A rail network epic exploration: Halifax to Chester

Paul Bigland is back on his biennial travels, touring the nation’s rail network with an All-Line Rover, starting in the North West…

In this article:

• His journey starts in Halifax, enjoying scenic views on a Class 195 to Manchester Victoria through the Calder Valley.
• The route from Wigan to Liverpool features historic semaphore signals and culminates at the modern Headbolt Lane station.
• The author explores the North Wales Coast line, crowded with holidaymakers, before traveling to Chester on an Avanti Class 805.

It’s been 20 years since RAIL magazine came up with the madcap idea of buying me an All-Line Rail Rover ticket to send me off around the UK rail network for a week, just to ‘see what happens’.

Well, a lot has happened over those ten trips - and this year was no different. Over the next three issues, I’ll take you on a tour of some of Britain’s best and worst stations, on some of the newest and oldest trains, and along some of the most diverse lines on the network…

Day 1

My trip starts at home in Halifax (West Yorkshire), early one Monday morning. And we are due a heatwave, which always makes life on the rails ‘interesting’.

My first train is the 0716 to Manchester Victoria, worked by a three-car Class 195 built by CAF.

The company has a mixed reputation when it comes to train building, but from a passenger’s perspective the ‘195s’ are a great improvement on the elderly Class 158s they’ve superseded.

You have tables you can actually get your legs under without cutting off the blood supply, plug and USB sockets, and air-conditioning that works. The large windows are also a bonus, especially on lines such as the attractive Calder Valley route.

The line has a fantastic mix of Pennine scenery alongside railway and industrial heritage, as well as immaculate stations looked after by their local friends groups.

Having crossed from Lancashire into Yorkshire, we call at Rochdale. This is the second busiest station on the route (after Halifax), with an annual footfall of more than 1.3 million people. Today is no exception as commuters flood onto my train, heading for work or college in Manchester.

As we approach the city, we pass Northern’s Newton Heath depot, and then Brewery Junction, where the recently electrified and energised line from Stalybridge swings in from the left.

At Victoria, I swap sets to board one of the oldest trains in the Northern fleet - a Class 150/0. It’s a short trip, to Salford Central - a Cinderella station that was surrounded by dereliction 20 years ago. Now it nestles among tower blocks and multi-storey car parks.

The station has gained a new ticket hall and refurbished platforms with an attractive mural, although the promised third platform on the Chat Moss and Ordsall Chord lines has yet to materialise.

After a brief picture stop, I move on aboard another old Class 150/0 heading west. These are my least favourite of the second-generation diesel multiple units. Their 2/3 door arrangement and vestibule walls add to the high window line, and the lack of tables makes them unsuitable for scenic lines, as the views are terrible. The cramped 2+3 seating layout doesn’t help either.

Still, the unit manages to rattle and wheeze its way over the old Lancashire and Yorkshire main line through Walkden to Crow Nest Junction, where the line from Bolton joins - as do the signs of modernisation, with this line currently being electrified.

The difficulties in doing so are evident at Hindley station, with its award-winning station garden. The collection of sculptures and models have new concrete OLE mast bases added to the attractions, with the local friends group quick to appropriate them as temporary pot plant beds - at least until the steelwork arrives…

Beyond Hindley, the ‘march of the masts’ is in full flow, with steelwork in place along with horizontal beams and top ties - apart from at Ince, where the station is closed because the road bridge that supplies access is being replaced by a new structure under which the wires can fit.

After calling at Wigan Wallgate, we pass under the West Coast Main Line and past the Second World War reinforced brick signal box onto the line to Liverpool.

Once the route of crack express trains between Liverpool and Manchester, the line is now a glorified siding, albeit an interesting one.

At the former junction of Rainford the line becomes single-track. Victorian railway operations kick in as the single-line token is collected off the signaller, who stands trackside outside their box. The line is still controlled by semaphore signals, which adds to the ‘olde worlde’ feel.

