Horwich: Former railway station relics being brought back to life

Organisation Horwich Heritage is restoring recovered buffers from the old station in Horwich town centre, which closed in 1966.

The buffers were found buried in Old Station Park, the park on the former site of the station, amid work to create a flood basin in the area.

A buffer, or buffer stop, is the device which aims to prevent trains from going past the physical end section of a track.

The buffers are believed to be more than 150 years old, having been implemented at the Horwich station between 1866 and 1867, according to Horwich Heritage.

Recovering the buffers from the ground where they laid for 42 years (Image: Horwich Heritage)

They were buried when the park was created in 1980, but are now being restored by Horwich Heritage.

The buffers are planned to be put on display in the park when it reopens.

Deputy chairman of Horwich Heritage, Roy Davies, said: “Someone remembered from years ago where they were.

"It was just about waiting for contractors to come on site.

Read more: Work to create huge flood basin in public park will start next week

“It was a member of the public who came along and said now that the park was being completely shut for months to dig up the old basin, they could be found.

Horwich Heritage are restoring the buffers to be placed in Old Station Park when they're finished (Image: Horwich Heritage)

“He went on site first and looked at the area, and saw that where they would be digging was where the buffers were.”

Horwich Heritage then went along to the site and got the buffers out of the ground, with the help of two machines from the contractors.

It took them three hours to get the buffers out of the ground, in pieces after over 40 years of being there.

The buffers were then taken to a workshop in Horwich, then somewhere to blast them and then to James Dickinson’s Recycling Plant in Horwich, where they will be put back together.

The buffers being blasted (Image: Horwich Heritage)

They were transferred bit by bit as the job went along, due to each part being so heavy.

Roy said: “The total weight is nearly four tonnes when they are put together.

“On Wednesday (January 4) we’re going to start the assembly.

"It will take perhaps a week to put the whole thing together and finish painting it off.

“Then it’s in the hands of the council, which has promised to do the foundations for us in the park.”

A fresh coat of paint and the full assembly of the buffers are the final two jobs before they are complete (Image: Horwich Heritage)

Roy added: “It will hopefully be one of the best historic projects we’ve done. It has been one of the hardest, as everything is so heavy.

“With other projects, you can usually pick things up with relative ease, but with this we need cranes and similar machines to even move them.

“I’ve grown muscles where I’ve never had muscles!”

The estimated time for the buffers to be in place in Old Station Park is early February, dependant on the flood basin work.