Notes: Partington Station was the second station so named and was located on the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) Glazebrook to Stockport Tiviot Dale Line. The CLC was a joint company that was owned by the Great Northern Railway (GNR), the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR) and the Midland Railway (MR). In the 1890s the building of the Manchester Ship Canal necessitated the diversion and raising up of a number of railway lines including the Glazebrook to Stockport Tiviot Dale line. The line had to be built up to a height that would allow sea going vessels to pass underneath and so a deviation was constructed just to the south of the original line which included a large single span girder bridge and a new station for Partington. For a few weeks in 1893 both lines were in use but eventually the original course of the line was split into two by the excavation of the Manchester Ship Canal.

Partington’s second station opened on the 29th of May 1893 and the original station was closed. The station was situated on an embankment. The line was double track the station was provided with two platforms. The main facilities were on the westbound platform and consisted of a brick built building which had a single storey booking hall and waiting rooms co-joined with a two storey station masters house. The building was in the style of other CLC main line intermediate stations that had been built in the early 1870s. Access was via a sloping driveway that led up from the Manchester Road. A subway linked through to the eastbound platform which had a single storey brick built waiting room. Both platforms at Partington were provided with canopies. A CLC type CL1a signal box with 26 levers was located at the southeastern end of the westbound platform.

At the time of opening the station was served by CLC trains running between Stockport Tiviot Dale and Liverpool Central with some workings operating only as far as Warrington Central. The CLC had its own coaches but it did not have locomotives as agreement had been reached that the MSLR would provide them. Express services running between Liverpool Central

At the grouping of 1923 the CLC remained independent but its owning companies became the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) with two thirds of the shares and the London Midland Scottish Railway (LMS) with one third. The local passenger services at Partington were hauled by LNER locomotives after 1923. The LMS Summer timetable for 1932 showed only four westbound services Monday to Friday and only three on a Saturday. Eastbound there were also four. On Sundays there was one train in each direction.

On the 1st of January 1948 the line became part of the nationalised British Railways (London Midland Region). The 1949 Summer timetable showed Partington as having six eastbound and five westbound services Monday to Friday with retimed and services on Saturdays as shown in the table below. There were no Sunday services.

Although the line remained busy throughout the 1950s the passenger service at Partington remained broadly similar to how it had been in 1949. By the 1950 the station had also lost its canopies.

In 1960 the Station Master with responsibility for Partington was a Mr Dawson but he did not live in the Station House. It was occupied by Mr Patrick Curran a British Railways employee based at Manchester Central who had originally been a railway employee in Ireland. Mr Curran who moved into the house with his young family made improvements to the station garden

The service was withdrawn on 30 November 1964 and Partington station closed completely. After closure the station became the haunt of un-desirable individuals and as a result of this the Curran family moved out of the station house in 1966. Dereliction set in and eventually the station building was demolished.

Some through workings and diversions continued to operate after this date but with the withdrawal of long distance services from Liverpool Central in 1966 these came to an end. On 17 May 1970 Partington Station signal box closed and the section of line through Partington station was singled from a point to the south of the station (where there was a connection to a

Although the stations buildings were demolished after closure the Liverpool direction platform and sections of the Stockport platform remained extant in 2011. Of particular interest is the glazed brick subway which although partially buried could still be seen.

Route map drawn by Alan Young. Tickets from Michael Stewart.

Sources:

• An Illustrated History of The Cheshire Lines Committee – P Bolger – Heyday Publishing Company 1984
• Bradshaws Rail Times December 1895 - Middlewood Press 2011
• Bradshaws Rail Times July 1922 - Guild Publishing 1986
  
• British Railways (London Midland Region) Timetable 23rd May to 25th Sept 1949
• British Railways (London Midland Region) Timetable 17th of Sept 1956 to 16th of June 1957
• British Railways (London Midland Region) Timetable 18th of June 1962 to 9th of September 1962
• Cheshire Lines Committee – Signal Box Register – M J Addison & J G Dixon - 1996
• LMS Time Table July 18th to September 11th 1932

To see the other stations on the Woodley - Glazebrook line click on the station name: Stockport Portwood, Stockport Tiviot Dale, Cheadle (Cheshire), Northenden, Baguley, West Timperley, Partington (1st), Cadishead (1st) & Cadishead (2nd)