That changes at Headbolt Lane - a station that only opened in October 2023, replacing Kirkby as the end of the line. Now, you leave your DMU and walk past the buffer stop onto a two-platform station with modern buildings that are part of the Merseyrail empire, to catch a battery train.

Seven of the new Stadler Class 777s have been fitted with the technology, as the third rail finishes at Kirkby.

I am surprised at just how quiet the units are under battery power. They just seem to glide along the line before they switch to third rail, where performance becomes rather more jerky (although that could be due to line speed and track more than anything).

Either way, the ‘777s’ are a step-change (or should that be step-free change) from the old Class 507s, a handful of which remain in service.

The ‘777s’ aren’t without their critics, as their introduction has not been problem-free. But from a passenger’s perspective, they must be some of the best trains on the network.

To give them a fair crack of the whip, I try out two ‘normal’ Class 777s too, travelling from Sandhills across Liverpool and under the Mersey to Bidston, where I hope to catch something very different.

A noticeable thing about my trips is how many services are running late - not drastically, just a few minutes. Yet Merseyrail used to be a model of punctuality. What’s gone wrong?

I had plied the route to Bidston in 2022, ending up on an old Class 150/2 to Wrexham. This time I am lucky, as 230009 arrives to form the 1106.

These units are old friends from when they earned their keep on London’s District Line, a route near which I lived for a decade. Now, converted for main line use with a refined internal layout, they’re actually rather good from a passenger perspective.

However, the ride is as lively as ever, especially on jointed track. They also seem to have problems with timekeeping, although on a hot day, the air-conditioning is a godsend.

I leave the train at Shotton High Level, to visit a route I’ve not travelled on with a Rover for a while - the North Wales Coast.

The High and Low Level stations are only a few minutes’ walk apart, and I’m not the only one here. Tempted by the good weather, several families are waiting for the Llandudno train, which appears in the shape of three-car 197113… which is rammed.

Everyone manages to get aboard - just. But floor space is at a minimum, with prams and suitcases vying for space with people. Despite the scrum, the atmosphere aboard is good-humoured, possibly because people are off to the seaside!

The jam eases once we reach Prestatyn, where dozens of folks decamp, taking a wall of suitcases and convoy of prams with them. I dive into a spare seat and enjoy the variety of coastal views and caravan parks for the rest of the trip to Llandudno Junction, where the train terminates.

Most people head for the connecting service up the branch to the town, but I have other things to do. I take refuge in the recently reopened station cafe - Porter’s, which is run by CAIS Social Enterprise and offers a selection of light refreshments. I can heartily recommend the coffee and walnut cake.

I have come to Llandudno to catch Avanti West Coast’s 1333 to Chester, as it is diagrammed for one of Avanti’s new Class 805s.

Branded ‘Evero’, these Hitachi diesel-electric bi-modes are taking over from Voyagers - although not without incident, which seems odd as they’re essentially the same train used by other operators such as LNER and TransPennine Express.

805013 appears to take me to Chester, and problems immediately become apparent. The Passenger Information Screen is ‘lost’ and the train doesn’t know where it is. Reservations are down, too.

The Train Manager does her best to apologise and settle passengers on this busy train, although her Scottish accent adds to my sense of geographical displacement!

Arriving at Chester, we should have become a ten-car to Euston, but the other set is stuck at Crewe, which seems to be a common problem.

Waving the set goodbye, I head for Liverpool - not by Merseyrail, but on a Transport for Wales service to Lime Street via Frodsham and the Halton curve, on a service introduced in 2019. It brings back memories from when BR regularly used this route for weekend diversions between Liverpool and Crewe.

The first part of the route crosses leafy Cheshire, through Helsby, with an interesting signalling survivor - the last co-acting semaphore signal (two home arms duplicating each other) left on the network. It’s installed because a footbridge blocks the view of the lower arm.

Having stopped at Frodsham before crossing the high bridges over the River Weaver and Weaver navigation, we swing left onto the single-track Halton curve to enter Runcorn, before crossing the Mersey on the double web-latticed girder rail bridge with the old road bridge parallel.

