The station was certainly popular, Sweeney reports that 3,393 tickets were issued at Leigh during the holiday week of 1852. Special trains were run to Newton races and in 1859 fast excursion trains picked up passengers at Leigh on the way to Holyhead to see Brunel's Great Eastern steamship.[3]
West Leigh had both passenger and a goods stations. The passenger station had two platforms. The goods station was on the west side of the line and had a 2 ton capacity crane.[4] Sweeney reports the goods yard closed in 1864 when the yard at Bedford Leigh station opened but it is still listed in by the Railway Clearing House in 1904.[3][5]
The Railway Clearing House (1970) [1904]. The Railway Clearing House Handbook of Railway Stations 1904 (1970 D&C Reprint ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles Reprints. ISBN0-7153-5120-6.
Sweeney, D.J. (1996), A Lancashire Triangle Part One, Triangle Publishing, ISBN0-9529333-0-6
Further reading
Holland, Bert (2001), Plodder Lane for Farnworth, Leigh: Triangle Publishing, ISBN0-9529333-6-5