Hello, and we’re back with another Every Single Station post! This time, I’m heading up the Warrington line from Liverpool Lime Street, visiting 12 stations along the route, including the rather awkwardly located Sankey for Penketh in Warrington. I had such a lovely day out exploring the line and filming a video, which is now available over on my TikTok page. Originally, I had planned to focus on the Manchester line via Newton-le-Willows, but unfortunately my plans had to change following an incident involving a person being struck by a train. My thoughts are with their family and everyone involved, including the railway staff and emergency services who responded and helped at the scene.

I started my journey at Liverpool Lime Street, one of the city’s main railway gateways and a station that provides connections towards both the North and South of England. From here, services head towards destinations such as Preston and Warrington, while longer-distance routes continue towards London Euston via Runcorn and Crewe. For today’s Every Single Station adventure, however, my focus was on the route between Liverpool Lime Street and Warrington Central, taking in all the stations along the way. With everything ready for the day ahead, I made my way onto the Merseyrail Northern Line service towards my first station of the day, Mossley Hill.

Mossley Hill station first opened on 15th February 1864, alongside Allerton station, which is now known as West Allerton. The station has four platforms, serving both the local stopping services and the wider network through Liverpool. It’s also conveniently located close to Sudley House, a historic Georgian mansion surrounded by parkland, making Mossley Hill an interesting starting point for exploring this part of Liverpool. After taking some time to have a look around and capture the station, it was time to continue the journey, with my next stop being the historic Edge Hill station.

From Edge Hill, my original plan was to continue along the line all the way to Hough Green before making my way back towards West Allerton to continue ticking off the stations on my list. However, as has been the theme with this trip, my plans had to change once again! Rather than sticking rigidly to my original route, I decided to make the most of the journey and get off at Hunts Cross station instead, allowing me to tick it off early in the day. This turned out to be a sensible decision, especially as Hunts Cross has an hourly service, meaning missing a train here can result in quite a long wait for the next one. By getting Hunts Cross out of the way early, I could avoid having to build a lengthy wait into my itinerary later on and keep the rest of the day moving along nicely.

From Hunts Cross, I made my way towards Hough Green station, continuing with my Every Single Station challenge and making good progress along the route. Once I arrived at Hough Green, I had around fifteen minutes to wait for my connecting train back towards West Allerton, giving me just enough time to have a look around the station and capture a few photographs before continuing on my way. With the journey running fairly smoothly, I was able to tick off several of the easier stations without too much hassle, putting me halfway through this section of the challenge. At this point, I had five stations successfully completed, with just seven more left to visit before I could call this part of the journey complete.

Once I boarded the train from West Allerton, I decided to make a slight change to my plans and get off at Liverpool South Parkway, where I would have around an hour before continuing towards my next station, Widnes. Rather than simply waiting around for the next connection, I thought I’d make the most of the time available. It gave me the perfect opportunity to have a quick loo break, grab a drink or a snack, and take some time to explore the station at a more relaxed pace. I was also able to get plenty of photographs and video footage, as well as simply have a look around and take in the comings and goings of the different services using the station.

I’ve always quite liked Liverpool South Parkway, partly because of the variety of services and destinations you can see from the platforms. The station has six platforms in total, with four dedicated to mainline services, providing connections towards destinations including Birmingham, Warrington, London and Manchester. Platforms 5 and 6 are used by Merseyrail services, with trains operating towards Hunts Cross and onwards towards Southport and Ormskirk. With such a mix of local and longer-distance services passing through, South Parkway is a great place to spend some time if you’re interested in railways, and after making the most of my hour here, it was time to continue the journey towards Widnes.

From Widnes, my train arrived around three minutes late, leaving me with only about ten minutes to make my connection and change platforms at Halewood. Thankfully, I made it across in time, and there was an extra reason to celebrate as Halewood became my 50th station visited as part of this challenge, marking a fantastic halfway point towards my first 100 stations! From Halewood, I caught the 16:16 service towards Warrington, continuing along the line before alighting at Warrington West, my next station of the day. Warrington West is one of the newer stations on the network, having opened to passengers in 2019, and it holds a special place in my railway memories as I actually visited on its opening day, where I had the opportunity to interview Chris Jackson, the then Regional Manager for Northern Trains, which at the time was operated by Arriva Rail North. Returning several years later as part of my Every Single Station challenge was a great experience, allowing me to revisit a station I had previously seen on its very first day and now tick it off my growing list of stations visited.

From Sankey for Penketh station, I caught my final train of the day, bringing another Every Single Station adventure to an end. Sankey for Penketh is one of those rather unusual stations that I really enjoy visiting, with only two trains in each direction in the morning and two in the evening, making the service here particularly limited compared with many other stations on the network. It’s stations like this that remind me why I enjoy taking on these challenges in the first place, as you never quite know what you’re going to discover or how easy a station will be to reach. I hope you’ve enjoyed following along with these posts once again, and I also want to apologise for deleting the previous posts I had written about my station visits. After taking a break, I’m finally back at it and really enjoying this hobby again, which is what matters most! My next post will see me revisiting the line from Warrington Central through to Manchester Oxford Road, so keep an eye out for that coming in the next day or so.

And with that, my Every Single Station journey along the Warrington Central line comes to an end at Warrington Central, my 12th and final station of the day. It’s been a really enjoyable day out, especially considering how much my original plans changed along the way! From starting at Liverpool Lime Street, working my way through the various stations, reaching my 50th station at Halewood and finishing here at Warrington Central, it’s been another great addition to my station challenge. I’ve really enjoyed being able to explore these stations, take photographs and capture plenty of footage along the way, with each stop bringing something a little different to the journey.

After taking a break from writing about my station visits, it’s great to finally be back exploring and documenting these journeys again, and I’m really enjoying the hobby once more. I hope you’ve enjoyed following along with this latest Every Single Station post and, as always, thank you for taking the time to read it. There are plenty more stations still to visit, so this certainly isn’t the end! My next post will see me revisiting the route from Warrington Central towards Manchester Oxford Road, so keep an eye out for that coming very soon. Until then, happy travelling, and I’ll see you in the next post!