Descending the curved Runcorn viaducts with views of the Widnes Intermodal depot, we pass the closed Ditton Junction station and abandoned yard before passing the new(ish) Alstom Traincare centre, where the Avanti Pendolino refurbishment was completed.

This line still attracts freight (intermodal and car traffic), even if Speke sidings are more wildflower centre than rail yard nowadays!

Heading through suburbs over embankments offering views of the city centre and its cathedrals, we drop down into Edge Hill and the famous cuttings before arriving at Lime Street, another station that has seen major improvements over the years.

I have a few minutes to grab pictures before boarding TPE’s 1554 to Manchester, worked by 802204. Unlike Avanti’s version of these units, the ‘802’ behaves impeccably.

This is the least crowded train I have been on all day, giving me a chance to set up my ‘mobile office’ and catch up with notes while downloading pictures, before arriving at Manchester Victoria on time.

Sadly, this is as good as it gets. My connection is late, so (purely in the interests of research!) I visit the new Victoria Tap pub on the station. It serves excellent real ales, and the walls have some lovely B&W pictures of the station in BR days.

Quickly quaffing a half, I make it back to catch another TPE service towards Manchester Airport, this time worked by a pair of Class 185s.

Nowadays, these are the only trains to pass over the Ordsall Chord - a criminally underused asset that cost £100 million and only opened in 2017.

Feeding several extra trains an hour into the two-track Castlefield Corridor was always a heroic ask, especially when the capacity improvements to the corridor never materialised. It stands as a monument to the futility of piecemeal improvements without carrying through an overall strategy.

On leaving the train at Piccadilly, everything goes ‘Pete Tong’. Services are in complete disarray, as a tree has come down onto the line at Gatley. No trains can get in and out of Manchester Airport as all the platforms are full. My train is cancelled, and everyone is told to disembark.

To their credit, Network Rail staff do an amazing job coping with the influx of anxious airline passengers and commuters, assuaging their concerns while trying to turn chaos into order on a narrow platform.

My plans are out of the window, but a three-car TPE service to Cleethorpes gets through to take me as far as Sheffield. The delights of a run through the beautiful Hope Valley on a beautiful summer’s evening make up for the hassle.

I had planned to traverse the Penistone line from Sheffield, but that train is long-gone. Instead, I seek refuge in the Sheffield Tap for a pint and a plan B on how to get home. I opt for CrossCountry’s 1915 service via Leeds, worked by a single Class 221.

Thankfully, I manage to get a seat, but I won’t mention what words I utter under my breath when I consider that following cancellation of the Leeds leg of HS2, this is as good as it gets between two of our major northern cities.

An on-time arrival gives me plenty of time to consider such follies (and how busy and diverse train services are at Leeds) before I catch my final train of the day - a two-car Class 195/0 back to Halifax. Needless to say, it is packed. Finally, 13 and a half hours after leaving, I am back again…

Day 2

Tuesday also begins early. I’m at Halifax before 0700 to enjoy the classical music that’s piped over the station tannoy at that time of day, in order to keep away anti-social elements - or just soothe irate passengers, I’m not sure.

I am catching Grand Central’s 0712 to London, worked by 221124, a cast-off ‘Voyager’ leased to cover for GC’s increasingly temperamental Class 180 fleet.

Grand Central has done a brilliant job in attracting passengers and providing services no one else did, but reliability has been its Achilles heel. The Voyagers are helping it recover.

As usual, the cars are a sea of reservation labels, but I find a seat that isn’t reserved until later for my trip to Wakefield.

Having stopped at the flower-bedecked Brighouse (a credit to the local friends group), we join the trans-Pennine route at Heaton Lodge Junction.

This is TRU (Transpennine Route Upgrade) territory, where major work is under way to reinstate four tracks (two Fast and two Slow).

At our next stop (Mirfield), one of the platforms has already been bulldozed to allow realignment of tracks for a longer, bigger island platform on the Slow lines.

