Earlestown railway station
Earlestown 
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Earlestown station buildings viewed from platform 1
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| Location | |
| Place | Earlestown, Newton-le-Willows |
| Local authority | St Helens |
| Coordinates | 53°27′04″N 2°38′17″W / 53.451°N 2.638°WCoordinates: 53°27′04″N 2°38′17″W / 53.451°N 2.638°W |
| Grid reference | SJ578951 |
| Operations | |
| Station code | ERL |
| Managed by | Northern |
| Number of platforms | 5 |
| DfT category | E |
| Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries |
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| Annual rail passenger usage* | |
| 2011/12 |
 0.444 million |
| – Interchange |
 16,533 |
| 2012/13 |
0.424 million |
| – Interchange |
17,010 |
| 2013/14 |
0.485 million |
| – Interchange |
54,700 |
| 2014/15 |
0.499 million |
| – Interchange |
84,612 |
| 2015/16 |
0.540 million |
| – Interchange |
89,526 |
| Passenger Transport Executive | |
| PTE | Merseytravel |
| Zone | A1 |
| History | |
| Original company | Liverpool and Manchester Railway |
| Pre-grouping | London and North Western Railway |
| Post-grouping | London, Midland and Scottish Railway |
| 15 September 1830 | Opened as Newton Junction |
| July 1852 | Renamed Warrington Junction |
| November 1861 | Renamed Earlestown Junction |
| 5 June 1950 | Renamed Earlestown |
| National Rail – UK railway stations | |
| * Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Earlestown from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year. | |
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Earlestown railway station is a railway station in Earlestown, Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside, England. Since recent restoration of a platform for Warrington Bank Quay to Liverpool trains, it is one of the few "triangular" stations in Britain (see below).
The station lies on the former Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which was opened on 15 September 1830. On 25 July 1831 the Warrington and Newton Railway was opened for public use, making a junction at a point in the township of Newton, facing in the direction of Liverpool.
The surviving Earlestown station buildings were constructed around 1835 on the original site, at the point of intersection of these two early railways, incidentally forming the first steam railway junction, which was given the name Newton Junction.
The junction had a very tight curvature and this caused problems. Train travelling on the curves were restricted to a slow maximum speed. The original building now forms the (currently unused) waiting room of Earlestown Station.
The Grand Junction Railway (GJR) absorbed the Warrington and Newton company as of 31 December 1834 and from the GJR's completion of their trunk line from Birmingham on 4 July 1837 used it to access the Liverpool and Manchester line. A new "Curve" was built at Newton Junction so that trains could run towards Manchester; this gave the station a triangular formation with six platforms. To complicate matters, there was also a branch line from Richard Evans's collieries at Haydock which had a curve to join the L & M in the Manchester direction and passed through the triangle to join the Warrington and Newton line.
The method of operation involved the despatch of a Grand Junction train from both Liverpool and Manchester to meet at Earlestown. These were joined together and continued as one train to Birmingham. Both portions conveyed through carriages after 1839 to London. The Grand Junction trains arriving from Birmingham were usually split at Warrington (Bank Quay) and passed through Earlestown as separate Liverpool and Manchester trains.
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