my next station which is going to be Rainhill, This is where the famous Rainhill Trials took place in 1829 four years after the S&DR Opened up in the North East of England. In a few years time this station will be celebrating its 200th Birthday and I do hope there will be some exciting events taking place.

From Rainhill, I head down to Whiston, a station that opened much later than the original line in 1830, specifically in 1990. It features two platforms and basic step-free access with ramps on either side. The station’s design is reminiscent of two other similarly constructed stations, Overpool and Halewood, which share very similar architectural styles. From Whiston, I continue to Earlestown Station, an intriguing triangular station!

Earlestown station is unique with its five platforms, as there are only two stations left in the entire country with platforms on either side of the triangle. You can see this demonstrated at another station on the Northern Network, though I am unaware of its name. Feel free to help me out in the comments below.

From Earlestown I make my way to Lea Green station which recently had a brand new state of the art Building opening with a rather large carpark with space for around 400 Cars which is pretty epic officially turning it into a Park & Ride station. Lea Green is quite an interesting station with Services to Manchester & Newcastle & even Hull operated from Northern & Transpennine Express.

From Lea Green I took a Cab to St Helen’s Junction which is my penultimate station before heading to Newton-le-Willows. St Helens Junction used to connect to St Helens Central however the service & the lien was cut back during the Infamous Dr Beeching Cuts in the 1960’s, not much of the original branch to St Helen’s Central remains however you can see old Platforms visible at St Helens Junction / Central too.

And finally heading to Newton-le-Willows the end of the Merseyside Boundary before heading to Manchester, there is a rather big gap between Newton le Willows & Eccles over the Chat Moss where there are a number of Disused Stations which I believe were part of the original line from Crown Street to Liverpool Road in Manchester.

Newton-le-Willows opened in 1830 which is one of the oldest stations on the line after Rainhill & Broad Green station all being opened around the same time. I also believe that Newton-le-Willows used to also have access to a Car Transporter area where you can put your car on a Flat Bed and ride the train to Manchester before there used to be Motorways.

Thanks for joining me on this first adventure visiting 2588 Railway Stations in the United Kingdom. I have 171 Stations left to catch up here on my Blog. From Glasgow, London & the North West. I do hope that you will stick with me and join me on this epic journey. Sadly I just can’t share the videos I have filmed because people just Constantly Dislike them on YouTube and over on TikTok you can’t really share Long videos.