Friday, May 30, 2014

Paul Simon and the ghost station at Ditton near Widnes



Ditton station, originally Ditton Junction, opened in 1871 and was closed by Railtrack in 1994.

As the blurb on Youtube says:
Take a look over the road bridge wall and there are still 5 platform faces still in existence, and a large footbridge. There are many trains which pass this point every hour and large sidings adjacent to the station. 
The station was rebuilt in the early 1960's with a booking office at road level, and the footbridge linking it to the platforms. It was the first to close after privatisation of British Rail in 1994. 
Unfortunately the view is obscured by surrounding vegetation, but it is still a very eerie place despite all the passing trains.
You can see pictures of the station in happier days on the Disused Stations site.

Wikipedia suggests that it may be the station where Paul Simon wrote Homeward Bound, though there is a plaque making that claim on Widnes station.

It also quotes Simon as saying: "If you'd ever seen Widnes, then you'd know why I was keen to get back to London as quickly as possible."

2 comments:

Pete said...

He did write asking if he could play Swindon Folk Club, but it didn't happen. Something about the club put him off apparently. (Also he wanted seven quid.) <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/323456/the-star-who-begged-to-say-hello-swindon > Paul Simon's letter </a>

wolfi said...

Thanks, Jonathan, for this gem!

Not totally OT:
Yesterday our DACH tv program Sat3 showed reports and films from the USA all day and the high point for us was the "Concert in Central Park" by those guys.

Those were the days!

I just wish I could have made it to more of these milestones, still remember fondly the shows at the Roundhouse (Chalk Farm) - especially the one with Johnny and Edgar Winter.

Maybe you could produce something about the Roundhouse - or did you already?

Keep up the good work in these trying times!

Your fellow Liberal

wolfi

PS:

The state of our German Liberals (FDP) is even worse than that of the British ...