Preston Station - Past & Present
Station Tour - Platform 3c & 4c
The South Bay Platforms
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The bay platforms 3a and 4a at the south end of the stations are now used for Ormskirk and Liverpool trains, with class 142 and 156 DMUs being common. In the 80s, an AC electric locomotive could often be seen here stabled
in-between turns.

Many photographs at the South of the station are dominated by the Park Hotel footbridge which linked platform 4 with the hotel, straddling the tracks diagonally as seen in the photo opposite.

This is Stanier class 5 4-6-0 No.44690 on a short parcels train in platform 4a on 22nd September 1967.
(c) Stan Withers

 

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86412 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and an unidentified 47 sit in the south bays awaiting their next duty, with 86036 and 021 visible in the right of the picture a  - probably on a freight duty.
 It would be interesting to try taking a picture at Preston with three locomotives in-shot at once now!

(c) Neil Dimmer (1984)

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This picture shows a Class 310 EMU in what was at the time Platform 6A - the south-facing bay which is now 4a.

Until the introduction of the class 390 Pendolinos by Virgin, EMUs were a rare sight at Preston. Certainly in the late 70s and early 80s when I visited Preston regularly, I never saw an EMU of any sort.

Were class 310s in regular use at some point? Possibly in the mid 70s?

(c) Trevor Machell (undated)

 

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In the 70s and 80s, the bay platforms at the south end of the station were not used by passenger trains. They were however often used to stable locomotives. Here, 40008 stands awaiting its next duty.

(c) Frank Boyle - late 70s