Stanlow and Thornton railway station 1.72

Stanlow & Thornton railway station is located within the Stanlow Refinery in Cheshire, England. It lies on the Ellesmere Port to Warrington Line with services operated by Northern. The station is surrounded by the refinery site, so as a result most station users are refinery employees.HistoryThe station was opened on 23 December 1940 jointly by the Great Western Railway and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. The station served the Shell Thornton Aero Engine Laboratory (AEL), which was responsible for developing fuels and oils for the aircraft of the Royal Air Force.A short distance from the station was a signal box. This controlled all of the sidings used for freight. Shell stopped using rail as a method of transportation of goods, and subsequently, the sidings were removed. Eventually, the signal box was dismantled and donated to the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. Today, the signals for this line and station are controlled at Helsby and Ellesmere Port signal boxes, operated by Network Rail.The station was originally earmarked for closure under what is known today as the Beeching Axe, a report created by Dr. Beeching entitled "The Reshaping of Britain's railways". This was a report commissioned by the government to find out how money could be saved, as use of the railways began to decline.