L&YR Shed No. 27 1881 – 1930
L&MSR Shed No C27 1930 - 1935

Construction commenced at Lostock Hall in 1877 of a conventional L&Y-design brick-built 8-track
straight single-ended building; this being formally opened on October 30th 1881. From that date the
other two existing L&Y depots in the Preston district were closed – that at Preston being demolished to provide additional carriage sidings and that at Lostock Hall becoming the Carriage & Wagon repair depot. (Whether any of the original fabric was used in the reincarnation of the latter currently remains unclear.)  

The structure of the new shed, as built, contained most of the range of typically standard features evidenced elsewhere on the L&Y system, these including the 'north-light' pattern roof and the shed-master's office with its prominent bay window overlooking the loco yard.  

The 8 pit roads inside provided facilities for maintenance, boiler-washouts, etc and a further 8 pits outside permitted the preparation prior to entering traffic of a further two locos per road.

There were additional roads laid in to either side of the shed building. To the north, between the offices/workshop block and the rear of the station platforms, a single-track siding was provided, this usually being left clear, essentially to facilitate, by means of a ‘run-round’ road, the exit from the coaling-stage and ash-disposal facilities without disrupting the progress of any locomotives in a queue. Using this siding, access could also be gained to the turntable from either direction.  

To the south, 3 further sidings were laid in, initially to access the 3 occasionally massive coal stacks that provided additional storage at certain times of the year. (These were the roads between which old sleepers had been placed on the ground to receive the coal supplies, but, in the latter years of steam, were to be utilised almost entirely for the storage of withdrawn locomotives and any crippled freight stock.)

Beyond these sidings, yet a further road connected the shed 'neck' with the 'Back Line' – a second exit point from the depot complex that proved to be extremely useful for despatching motive power directly to Farington Jct, or to the adjacent extensive carriage sidings and carriage shed. The small signal-box adjacent to Watkin Lane over-bridge, controlling the junction, was known as "Lostock Hall Carriage Sidings".

The original coaling-stage was also another standard L&Y feature. A ramped-road up to the height of loco tenders provided a facility for coal to be hand-shovelled into tenders, by men employed on continuous duties. Above the coaling stage was a massive water-tank, which supplied all 7 of the water columns on the various outside shed roads.  These L&Y columns, along with the elevated water-tank (now bereft of its ramped coal-stage road) survived right up to the end of steam in 1968.

On a separate road close by the coaling stage, a 50ft turntable was initially provided, although, with the advent of larger locomotives, this needed to be increased in capacity to 70ft during LMS days.

Lostock Hall became one of thirty-two depots existing at that time on the Lancashire & Yorkshire system, providing stabling for 40 or so of the Company’s 1650 locomotives. Its individual L&Y code being No 27, each engine’s actual allocation was to be found on a white enamel plate affixed to the rear edge of cab roofs. After the Grouping and from about December 1930, a prefix ‘C’ was added to that code and it was at around the same time that the enamel plates started to be transferred to the smokebox doors, in accordance with standard London, Midland & Scottish Railway practice. Incidentally, the code ‘C27’ identified a loco belonging to the newly-created LMSR Central Division, (which in turn had succeeded the Western ‘B’ Division).

Despite the pressure on loco-servicing facilities being eased somewhat with the opening of the new shed, the single access route into Preston from the Liverpool direction was still rather circuitous and, what with the numerous additional light-engine movements, that ever-worsening situation was causing an increasing traffic bottle-neck, particularly at the entry to the station. The first steps to remedy this were taken in 1891 when the L&Y opened a far more direct line into the town, with its new chord-line being constructed between Moss Lane Junction (near Midge Hall) and Farington Curve Junction on the North Union main-line (about 1½ miles south of Preston).

However, problems were still occurring with the far more intensive traffic off the East Lancs line, so, to further alleviate congestion, in 1908 yet another curve was then put in from Lostock Hall Engine Shed Junction down a steeply-graded 1 in 75 incline to connect into the Moss Lane chord, just short of the confluence of that route with the West Coast main line at Farington Curve Junction.

Light engines from the depot and trains from the Liverpool and Blackburn directions all now had two options upon how they reached Preston and these additional works had now provided a much-welcomed facility that would spread the load more evenly at the station in terms of platform occupation.

Those two additional connections finally completed the complex network of rails to the south of Preston that was to survive intact for 64 years. Of considerably more importance here, however, was the fact that this facility circumvented many of the conflicting crossings over the West Coast main-line that were previously necessary to access the Fylde Coast tracks to the north of Preston station, thus creating one of the major reasons for heavy delays to traffic during peak periods.

Furthermore, for traffic destined for the Fylde, but which had arrived in Preston from the north, it was no longer necessary to change engines and reverse direction in the station platforms. By means of the various curves now in situ to the south of the town, it became possible to travel direct without even calling at Preston, via Lostock Hall, albeit having to pass through Preston twice in order to do so. (This is best demonstrated by referring to the diagram on the "Railways of Preston" page.

From the outset and to an ever-lessening degree even into BR days, Lostock Hall's allocation of motive power was almost entirely provided merely for workings over the L&Y lines in the Preston area, these including local freight and passenger turns. In addition to a miscellany of shunting duties and a few longer-distance goods journeys, the shed was also responsible for a number of passenger jobs - typically to Blackpool, Fleetwood, Liverpool, Southport and Manchester and, indeed, did possess one turn in the 1880s that ran right through to Leeds via the Copy Pit route.

