Four postcards

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 5th May 2011 by Jenny Porter

This is a set of four postcards, containing four portraits of Edge Hill. The four all show how the station has changed over the years. In the top left-hand corner, “Lion at Edge Hill 1836” (the year that the present Edge Hill station opened), an early type of locomotive arrives at a station completely unrecognisable. The station is completely open to the elements, and the platform is at the top of a set of stairs down which the passengers walk to reach the train. There are two rather grand buildings, but they seem unconnected with the running of Edge Hill: there is no ticket office or any other buildings connected to the station. The bottom-left postcard, “Platforms 2/3. 1930,s [sic]”, shows a station more familiar to modern eyes, though there are rooves over the platforms that no longer exist - also, no locomotive is in sight, though there are people waiting. In the top right-hand corner, “Princess Royal 1959”, a recognisably modern steam locomotive emerges from the tunnel onto Platform 2. As we do not get a clear view of the station, it cannot be verified if the rooves still exist or not. But they have definitely disappeared from the picture on the bottom right, “Edge Hill 2005”. We see how the station buildings have fallen into disuse (Metal was not set up until 2007 and did not move to Edge Hill until 2009) and, significantly, this is the only picture with neither train nor passengers, a sign of how Edge Hill is used far less often these days (though, curiously, “Lion at Edge Hill 1836” is the only one where both a locomotive and passengers are seen)

Tagged under: steam locomotives, edge hill station, coaches, carriages, locomotives

Categorised under: The Station & Railway Pioneers