When did the railway arrive in Blackpool?

The station opened in 1863 as Hounds Hill. Then in 1878 it was renamed Blackpool Central – a name the site will take once again in the future. Various terminus delivering routes to more destinations saw it grow to become the world’s busiest railway station by 1911. It was once a huge place with 14 platforms, where everyone arrived for holidays and day trips. The direct Marton line finally closed in 1965. Central Engine Sheds had already closed on 30 July 1964. But the last train left Blackpool Central at 9.55pm and the last arrival was at 11.30pm.

The railway network that existed in 1964 had grown from a single line in 1840. The Fylde coast, less than 20 miles to the west of Preston, has the main resort of Blackpool at its centre. One of my great grandfathers had arrived from Ireland to work as a labourer on the construction of the South Fylde line in the 1860s and 1870s. My grandfather joined the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway at Fleetwood depot in 1911. The area to the west of the line is known as the Fylde, and it is almost all totally flat fertile farming land. The West Coast Main line from London Euston to Glasgow Central passes through Preston on a north-south axis. Starting from the autumn of that year the railways around Blackpool were gradually cut back to the more basic pattern that exists today. I was born in Blackpool during that summer of 1964, and I grew up in St Annes.