There’s a bigger job under way at Heaton LNW Junction, where Ravensthorpe station will be re-sited west of the flying junction that will replace the existing flat crossings.

It’s a massive piece of work that’s still in its early stages.

Bowling on around the sad remains of Healy Mills yard, we pass Horbury Junction and the last traditional working signal box in West Yorkshire, an LNW design dating from 1927.

I bid goodbye to GC at Wakefield Kirkgate, which in 2004 I described as the UK’s worst railway station. Its buildings have been worked on in the past 20 years, but not the trackside, rendering it less than photogenic.

An ugly green palisade fence runs between the Up and Down lines between the platforms. The only saving grace is that it’s disappearing behind vast swathes of buddleia - as is much of the trackside here.

I have arrived to catch a train to Sheffield for one of the highlights of today’s trip, on a line I have been trying to include in these Rovers since day 1.

Yet another CAF Class 195/0 (bound for Lincoln Central) carries me there, and as usual the train is busy. The days of COVID and empty trains are long gone on most routes.

The story is the same at Sheffield, which is abuzz with people. A Channel 4 TV crew had set up a piano on the concourse, which has added to the congestion - as do all the delayed trains.

Sheffield isn’t having a good day, but as my train starts from here, I’m not worried. What does concern me is the number of families gathering on the platform, especially when a single Class 150/2 turns up.

I am here to catch the 0954 to Cleethorpes, the single daily train that traverses the line through Brigg. For 30 years this was a Saturdays only service. In May 2023, it became Monday-Friday only. While the extra trains are welcome, not having Saturday trains has attracted a lot of criticism.

Despite the crowds, I manage to squeeze aboard and find myself sitting with a member of the line’s user group (on his way home from holiday to water his garden) and an off-duty Northern train driver and his wife. It makes for an interesting conversation discussing the ups and downs of the line’s fortunes.

Once a busy freight line, only a handful of overnight ‘Q’ trains are diagrammed over it. A problem is the sections of singled track, and that the route’s four manual signal boxes close in the afternoon.

A brace of people joins at Gainsborough Central, but no one gets on or off at Kirton Lindsey while at Brigg my companion leaves and one other joins. Everybody else is heading for Cleethorpes, taking advantage of the cheaper Northern tickets over the faster TPE service.

When my train disgorges its cargo at Cleethorpes, I am amazed that the bodyshell is still in gauge - the ‘bucket and spade brigade’ don’t travel light.

I have some time here, so pay a visit to one of the two station pubs, imaginatively named number 1 and 2 refreshment rooms.

No 1 is in the old station building on Platform 1, while the far smaller 2 is adjacent to the buffer stops on (you guessed) Platform 2. Both serve an excellent selection of real ales.

Tempting as it is to enjoy the sun and another pint, I make my way back to Grimsby Town on a TPE Class 185, to explore.

Like the port, the town’s railways relied on fish for their traffic. All that’s long gone, but the station still boasts an overall roof, even if it’s a brutal 20th century replacement for the original.

I am here for a trip over the Barton-on-Humber branch. Once operated as an isolated outpost of Northern, the two-hourly service is now run by East Midlands Railway. Class 170s ply the line - a bit of a waste of 100mph trains, perhaps, but I’m not complaining.

The branch begins at Habrough, where tracks to Immingham Docks swing north off the main line.

First stop is Ulceby. A single platform suffices here. We veer left over a single lead junction before two tracks take us onwards to the delightful station at Thornton Abbey, with its restored running-in boards, floral displays and local information boards.

Here we leave industry behind for a rural run to Goxhill, a quaint station with original buildings, wooden crossing gates and signal box.

At Oxmarsh crossing, the line becomes single. Our driver collects the token from the signaller, who uses a walkway sticking out from the brick-built BR box.

Next is New Holland. In the days before the Humber Bridge, trains used to run onto the wooden pier, where paddle-steamers carried passengers across the Humber. Ships still call here importing timber, but the railway is no longer used.

Swinging left to follow the river, we call at Barrow Haven, before the railway crosses an inlet used for a variety of pleasure and commercial craft. It’s a photogenic little place.

