Maghull

I had read about Maghull station and then heard good things about it from friends. The main attraction is the Coffee Carriage café. It was excellent and not surprisingly was being well-used, even on a freezing cold day in January. I suspect that most folk there were not taking the train, either, but had discovered, as we had, that it provided very good food at a reasonable price.

Maghull was on the old Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway’s main line between Liverpool Exchange and Preston, though since relegated to the frequent Merseyrail suburban services to Ormskirk, currently operated by the recently introduced Class 777 EMUs.

There is more to the station than that, however. Maghull was voted Britain’s best railway station in 2024, a testimony not just to the café but to the work of Community Rail Lancashire, Maghull Volunteers and Merseyrail, itself. A bulging glass cabinet in the small station entrance is packed with framed certificates representing its previous competitive triumphs. There are murals and planters, as well as a platform display board dedicated to Frank Hornby, the creator of Hornby model trains, Dinky Toys and Meccano, their factory having moved from Binns Road in Liverpool to Aintree, just down the line from Maghull. Frank Hornby, himself, had lived near to the station at Maghull.