TWO readers - including a retired loco driver - have steamed in with response to our recent rail-track yedscratter.

Question posed by Jimmy Henderson of Garswood, was: When did the line from the old St Helens Central station, passing through Moss Bank, close? He also wished to know when that station shut down.

Brian Winter of Crosby Grove, St Helens, former Sutton Oak engine driver, comes up with a couple of firm dates. Central station, he says, closed on March 1, 1952; and Moss Bank station on June 16, 1951.

When regular passenger services ended, the line remained open for some years, serving sand-traffic to and from the Pilkington sand-wash at Mill Lane, Rainford. Wagons still clattered along that lost track until well in the 1960s, says Brian.

Specials

"I listened to the 1966 soccer World Cup final on a small transistor radio, while with my loco at Mill Lane, so the line was still open then."

Dick Rigby from Eagle Crescent, Rainford, recalls: "I travelled by train to school in Ormskirk until about 1952, when the regular passenger service was discontinued." For the next two years, until leaving school, Dick had to travel to school by bus.

"The line remained in use for freight and passenger specials until well into the 1960s," he says. "All the Saints specials to Swinton continued to use this route, linking into the Liverpool Exchange to Manchester line at Rainford Junction. The line was later used for storage of old coal wagons."

MANY thanks, Brian and Dick, for putting us neatly on track.