Finally, we reach Barton itself, another station reduced in size to a single platform. If you have time to tarry, the town’s rather attractive. I don’t and catch the train back as far as Habrough to pick up an EMR service bound for Nottingham.

This is worked by 170501. The air-conditioning is welcome on such a hot day, but the train’s interior is shabby. The handrails, decals and seat moquette give away the fact that this was an old London Midland set cascaded from Tysleley in Birmingham. All that has changed is the external vinyls. Still, it’s not too crowded and I get a seat, which is what matters.

At Barnetby, now devoid of semaphores so far less photogenic, we swing south onto the Lincoln line before stopping at Market Rasen.

This is another station where the local friends group has had a huge impact.

The glass and wood waiting room on the Down platform has been transformed into welcoming space to wait for a train, while the Grade 2 Listed main building is in use as a day care centre for adults with learning disabilities, and as a heritage centre.

There’s also a fabulous garden on the driveway up to the station.

After crossing the flatlands Lincoln, with its magnificent hilltop cathedral, comes into view before we pull into the station, with its lovely Tudor revival-style buildings.

Picking up a dozen or so passengers, we head off along the old Midland Railway route through Hykeham, Swinderby and Collingham (where a lovely two-storey Italianate station building’ is all boarded up) before arriving at Newark Castle. Here, the unusual station building retains a ticket office, but the main part is now a restaurant.

At Newark, I change stations as well as trains, by walking across to Northgate to begin my journey home.

Yet again, the fates conspire against me. I arrive to find my connection has been cancelled. Ripping up my plans once more, I catch the first service north - LNER’s 1646 bound for Glasgow.

This nine-car Azuma is busy, having had to pick up another train’s passengers en route. However, it empties out enough at Doncaster for me to get a set for the rest of the way to York.

I have to admit I rather like the Azumas. They feel more comfortable (and less spartan) than the GWR version of Hitachi’s flagship train - and they can certainly shift, so don’t find it too difficult to make up time when necessary.

But (like so many of the new trains) it’s a shame they don’t have a proper buffet car, instead of the catering cupboard staff and customers have to make do with.

As always, Doncaster has plenty of railway interest. West Midlands Railway Class 730s litter Belmont sidings, while the station’s West yard hosts far older traction in the form of several Colas-liveried Class 56s. Who’d have thought they’d still be going strong in 2024?

Adding to the variety is a CrossCountry-liveried HST power car and a Southeastern Class 466 electric multiple unit.

Arriving at York under the station’s magnificent curved roof is always a delight. Detraining, I ponder my next move. I had planned a couple more trips around Leeds, but the day’s moving on and this will be my last night at home during the trip.

Having seen the fragility of the network twice in two days, I elect to head home by the shortest and quickest route.

I even turn down the chance to visit the York Tap, and instead I jump aboard one of TPE’s Class 802s bound for Manchester Airport to take me back to Leeds, this time arriving in the city from the east, not the west.

Having swung off the East Coast Main Line at Colton Junction, we approach Church Fenton and a modern phenomenon - Overhead wires to nowhere.

This route will be part of the TRU, but years of dither, delay and changing plans (HS2 Phase 2b was meant to join the route here) means that the overhead line equipment ends abruptly before the North Junction.

There are more positive sights when one enters Leeds past Neville Hill depot, where most of the old Up sidings have been lifted to allow TRU work to be completed.

Time for my last train of the day, Northern’s 1843 to Chester via Bradford Interchange. Like most Class 1 trains on Northern, it is worked by a CAF Class 195. It was also rammed with people coming home from work, but that’s par for the course nowadays.

The main thing is: it’s on time, something I have been seeing less and less of on this trip.

This first part of the trip has taken me from east to west across the middle of England and into North Wales along main lines and branches, including lines I’d never managed to include in a Rover before.

Tomorrow (RAIL 1022) I will be starting a different chapter, heading into the Midlands and out again, along more main lines before ending up in Wales once more…

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