Caldy railway station

Caldy railway station was a station on the single track Hooton to West Kirby branch of the Birkenhead Railway, on the Wirral Peninsula, England.

Caldy
The site of the station in 2013
General information
Location	Caldy, Wirral England
Grid reference	SJ226852
Platforms	1
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Pre-grouping	Birkenhead Railway.
Post-grouping	Birkenhead Railway London Midland Region (British Railways)
Key dates
1 May 1909	Opened
1 February 1954	Closed to passengers
7 May 1962	Closed to freight

History

The Birkenhead Railway, owned jointly by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and London and North Western Railway (LNWR), had initially opened a branch line from Hooton to Parkgate in 1866. An extension to West Kirby was completed twenty years later^[1] although Caldy station did not open until 1 May 1909.^[2]

The station was located to the west of the village of Caldy and situated on top of a high embankment. This was due to a local landowner objecting to the original intended course of the line; which resulted in the station being much closer to the coast of the River Dee than was planned.^[1] The site consisted of a single platform on a single track section of the line. The station building was constructed from corrugated iron and consisted of a ticket office, waiting room and male & female toilets.

Closure

On 1 February 1954 the station was closed to passengers, although the line itself remained open to passenger trains for another two years. The track continued to be used for freight transportation and driver training for another eight years, closing on 7 May 1962.^[1][2] The line was lifted two years later with the station building and platform completely demolished.^[1]

Wirral Country Park

The route became the Wirral Way footpath and part of Wirral Country Park in 1973, which was the first such designated site in Britain.^[1][3][4]

References

1. Disused Stations: Caldy, Subterranea Britannica, retrieved 21 November 2008
2. Maund, T.B. (2000), The Birkenhead Railway, The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society, pp. 43–44, 69, ISBN 0-901115-87-8
3. Wirral Country Park, Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, archived from the original on 30 October 2008, retrieved 21 November 2008
4. Wirral Country Park, Visit Liverpool, retrieved 8 December 2007

Further reading

• Merseyside Railway History Group (1982). The Hooton to West Kirby Branch Line. Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. ISBN 9780904582048. OCLC 60074290.
• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2014). Birkenhead to West Kirby. Middleton Press. figs. 76–77. ISBN 9781908174611. OCLC 885451764.

External links

Media related to Caldy railway station at Wikimedia Commons

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Thurstaston		Birkenhead Railway Hooton to West Kirby branch		Kirby Park

53.35613°N 3.17038°W / 53.35613; -3.17038