Carnforth to Wennington

Roy Davies visited the Branch to talk about his book, published in Autumn 2021 by Middleton Press, covering the history of the railway network between in the Lancaster and Morecambe areas. The book begins at the country station of Wennington where Leeds to Morecambe and Carnforth trains were split to reach their destinations. He described the features of the line through Hornby, Caton, Halton to Lancaster Green Ayre station as well as the type of traffic. He also spoke with supporting photographs about the electric train network linking Lancaster Castle station with Morecambe Promenade via Green Ayre, Scale Hall and onwards to Heysham Harbour from where ferries operated to Belfast and latterly the Isle of Man. He described the various boat train services to and from London, Manchester and Leeds. The line was also an important freight link with trains servicing the oil refineries at Middleton and the cattle trains linking to the freight ferries to Londonderry, Belfast and Larne. Today the line is long gone, cut in the Beeching era, although one train a day runs to Heysham Harbour to link with the daily Isle of Man ferry.