Some of the passenger work eastwards was performed in the very earliest days by ex-East Lancashire Railway 2-4-0s, one of which is illustrated here. Records show that those still on the allocation after about 1876 including Nos 630 "Phoeton", 649 "Gazelle", 653 "Vivid" and 713 "Juno".

Not the clearest of photographs, but certainly one of the earliest to be taken at the new Lostock Hall MPD. Possibly one of those transferred from the original depot at Preston station, seen here is the former East Lancashire Railway 2-4-0 No 746 "Thor".

As mentioned above, the depot was responsible for a number of workings northwards into the Fylde, to Blackpool and to Fleetwood and, for which, some L&NWR-designed and Crewe-built 2-4-0s were at first provided to the L&YR. (This had come about as a consequence of a major fire at the original L&YR loco works at Miles Platting, Manchester in 1873 - which put paid to loco-construction there. As well as supplying "DX Goods" 0-6-0s and 0-4-0Ts, the LNWR received an order to build a number of their own "Newton" class 2-4-0s for the L&YR). In the opening years of the 20th Century, Horwich-built 0-6-0s of Barton-Wright design, later followed by newer Aspinall and Hughes versions, constituted over half of the allocation.

This is a picture taken of LYR No 66, during a pause in shunting at Lostock Hall sidings. The date is thought to be in the1908-14 period. The original print from which this was taken is on a board some 40 x 30 inches that is in the possession of the South Ribble Museum. The lady who submitted the picture told the curator that one of the men on the picture was her grandfather. The curator is unable remember the lady's name, where she lives, or which is the person on the picture who is supposed to be her grandfather. Was he, in fact, the shunter, foreman, driver or fireman? Can you help us out?

Whether No 66 was a Lostock Hall engine at this time is unclear, but apparently it was a Blackpool engine in 1922, so being at Lostock Hall would be quite feasible.

Noel Coates of the L&YR Society observes that the loco is in c.1914 condition, with the first Hughes-type smokebox door, but it still has the earlier Ramsbottom safety valves. There is no post 1919 class-plate on the upper cabside and the number and condition of the men suggests pre-Great War. Interestingly there is a spare 3-link coupling over the front draw-hook (with the loco's screw one behind), which tends to suggest the loco is local and thus being used for shunting only, rather than coming from the Fylde with a train and doing a bit of light preparation before setting off back.

No 66 eventually became LMS No 12262 and then BR No 52262, more recently being shedded at Rose Grove 24B on 31/12/47, Lower Darwen in 1950 and Wigan 27D in April 1952, from whence it was withdrawn.

There were also over a dozen 'Radial Tank' 2-4-2Ts, which worked local passenger turns and proved to be very popular with their fair turn of speed when necessary.

[LEFT] Albeit, a BR-era photograph, No 50725, seen inside the shed, was a member of the various versions of the large class that made up over half of Lostock Hall’s allocation in L&Y days. Although, in their latter days, the class had been relegated to station pilot duties at both Preston and Southport, one of the duties that they once worked was, in fact, the service over the West Lancs Line from Preston to Southport (Chapel Street).
[RIGHT] L&YR Hughes Class 31 0-8-0 No 1619 (LMSR No 12939) seen at Lostock Hall depot shortly before the Grouping. This was the Belpaire superheated boiler version of the earlier Class 30. Note the 8-wheel tender. In the background can be seen part of the water tank and combined original coaling stage.

For the very heaviest freight work, a small number of Aspinall 0-8-0s came to be allocated here and, although never that successful as a design, Lostock Hall was reputed to be one of the few sheds at which the allocation of these actually did increase at one stage! (Dare one suggest here that the cascading of motive power down to the lesser sheds such as ‘27’ had commenced at a very early stage?) However, with the advent of a slightly more popular type in the LMS-built Fowler 7F 0-8-0s (or "Austin Sevens"), the L&Y Classes 30 and 31 had all gone by the early 1930s.

By 1922, the total allocation at the shed had grown to 55 locomotives and, by 1930, to no less than 60.

LOSTOCK HALL M.P.D. LOCOMOTIVE ALLOCATION 1922

L&Y Class 5 2-4-2T: 16/34/46/321/9/62/668/71/5/96/1016/46/212/340/6/76/463,  

L&Y Class 23 0-6-0ST: 165/236/583/759/65/847/52,

L&Y Class 25 0-6-0: 935,

L&Y Class 27 0-6-0: 21/25/55/82/121/232/70/4/365/472/9/526/605/1067/1113/9/24/30/42/56/80/1304/1603,

L&Y Class 28 0-6-0: 376/691/918/1055,

L&Y Class 30 0-8-0: 1471/8,

L&Y Class 31 0-8-0: 500   

Total: 55 

 Unfortunately that’s all we have in this section for now, so before you continue on to the next page, please do consider the following. What you have just been reading is, of course, only a small part of the story of Lostock Hall MPD ….  all of it having been gratefully received from a mere handful of contributors who have so generously assisted us to-date.  There are obviously many more stories out there just waiting to be told … only these haven’t as yet been passed on to us!  Therefore, in order to start filling-in many missing pieces in this, still very incomplete, jigsaw, please do now consider making a contribution of your own. Items of information and scanned photographs would be most welcomed.  

NOTE: All information contained within these pages is original material - prepared specifically for the Lostock Hall MPD Website (www.LostockHallMPD.org.uk) and which remains strictly the express COPYRIGHT of the website administrators. Likewise, all photographs used remain the COPYRIGHT of the photographers identified. No item must be reproduced, or quoted from (in whole or even in part), in the absence of express prior permission being granted.  (Please refer to the “Get In Touch” page in order to obtain the contact addresses of the administrative team.)